The German car companies can breathe a sigh of relief. At least this year, they are probably not at risk of failing to miss the CO₂ goals. The European Commission proposed on Tuesday to give companies three years to achieve the legally specified goals. If your new car fleet emits more CO₂ this year than allowed, you can compensate for this in the next two years by overfilling the limit values. Only if you are still on average above the limit values, you have to pay. The permitted limit for average CO₂ emissions has fallen to 93.6 grams to 93.6 grams after the EU requirements that had been decided years ago on January 1st. This is an average value for all vehicles. Depending on their fleet, the manufacturers have individual destinations. If the manufacturers miss their goals this year, they actually have to pay 95 euros for each gram. Representatives of the automotive industry, especially the European Association ACEA, had been able to delete or at least deferred these penalties for months. They had argued that the corporations threatened to penetrate up to 13 billion euros for cars and three billion euros for vans due to the slow expansion of the charging infrastructure and the lack of demand for electric cars. However, this number is likely to be too high, as well as the automotive representative. It is based on a extrapolation of the situation in early 2024. The Climate Association Transport & Environment, for its part, assumes possible punishments of around one billion euros. Pushing it into the automotive industry, not undisputedly shouting off the penalties, was also not without controversy in the automotive industry. In contrast, individual companies such as Stellantis or Volvo have spoken out. Against this background, the European Commission had long been blocked against revision of the rules for CO₂ fleet limit values. This punishes the companies that would have set everything to comply with the legal requirements. Incidentally, the companies had had time to prepare for years, it was said in autumn. The European Commission had the strong pressure, not least from Germany, but finally gave in. Even the green top candidate in the Bundestag election campaign, Robert Habeck, had spoken out for a deferral of the punishments. EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen then announced a solution at the beginning of March, which extends to reach the CO₂ goals on the three years now. The Commission’s proposal must still be accepted by the European Parliament and the EU Council of Ministers. According to the Commission, this should be done in quick procedures without changes in content. However, the EU institutions can use the proposal to decide further changes to the fleet limit values-if they agree. This was the case when the Commission suggested the displacement of the Dewatelungs Act by one year in autumn. MEPs such as the Green Michael Bloss Warn, representatives of the right parties could bring in a deletion of the 2035 combustion conversation and are then supported by at least parts of the Christian Democratic EPP and liberals. However, she only wants to speak about this later this year as part of a review of the legal requirements. It is less about the question of whether the strict is softened, but how strong. The fact that combustioners can still be used with demonstrably climate -neutral fuels can still be used after 2035. However, countries like Italy penetrate that this also applies to vehicles that are refueled with biofuel. There are also voices that also want to allow hybrids. In fact, the planned review of the 2035 goal has already threw its shadows forward. Before the current proposal was published, there was a dispute in the commission to define the CO₂ penalties as to whether it should be a commitment to a strict 2035 goal. The vice president Teresa Ribera responsible for climate protection wanted that. In contrast, internal market commissioner Stéphane Séjourné and President of the Commission Ursula von der Leyen were said. They wanted to prevent the scope for maneuver from being restricted in the debate about the ban on combustion. The published proposal is now missing the reference to the 2035 goal.
