Javi Martin
It has been talked about for a long time, there has been speculation on countless occasions about what would happen if it became a reality and even some manufacturers and organizations have been clearly against it. Nevertheless, the European Parliament has voted in favor of banning the sale of vehicles with internal combustion engines from 2035. It is the beginning of the end, the imposition of a technology for which, at this time, we are not prepared. There are just over 12 years left for dealers to stop offering combustion engine vehicles, a period of time during which a lot of progress must be made in infrastructure and technology performance.
This ban was scheduled to be implemented in 2040, but they wanted to bring it forward five years, because the previous plan was not ambitious enough and they want to meet a very specific road time: Europe must be carbon neutral by 2050 and to achieve this goal, it was not enough to ban combustion engines in 2040. And watch out, because This means that even hybrids and plug-in hybrids will also disappear from dealerships by 2035.Not surprisingly, it has an internal combustion engine that, when it works, has polluting emissions. Thus, from 2035 there will only be two possible options: electric or hydrogen. Of this last option, it remains to be seen how it evolves, since there are some open fronts that could be very interesting, such as the concept that Toyota is testing (and that BMW already tested a long time ago), which consists of a conventional piston engine, but instead of fossil fuel, it uses hydrogen.
But not happy withkill” to the combustion engine, whether or not it is a good idea, they intend to force, before reaching 2030, that emissions are very low. Come on, that from now on, all the combustion engines that are manufactured today will leave the market sooner rather than later and will make all manufacturers focus on electrification. Specifically, Europe aims that by 2030, manufacturers have reduced emissions by 55% compared to 2021. In other words, manufacturers have to push a little harder to achieve that reduction by 2030.
In any case, it will not be a problem for many of them, many have already announced that they will go electric before the ban is put in place and they are not just a few. For example, DS Automobiles will only have electric cars for sale from the year 2024, we could say that from tomorrow. Jaguar and MINI will also offer only electric cars from the year 2025, while Audi and Lancia, which is reborn from the ashes, will do the same in 2026. Alfa Romeo will only sell electric cars from 2027, while Opel, Renault, Peugeot, Ford, CUPRA, Maserati and Rolls-Royce will stop selling internal combustion engine cars by 2030. The Hyundai Group (which includes Kia) has decided that it will no longer sell cars with internal combustion engines. conventional from 2035, just like Toyota and Lexus and Honda will wait until 2040.
How does the ban affect users?
The vote in Parliament is not a total confirmation of the ban, ratification by the plenary of the European Parliament is still missing, the Member States have to vote, although in general, this second vote tends to go the same way as the first and rarely has the course of events changed. Namely, let no one doubt that internal combustion engines will say goodbye in the year 2034, leaving in 2035 the only option of electricity. Any change that does not go in this direction will be a real surprise.
Obviously, the industry is already seeing how time is running out and the law has not even been implemented. Changing as drastically as legislators want will not be easy, and not because manufacturers cannot, but because they have to “educate” to the population, infrastructure must be created and the prices of electric cars must be lowered. To this, in addition, we must add the time it takes to complete a full charge... It may seem like little work, but it is not. Just look at the chargers that you have in your place of residence and you will see that it will not be so simple. Especially in towns with little population and very far from large urban centers. There are even areas where gas stations are scarce, not even thinking about a charger for electric cars. It can be chaos.
But let's put that aside and turn our attention to something else: What will happen to my current car? Or better yet… What about my classic? Well, for the moment, nothing happens at all, you can continue using it as usual, without problems. The second-hand market will continue to function as it does today and cars with combustion engines will continue to be available and can be bought and sold. The ban will be for new, brand new vehicles, not for the rest. This does not mean that over time, they end up prohibiting the circulation of vehicles with a combustion engine, or worse, that they force us little by little without directly prohibiting it with a rise in fuel prices until they are unaffordable. Then, users will have to go yes or yes to electric cars.
What will happen to classic cars is another separate issue, because, in theory, they are part of history and should be preserved as such, assets of historical interest. However, we already know that everything that is not paintings, sculptures or music, to give a few examples, is not interesting to be preserved or promoted, a car is a machine that does not make sense to keep when it is many years old, right? It is true that there are many companies that transform the classics into electric ones, but we would be making too radical a change., completely losing the essence and authenticity of the car. That connection with its historical part would be lost.
So far, some manufacturers have been developing synthetic, very low-emission fuels that could be used, but we don't know if fuels, synthetic or not, will also be banned. This part is a mystery.
Not everyone agrees
Logically, not everyone is in agreement with the decision, there are associations that do not stop affirming that the ban is a mistake. We do not know on what basis they have taken this decision, but from the user's point of view we only find inconveniences on all sides: no chargers and those that exist do not always work; charging times too long; batteries that degrade over time; cars with little autonomy...
In Spain we are not prepared for this change, the available infrastructure is terrible and the one that exists does not work as it should and they ask you for different things to use them, depending on who owns the charger (own application, personal data, subscription...). That's why, there are those who have come forward saying that things are not being done (if they have ever been done well…). For example, from ANFAC (Association of Automobile and Truck Manufacturers), they affirm that this objective should not have been defined now, but in 2028 at the earliest. FACONAUTO (Federation of Associations of Automotive Dealers), for its part, declares that the deadlines are not very close to reality and that they do not go hand in hand with the needs of users. Likewise, both associations say that it would be necessary to extend the time and offer incentives and tools to encourage the acquisition of electric cars.
