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Mercedes CEO calls for ‘reality check’, slamming EU combustion engine ban
(www.straitstimes.com)
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this post was submitted on 11 Aug 2025
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We should really start emphasising that there is no blanket ban on combustion engines planned but an emissions ban. If the car manufacturers wanted to and found it feasible, they're free to build emission free combustion engines. Every time they call it a combustion engine ban is an admission that they can't or at least won't build better engines.
I mean, is there any way to make emissions free ice? Fuel has to go in so it has to come out. I don't think it's disingenuous to call it a combustion ban.
That and it's not like because the fuel you get to charge your EV is necessarily emissions free either.
E-fuels are specifically allowed by the EU law. This was added at the last second due to lobbying from Germany and the German car lobby. Another option would be hydrogen engines. So yes, it is absolutely possible to build and sell new ICE cars after 2035 but they're unlikely to be successful because of the high expected fuel costs.
Right now, depending on where you live, a more or less significant part of the electricity you charge EVs with is not emission free, that's true. But there are two major advantages: EVs work with emission free electricity just the same as with emissive electricity. So once more or eventually all of the electricity becomes emission free, which is actively being worked on, the car would automatically become emission free. And secondly, you can control where the emissions happen. Especially in cities carbon and nitrous emissions from ICE cars significantly affect the air quality. Even if the electricity for an EV was produced in the most polluting way possible, that pollution would be located at the power plant and could be controlled or mitigated there.
EVs are actually particularly attractive with a higher portion of renewables in the electricity mix. With renewables you can't control when the peak power production happens. But if you have EVs and their battery capacity in the grid, you could use these peaks of power production to charge the EVs instead of letting it go to waste.