Germany’s Lindner Wants More Combustion Engine Options Post-2035

(Bloomberg) -- German Finance Minister Christian Lindner is resurrecting the debate on the European Union’s decision to ban sales of new combustion engine cars in 2035, seeking more exceptions than the one granted for fuels made using renewable electricity and carbon dioxide captured from the atmosphere.

“We should go further and generally focus on technological openness,” Lindner told the Augsburger Allgemeine newspaper. “Synthetic liquid fuels and biofuels are also a way to be climate-friendly.”

The minister said the market rather than politicians should decide what is viable and what consumers want, and said the federal government would use tax policy to support biofuels as well as e-fuels.

EU officials in March of last year signed off on a deal that effectively ends the sale of most new combustion engines from 2035. The ban nearly fell through after Germany blocked it, but Europe’s economic powerhouse dropped its opposition after a deal was reached to allow cars running entirely on e-fuels to count toward the bloc’s zero climate targets. 

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