Zero Emission Cars and Vans from 2035

The EU adopted a proposal to make all new cars and vans registered in Europe zero-emission from 2035 as one of the pillars of the European Green Deal.

Since transport is responsible for one quarter of all greenhouse gas emission in the EU, while road transport makes up to 70% of that amount, these CO2 emission must be reduced in order to reach climate neutrality by 2050.

Under this law, every car and van registered in the EU will have to be zero emission. Concerning cars register before 2035, when new regulations are due to come into effect, can remain in operation despite having combustion engines.

"The direction of travel is clear: in 2035, new cars and vans must have zero emissions." - European Commission Executive Vice President Frans Timmermans said.

The deal also involved a 55 percent cut in CO2 emissions for new cars sold from 2030 versus 2021 levels, much higher than the existing target of a 37.5 percent reduction by then.

“We are now keen to see the framework conditions which are essential to meet this target reflected in EU policies” – President of the ACEA (automakers lobby group) and CEO of BMW, Oliver Zipse remarked.

Similar regulations are on the agenda in the US, California. A long-term plan to exclude combustion vehicles from turnover has been seriously discussed. Moreover, not only is California in favour of such revolutionary changes, but are also 15 other state that signed this net-zero program.

The trends in Europe and the United States are clear and visible. However, in order to achieve net-zero, we must jointly cooperate on the biggest scale feasible, by engaging countries from every region of the world.