On Tuesday 14 February, MEPs decided to stop the sale of internal combustion cars (and light commercial vehicles) and hybrids in favour of 100% electric vehicles by adopting--with 340 votes in favour, 279 against and 21 abstentions--the text providing for the reduction of CO2 emissions from new cars and vans to zero from 2035.

But, the internal combustion engine may not have said its last word yet. The text voted by the European Parliament still has to be approved by the Council of the European Union. Above all, a review clause is planned for 2026. This will allow EU member states and car manufacturers to take stock of the progress made in the development of technologies to achieve the zero emission ambition. The text voted by the MEPs mentions a “zero CO2 emission” objective for 2035, whereas the first text mentioned a “zero CO2 exhaust emission” objective. “This small detail leaves the door open to internal combustion engines running on synthetic fuels,” says Luxembourg automobile club ACL in a post published on 16 February.

Manufacturers want to believe in synthetic fuel

While manufacturers have invested a lot of money in the electric transition, several, such as Porsche and Audi, are also developing synthetic fuels in order to offer an alternative to 100% electric by 2026. For the moment, this type of fuel is not yet fully matured and remains too expensive. But it could prevent manufacturers from abandoning combustion engines.

“Some manufacturers are still keeping a low profile, but we are seeing more and more requests for approval of engines and technologies compatible with synthetic fuels,” said Guido Savi, the official representative of car manufacturers and importers in Luxembourg (Febiac) at the last e-Drive + Mobility round table organised by the Paperjam+Delano Business Club. Besides the automotive sector, the aviation sector is also exploring ways to produce sustainable fuel in order to reach the European target of 63% renewable fuels by 2050.

On the other hand, the Transport and Environment Federation (a European organisation of some 50 NGOs active in the field of transport and the environment) estimated in December 2021 that synthetic fuels were not a viable solution for the time being, both from an environmental and economic point of view.

In the meantime, despite a strong trend towards electrification, cars with combustion engines are still preferred by consumers. In Luxembourg, last January, 54.75% of the 3,726 new registrations were diesel and petrol combustion engines. 27.17% were hybrid vehicles and 18.09% were 100% electric models.

This article was first published in French . It has been translated for Delano.