European Union actually abandons previous idea the complete disappearance of new cars from internal combustion engines after 2035: The European Commission proposes to reduce the mandatory emissions reduction target from 100% to 90%.
This marks a fundamental reversal from the rules adopted in 2023, when the EU set new cars and vans 100% reduction in CO₂ emissions from 2035.
It was this norm that effectively meant that new petrol and diesel cars would disappear from the European market after 2035.
However, in December 2025, the European Commission introduced a new Automotive Packagewhich significantly changes the approach.
The EU’s 2035 combustion engine ban is now off the table.
Germany, Italy, Poland and the Czech Republic pushed back hard, and Ursula von der Leyen has quietly buckled.
Instead of outlawing petrol and diesel cars, the EU will shift to emissions reduction targets. Meaning… pic.twitter.com/GprQ5AUZ5f
— Electroverse (@Electroversenet) September 4, 2026
Not 100%, but 90%
According to the proposal of the European Commission, from 2035 manufacturers will have to provide not 100%, but 90% reduction in tailpipe emissions.
The remaining 10% can be offset by using European-made low-carbon steel, synthetic fuels and biofuels.
The practical meaning of this change is very important: the internal combustion engine is no longer automatically excluded after 2035.
Which cars will be able to stay
The official materials of the European Commission directly state that after 2035 the following will be able to continue to play their role:
- plug-in hybrids;
- cars with range extender;
- mild hybrids;
- some vehicles with conventional internal combustion engines;
- electric cars;
- hydrogen cars.
That is, the previous model, in which after 2035 it was assumed that only zero-emission cars would remain, becomes much more flexible.
Why did Brussels change its position?
The reason is the growing pressure on the European automobile industry.
The European Commission itself admits that the sector is at a critical point due to a combination of several factors: expensive energy, high production costs, technological transition and increasingly fierce competition from China.
The situation is particularly difficult in Germany, where the automotive industry remains a key element of the economy.
German concerns are forced to simultaneously invest billions of euros in electric cars, cut costs and fight with Chinese manufacturers, who are already able to offer electric cars much cheaper than European ones.
Germany and Italy demanded easing
Germany and Italy were the most actively opposed to absolute restrictions.
Back in October 2025, the governments of the two countries sent a joint letter to the European Commission demanding that they maintain the possibility of registering high-performance vehicles with internal combustion engines after 2035.
They also demanded a reduction in the regulatory burden on the European auto industry.
Later, other states, including Poland and the Czech Republic, joined in criticizing the previous model.
But the ban has not yet been formally lifted
There is an important legal detail here.
Current EU legislation still contains the aim 100% emissions reduction from 2035.
The European Commission’s proposal to reduce the target to 90% is still undergoing the legislative procedure and must be approved by the EU Council and the European Parliament.
In March 2026, EU environment ministers were already officially discussing changing this norm.
Therefore, it is more correct to say not that “the ban has already been lifted,” but that The EU’s political course towards an absolute ban on internal combustion engines has actually been revised, and now this reversal is being formalized legally.
Electric cars are here to stay
At the same time, it would be a mistake to talk about the complete collapse of electric mobility policy.
Sales of electric vehicles in the EU continue to grow. In April 2026, all-electric cars already accounted for approximately 20.6% of the new car marketversus 15.7% a year earlier.
Brussels is still counting on the electrification of transport, but is now relying not on a single technology, but on a wider range of solutions.
What does this mean for buyers?
The main practical change is that after 2035 the buyer will probably not have to choose only between an electric car and hydrogen.
Hybrid models and cars using low-carbon or synthetic fuels will be able to remain on the market.
This is especially important for countries where charging infrastructure is developing more slowly, including Greece and Eastern European countries.
An old car was not prohibited after 2035 and before
It is necessary to remind you of another common misconception.
Even the original EU rules never meant a ban on existing petrol or diesel cars after 2035.
The restrictions concerned specifically registration of new cars.
A car purchased before 2035 could continue to be used and sold on the secondary market.
Editorial comment
What is happening with EU automobile policy can indeed be called a serious departure from the original version of the Green Deal.
Just a few years ago, the 2035 rule was presented as practically irreversible: new cars had to become exclusively emission-free, and the internal combustion engine would gradually become a thing of history.
Now the European Commission itself proposes to leave him a place after 2035.
The reason lies primarily not in climate science, but in industrial economics.
Europe faces a simple problem: if the transition is made faster than the industry can handle it, the result may not be leadership in the new automotive era, but loss of its own auto industry to China.
This has been particularly painful in Germany and Italy, where the auto sector provides hundreds of thousands of jobs and huge supply chains.
The current U-turn is therefore an attempt by Brussels to reconcile climate goals with industrial survival.
But at the same time, it also shows a more fundamental problem in European policy in recent years: first, extremely tough goals are adopted for decades to come, and then, when the economy begins to resist, these goals have to be adjusted.
That is why it is more correct to talk not about the “collapse of all green policies”, but about the collapse of the idea that a technological transition can be achieved by administratively banning one technology by a predetermined date.
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