Italy’s plan against the ban on thermal cars in 2035

Straight line, especially now that “a new European season is opening”, with a new European Parliament and a new EU Commission. Word of the Minister Adolfo Ursowhich calls industry and trade unions to Palazzo Piacentini to anticipate, once again, the Government’s objective in the automotive sector: “no” to “Electric cars only” in Europe from 2035.

The meetings against electrification in short will be on Wednesday 25th and Thursday 26th September: first in an informal meeting on policies for four-wheelers in the continent; then at the EU Competitiveness Council, where Urso will ask to advance from late 2026 to early 2025 the use of the review clause of the regulation on CO2 from light-duty vehicles, which provides for the maintenance of combustion engines if they prove capable of circulating with zero emissions thanks to the use of e-fuels within the next two years.

“If we leave uncertainty to businesses and consumers, no one will invest and citizens will not know whether combustion-engine cars will survive after 2035. Instead, let’s provide more certainty: this is one of the issues that I will bring to the European level on Wednesday and Thursday,” the minister announced during the meeting.

“We need to create a favorable climate for businesses, with a Europe that simplifies, reduces costs and is more pragmatic. In the automotive sector, technological neutrality is absolutely necessary: ​​if two technologies achieve the same goal, let’s use them both. We must address the issues without ideological vision and blinkers, but for what it is. No to religious fanaticism”.

Allies wanted

The topic had already been at the center of a Question Time and other tables, held in recent days between Urso himself and some European counterparts, namely the Austrian Martin Kocher, the Spaniard Carlos Cuerpo and the Czech Jozep Sikela, for a series of discussions on the impact that the transition would have in Europe on production and employment in the four-wheel sector, with the aim of gathering allies. Other face-to-face meetings will follow “in the next few hours”.

An operation similar to the one carried out by my colleague Matthew Salviniwho flew to Budapest on September 20 for an informal Council with the other European Transport Ministers, where he reiterated that “electric only is a failure” and proposed – also him – to anticipate the revision of the regulation on CO2, opening up to biofuels and thermal engines. He then met with his German counterpart Volker Wissing, sharing – as reported by the MIT – the strong concern for the future of the European car.

“Outlawing internal combustion engines in 10 years is economic, social, industrial and environmental suicide without any sense,” the deputy prime minister had always declared at the Turin Motor Show, after having promised that the League would ask for “the revocation of the ban on petrol and diesel engines”, presenting “a document to engage the Italian Parliament and Government”. “A similar initiative – the Carroccio had added – will be made in Europe to engage the EU Commission”. In a few days we will know more.