The end of internal combustion engines: Europe is looking forward to phasing ICE cars production out

Transport Commissioner Adina Vălean handed over a letter to Frans Timmermans, Vice-President of the European Green Deal and Vice-President of the European Commission. An informal document initiated by the Kingdom of Denmark and the Netherlands is advocating towards abandoning the production of light-duty vehicles fueled by diesel and petrol. It was signed by 16 other EU ministers, including Simonas Gentvilas, Minister of Environment in Lithuania.

In doing so, politicians of national governments are calling on the European Commission to take action to make clear when the EU will stop producing highly polluting vehicles.

According to Simonas Gentvilas, the memorandum signed by EU ministers is primarily a signal to carmakers to focus on advances in zero-emission technologies to make electric cars and other clean vehicles accessible to the majority of people as soon as possible.

“I have signed a document that sends a clear message about what the car industry of the future should look like. Lithuania has already entered: there are two plants of electric passenger buses assembly in the country – in Klaipeda and Kaunas. Of course, Europe does not have the strategic chemical materials for battery production, but we are the continent where the steam engine and the internal combustion engine were invented, so we must also be leaders in electric mobility. This is the obvious future of Europe,” says Simonas Gentvilas.

The aim of the document signed by the Lithuanian Minister of the Environment is to steer the forthcoming discussions on a new European Union strategy for sustainable and intelligent mobility and the forthcoming amendment to the Regulation on New Passenger Cars and Commercial Vehicles to reduce carbon emissions. The document was signed by a total of 16 ministers, some from two countries: Ireland, Austria, Belgium, Denmark, Greece, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta and the Netherlands.

The document, signed at the initiative of Denmark and the Kingdom of the Netherlands, calls for the EU to achieve climate neutrality by 2050. The authors of the document believe that the start of mass production of clean cars would reduce their price. The proposal also provides for a transitional regulatory mechanism at EU level.

The Lithuanian car fleet consists practically only of imported vehicles, therefore the pollution generated by mobility in the country largely depends on the strategic decisions and technological progress of car manufacturers. In recent years, 85 percent passenger cars imported to Lithuania were previously owned. Greenhouse gas emissions from the transport sector since 2005 until 2019 increased by 49.7 percent.

The National Climate Change Management Agenda prepared by the Ministry of Environment sets the goal of increasing the number of light electric cars on roads and streets to one tenth after four years. Until 2030 electric cars and low-emission vehicles could account for 50% of all vehicles, while halving the number of conventional cars in cities and ensuring the development of alternative fuel infrastructure.

According to the agenda, in 2040 vehicles powered by internal combustion engines should cease to exist in Lithuanian city centers at all.

The European Union is the largest passenger car-producing economic area in the world after China.