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Led by Denmark and the Netherlands, nine countries have written a letter to the European Commission calling on policy makers to take much stronger action against the auto industry, which is responsible for a quarter of greenhouse gas emissions. In their view, this much stricter new policy should establish a concrete plan to gradually reduce the share of gasoline and diesel cars in sales, writes Automotive News Europe.
The green transition in road transport must be accelerated, legislators must send clear signals to automakers and consumers
– wrote in his letter indicating that
To achieve real results, it is essential that a specific date is set from which the sale of vehicles equipped with internal combustion engines would be prohibited.
In addition to the aforementioned Denmark and the Netherlands, Austria, Belgium, Greece, Ireland, Lithuania, Luxembourg and Malta have joined the initiative. However, it should be noted that none of the countries listed are European car manufacturers.In other words, it would be less painful for them to accelerate the transition period and switch to a new purely electric drive technology as soon as possible.
In relation to the above, it is also important to emphasize that the European Commission wants to increase its greenhouse gas emission reduction target from 40% of 1990 levels to at least 55%. For the European Union to achieve this more ambitious value, the Commission will review all relevant climate policies by June 2021 or propose a review when necessary.
Member States have indicated the need to “significantly strengthen” current CO2 emission standards, Which presumably means not only that automakers must meet current fleet-level average CO2 emission standards, but also that they must be more stringent, with lower targets set for them. In their letter they also stressed that, in addition to reducing the number of vehicles equipped with internal combustion engines, the European Union must pay particular attention to developing an adequate charging infrastructure. Without it, it is inconceivable that the ambitious goals set by Brussels for electric cars will be achieved.
They were originally pushed for the 2030 target date
The initiative is not new, with Denmark pushing since 2019 to ban the sale of vehicles equipped with internal combustion engines. The original idea, supported by ten more Member States, was to ban the sale of gasoline and diesel vehicles by 2030 at Member State level.
It can be seen that participating countries would now also be happy if they could get to Brussels to set at least a specific target date that each country and industry could agree to uniformly.
The big question, however, is whether it makes sense to set such a binding target date for everyone now that not only countries, but individual automakers are in turn announcing that they will soon ban exhaust vehicles in their sales fleets and they will switch to electric vehicles. , on sale.
More recently, the UK surprised the world by banning the sale of vehicles powered solely by internal combustion engines ten years ahead of schedule, starting in 2030. The British have also made it clear that in the fight against climate change The years of different hybrid propulsion technologies have also been counted, these vehicles will not be able to be marketed in the island country from 2035. With this, he joined a packed camp of countries such as Norway, Denmark, Germany, Slovenia, Sweden, Ireland , Spain or even France, which had also decided in the past to banish gasoline and diesel cars in the future.
In recent weeks, automakers have also announced one after another that they will remove internal combustion engine vehicles from their offerings and focus exclusively on the production and sale of electric cars in the future. Factors such as increasingly stringent environmental regulations, national economic interests, and increased competition play a key role in the radical transformation of model portfolios.
However, it is rational to demand cooperation between Denmark and the Netherlands, as many Member States and car manufacturers have not yet committed to ban the sale of internal combustion engine vehicles or to stop producing and selling them in the future.
However, a date set by Brussels, binding on all actors, could force this radical change. However, it is important to see that the rush can come at a huge cost, as the transition to new technologies is expected to result in the loss of many jobs in the European Union, where industry directly and indirectly provides a means. life to about 14.6 million people. people.
The electric car market is growing
State subsidies, rapidly evolving technology and charging infrastructure, stricter emissions regulations, and a dynamically expanding model range have all played a role in fueling the insane sales of electric cars in the European Union.
In 2020, nearly 539,000 purely electric cars were sold, more than double the nearly 248,000 electric cars sold a year earlier.
However, it should also be seen that, despite a significant expansion, purely electric cars accounted for only 5.4 percent of total sales in the European Union in 2020. The trend is very clear, we also recently reported that the Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU) expects electric cars in Europe to further strengthen in 2021, and sales volumes are also expected to exceed Chinese sales, which will give the continent a stake in global electric cars. within its total sales, it will increase from 22 percent last year to 31 percent this year.
At the same time, a number of challenges remain, hampering the truly widespread use of electric cars, which could hardly be solved by Member States and car manufacturers simply by forcing Brussels to banish internal combustion engine vehicles by setting a single date. .
Cover Image Source: Osama Faisal / SOPA Images / LightRocket via Getty Images
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