CASE. Electric car: Will we be really finished with the heat engine in 2035

And to reassure certain manufacturers who see the calendar racing, with their great Dam, a review clause in 2026 would indeed be integrated into the project.

Europe rushes towards the end of thermal engines for 2035

The European Union took a big step in the end of polluting vehicles on Tuesday: Parliament approved the end of sales of new heat -engine cars in 2035, while the commission presented its objectives for buses and trucks

Posted on February 14, 2023 at 8:30 p.m. Modified June 10, 2023 at 6:38 PM.

“We have come to a historic agreement, which reconciles the automobile and the climate, two enemy brothers,” said the Ecologist Karima Delli, president of the Transport Commission in the European Parliament.

MEPs adopted, at 340 votes to, 279 votes against, and 21 abstentions, a new regulations planning to reduce CO2 emissions to new cars and vans to Europe from 2035 to zero from 2035. This comes back to the de facto sales of sales of new petrol and diesel light-free unit vehicles in the EU on this date, as well as hybrids (petrol-electric), for the benefit of 100% electric vehicles.

Proposed by the European Commission in July 2021, the text was the subject of an agreement last October between the member states and the negotiators of the European Parliament after annoying negotiations. It is this agreement that was approved Tuesday by the MEPs, and the Council (body representing the States) must still formally give its green light so that the text comes into force.

Achieve climatic objectives

While the automobile, the first mode of displacement of Europeans, represents just under 15% of CO2 emissions on the continent, the new regulations must allow the EU to achieve its climatic objectives: reduction of gas emissions 55% greenhouse by 2030 compared to 1990, and carbon neutrality by 2050.

But the vote of the text also made teeth cringe. The PPE (right), main political training in the European Parliament, defended a reduction in CO2 emissions from new vehicles in 2030 of 90% rather than 100%, fearing too strong destabilization of the automotive sector, which represents nearly 13 million d ‘jobs in Europe.

The radical left left group The Left also expressed criticism against regulations that will make Europe “dependent on the battery components of China and Africa”, in the words of the Czech Communist Katerina Konecna.

Heavy vehicles

Chance of the calendar, shortly after the vote of the text in the Parliament, the European Commission unveiled its proposals to supervise heavy vehicles (trucks, bus, etc.), which generate 6% of gas emissions. For heavy goods vehicles sold from 2030, emissions should be reduced by at least 45% “on average” compared to the 2019 levels, then sanded by 65% ​​from 2035, and 90% from 2040 , according to this text which will be negotiated between States and MEPs. Exemptions are planned for certain vehicles (firefighters, police, army, ambulances, etc.).

Brussels also hopes that all the new buses put into service in the cities of the EU from 2030 are “zero emission”.

All must contribute

“To achieve our climate objectives, all parts of the transport sector must contribute actively”, so that in 2050, “almost all vehicles circulating on our roads will be zero emission”, underlined Frans Timmermans, Vice-president of the Commission responsible for the European Green Pact.

“Our climate law requires it, our cities demand it and our industrialists are preparing for it,” he said, believing that heavy goods vehicles, which are currently working on diesel or gasoline, will be able to operate at the ‘Hydrogen, via fuel cells or modified combustion engines, but also to electricity.

Manufacturers are preparing

The German manufacturer Daimler and its competitor Volvo provide series production of hydrogen batteries for heavy goods vehicles from 2025. And, long unimaginable, the first electric trucks “begin to arrive on the market,” said Frans Timmermans.

But he also admitted that it was a real “industrial revolution” for the sector, taking up the “formidable challenge” that represents the production of electricity or “green” hydrogen to power this feature of heavy goods vehicles clean.

“Huge challenge”

The 2030 objective “means that it will take more than 400,000 zero trucks on the roads, with 50,000 public loading points adapted to operational trucks within seven years (…) without counting some 700 hydrogen charging stations », Esides the Association of European Automobiles (ACEA) manufacturers (ACEA).

These specific infrastructures of trucks “being almost completely lacking today, the challenge to be met is enormous”, she insists.

