Cars, Italy's plan to postpone the stop on diesel and petrol engines from 2035

Italy's proposal to soften European constraints on diesel and petrol cars will be the first of the battles on an industrially fair ecological transition that the government wants to take advantage of in Europe. The document, whose guidelines Adolfo Urso will illustrate on Monday to Confindustria, the other main business associations, and the trade unions, aims first and foremost to anticipate the review clause that the new EU regulation on the reduction of CO2 emissions envisages for 2026.

If there is a reame sprint, perhaps as early as the first quarter of next year, the government will then be able to push for a postponement of the stop on thermal cars, which under the current rules would take effect in 2035. Alternatively, if there is no consensus in Europe to change this deadline, according to the Italian executive, a European compensation fund should be set up for manufacturers and consumers struggling with the costs of the transition.

The regulation, published last year, stipulates for new cars and light commercial vehicles the cutting of exhaust CO2 emissions by 100 per cent in 2035 compared to 2021, in practice a stop to the registration of models with endothermic engines. But at the same time, after the complex negotiations that went on for months, it was stipulated that in 2026 "the Commission shall, on the basis of the biennial reports, review the effectiveness and impact of this Regulation and submit to the European Parliament and the Council a report containing the results of the review". The Commission," the regulation continues, "shall take into account technological developments, including rechargeable hybrid technologies, and the importance of an economically sustainable and socially equitable transition to zero emissions. "The review shall be accompanied, if appropriate, by a proposal to amend this Regulation".

It is this review that Urso intends to bring forward, possibly to the first quarter of 2025, also with the aim of bringing biofuels back into play to power new cars. In the 'no paper', the document to be shared with the EU, the ministry will also mention the risk that as early as next year, by virtue of the first targets for increasing the share of low- and zero-emission cars, European manufacturers will face sanctions estimated at between 7.5 and 15 billion euro.

Bringing forward the review is not an easy road to go down because the timeframe is particularly tight, also considering that the new Commission is not yet operational, and in view of the very heterogeneous positions of the Member States. For the time being, no signals have come from Germany and France on this front, and at this stage the government has no choice but to seek the support of governments with less specific weight on the European automotive map. In recent days, Urso has conducted a series of bilateral discussions to this end, starting with the Austrian Minister for Labour and the Economy, Martin Kocher, and continuing with the Spanish Minister for the Economy and Trade, Carlos Cuerpo, and the Minister for Industry and Trade of the Czech Republic, Jozef Síkela.