The future of cars is most probably one of the most concrete decision to be made by the European Union during this term. Yet, it has not generated a real pan-European debate until both the German Finance and Transport ministers triggered a controversy, and stopped the adoption process. It was five minutes to mighnight for the combustion engine.
In a way, it was about time to have a serious debate on this issue ! The term of the discussion is not that complicated – for once at EU level !
At this stage, the draft decision only bet on electric cars after 2035, setting a strict definition of zero emission vehicles, at car level, not taking into account the full energy cycle : the emissions to run and build the car are not included. Now the question is the following: should we keep also — together with Electric Cars — combustion engines as long as they are run with carbon neutral fuels.
This is the position defended by Germany and a group of countries, willing to keep combustion engine alive.