The EU wants to ban the sale of new cars with internal combustion engines from 2035. The Association of the Automotive Industry criticizes the decision – and wants to include synthetic fuels in the climate strategy.

According to the German Association of the Automotive Industry (VDA), the European Union should have included synthetic fuels in its climate strategy.

These fuels are important so that the cars that are already on the market can be operated in a way that is less harmful to the climate, said VDA President Hildegard Müller on Thursday in the ARD morning magazine. “We currently have around 280 million combustion cars. That means we won’t achieve climate neutrality if we don’t include existing cars on synthetic fuels, for example.” However, this decision is missing in the current decisions of the European Union.

In the fight for more climate protection, the EU Parliament decided on Wednesday evening to ban the sale of new cars with combustion engines from 2035. MEPs also advocated that climate-friendly synthetic fuels should not be counted towards the new CO2 fleet limits. With these, a classic combustion engine could be operated in a climate-neutral manner.