The Ecologist Transport & Environment NGO, it regrets that Brussels does not fix a date to completely prohibit the sale of trucks with thermal engine, noticing that many will still be rolling in 2050 and deploring “an unreasonable concession made to manufacturers”.

CASE. Electric car: Will we be really finished with the heat engine in 2035 ?

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The essential 2035 will sound the death knell for thermal engines, thus opening the way to electric vehicles. Objective: reaching a carbon neutral park by 2050. If the project seems laudable and ambitious, its practice may come up against several obstacles.

Thermal engines will no longer purr from 2035… or almost. Tuesday, February 14, the European Parliament voted favorably (340 for and 279 against) the regulation project ending the sale of new vehicles with thermal engine in 2035.

What accelerate the movement in France which had already acted for 2040 the end of the marketing of thermal cars, that is to say diesel, petrol and other hybrids.

And for good reason, road transport now represents almost 20 % of global CO2 emissions. The stated objective would therefore be to reach a carbon neutral car fleet by 2050. If on paper the project seems laudable and ambitious, its practice may come up against a few obstacles.

35 % of the electrified park in 2035

“From 2035 or even 2030, manufacturers will only display in their new catalog than electric battery vehicles. On the other hand, dealers will always have the right to sell vehicles of thermal used, “recalls Bernard Jullien, an economist specializing in the automotive industry.

Today, only 1.5 % of the car fleet is electric. A figure that should gradually increase. “Last year, electric cars represented about 15 % of registrations, or nearly 200,000 cars purchased,” decrypts the specialist.

A rhythm that remains insufficient to reach the carbon neutrality of the park by 2050. “According to projections, if we keep the current cruising rate, having a registration rate of 100 % electric cars sold in 2035, we would then have almost 35 % of the French rolling stock which would be electric,” said the economist.

A major challenge

By extending the analysis until 2050, specialists remain skeptical about a park free of thermal vehicles on that date.

“If we really want the park to be clean in 2050, we should stop registering thermal vehicles long before 2035,” he continues. A major challenge that does not seem to frighten the Minister of Ecological Transition and Territorial Cohesion, Christophe Béchu, who assumes the pace in place:

“I fully assume the fact that there are concerns and that a transition, by definition, means changes in behavior, standards, practices, but we have no choice. I assume that it is too slow for certain activists and too fast for part of the Conservatives.””

A review clause in 2026

And to reassure certain manufacturers who see the calendar racing, with their great Dam, a review clause in 2026 would indeed be integrated into the project.

“Industrialists are, when they are small suppliers of the car industry, very dependent and applicants of this clause. On the other hand, even if the manufacturers and large equipment manufacturers do not necessarily say it, they are hardly favorable. The 2035 deadline therefore has the merit of putting an end to the procrastination, because leaving a doubt is perceived as harmful, “completes the expert.

Insufficient infrastructure ?

If the price of vehicles remains today the main pitfall which prevents households from adopting this new mode of transport, therefore creating “a social fracture” in terms of mobility, the infrastructures in place are also pointed out to the 2050 objective.

But for Bernard Jullien, this is a false problem: “Today only 1.5 % of the park is electric, not to mention that almost 90 % of the recharges are done at home or at work. So, in the current state of things, the equipment is sufficient to trigger the first “.

For the economist, the main problem linked to the deployment of public charging stations is their exorbitant cost. “Today, we are faced with a colossal problem. There is no economic model that allows an operator to install and ensure the maintenance of a terminal on the public highway in a profitable manner. The only solution is to subsidize them, “he worries.

An electricity production that will have to respond presents

Concretely, to achieve the deployment objectives claimed by the manufacturers, the taxpayer must put his hand in the pocket. A public policy difficult to make it accept that for a few more years, electric vehicles will still be reserved for the wealthy.

Another issue, an electricity production that will have to respond presents. “RTE’s scenarios are rather reassuring on this subject but we know that transport does not constitute the only activity which must electrify its energy consumption to decarbonate”, concludes Bernard Jullien.