An alliance of car-friendly countries led by Germany on Monday dialed up the temperature in a fight against EU legislation that would consign the engine to the scrapheap as part of landmark efforts to slash greenhouse gas emissions from transport after France is announce ready to “fight” Germany to save EU green transport legislation which effectively bans the sale of combustion engine-installed cars and vans from 2035, Economy Minister Bruno Le Maire said Monday. Following a meeting in Strasbourg, key ministers from a gang of car-loving countries said rules ending the sale of new combustion-engine cars and vans by 2035 already accepted by the European Parliament and agreed in principle by member countries needed changes or else. “There is no proposal that corresponds to what we expect, and that is why we have not yet reached our goal,” German Transport Minister Volker Wissing said after the meeting, But France isn’t planning to surrender. Paris signaled it will stand behind the EU’s 2035 zero emissions plan, as has Madrid, putting two of the bloc’s largest car countries alongside a group of smaller states already committed to slashing CO2 emissions from passenger cars. Bruno Le Maire wants Europe’s automakers to rapidly make the switch to electric vehicles and has supported France’s massive state subsidy programs for EVs, as well as EU efforts to pour billions into creating a home-grown battery cell industry.

Source: https://www.politico.eu/article/europe-lurches-into-civil-war-over-combustion-engine-ban/