Doubts mount over Europe's 'bogus' e-fuels exemption

News last year that combustion-engine cars will gain a reprieve in the European Union after 2035 as long as they run on carbon-neutral e-fuels was cause for celebration among the exemption’s chief backers in Germany.

However, not everyone is convinced that legislators are fully behind the shift. BMW CEO Oliver Zipse voiced suspicion that, despite including the exemption, the European Commission is still aiming for what amounts to a de facto ban on combustion engines. 

“There are currently many indications that the European Commission is driving for a bogus solution in which the ban on combustion engines is relaxed simply by ostensibly opening up to e-fuels,” Zipse told analysts on the company’s second-quarter earnings call.

Germany was the driving force behind the exemption, which would allow car makers to continue to sell their most profitable combustion-engine models even after the bulk of their fleet had been switched over to electric.