EU will delay petrol ban, says Porsche chief
EUROPE’S plan to ban sales of new petrol and diesel cars by 2035 may be pushed back, a top executive at Porsche has claimed.
Lutz Meschke, the luxury carmaker’s finance chief, made the comments yesterday as EU lawmakers were campaigning against the legislation.
Speaking in Singapore, Mr Meschke said: “There’s a lot of discussions right now around the end of the combustion engine. I think it could be delayed.”
Any move to delay the date will follow steps by Rishi Sunak last year, who pushed back Britain’s deadline from 2030 to 2035. Mr Meschke’s comments come after data in the UK and Europe showed that sales of EVS are slowing, with purchases falling across the Continent last month.
The numbers will add to concerns that the adoption of EVS is moving too slowly, raising the risk that it will be uneconomic for manufacturers to ramp up production – at the same time that government bans will force them to stop selling petrol cars.
Mr Meschke said: “If we have a situation like now, with certain reluctance to buy electric cars in Europe, then maybe the subsidies will come back.”
The EU’S plan to ban petrol cars was nearly halted at the final stages last year when the German government abruptly changed its position, demanding loop- holes for cars that run on synthetic fuels. These so-called e-fuels have been supported by Porsche, which has backed a trial factory in Chile.
But conservative EU lawmakers are to now campaign on a promise to reverse the ban altogether, ahead of elections this year.
A recently leaked manifesto for the European People’s Party, the largest group in the European Parliament, said: “We reject a ban policy – such as the ban on combustion engines – and will also revise it as soon as possible.”
Any reversal would leave Britain as the only European car market where the vehicles are due to be completely phased out by 2035. Andy Palmer, chief executive of charging company Pod Point and a former British automotive executive, said he thought a reversal on EU policy was unlikely because it would hurt car companies that had already invested in EV factories.
He said: “If I was Porsche I might want that because their customers are people who enjoy driving sports cars with internal combustion engines. But if you are another big car company that has already committed to electrification, you clearly cannot afford for that legislation to be pushed back now.”
It comes as a slowdown in demand for EVS has raised questions about the bans on both sides of the Channel, with critics warning that Western carmakers will struggle to keep up with Chinese rivals that have benefited from state support. EVS remain too expensive for most, with concerns about unevenly spread charging infrastructure also still putting many drivers off.
However, a flood of Chinese electric cars into Europe is soon expected to provide fierce competition. BMW last year warned that because European carmakers were not as advanced in EV development, the ban would pave the way for the cheaper end of the market to become completely dominated by Chinese brands such as BYD.
“The base car segment will either vanish or will not be done by European manufacturers,” Oliver Zipse said.
Some countries have sought to exclude Chinese brands from subsidy schemes, while the European Commission is investigating whether Beijing has unfairly boosted Chinese EVS with colossal state subsidies.