The European Parliament’s environment committee voted on 4 November to weaken the European Union’s 2035 car emissions target, converting what had been presented as a fixed deadline into a negotiable number. If the amended proposal survives the December plenary and talks with member states, manufacturers will no longer face a legal requirement to sell only zero-emission vehicles after 2035.
The committee settled on an 87.5 per cent reduction measured against the 2021 baseline of 95 grams of CO2 per kilometre. Analysis by the campaign group Transport and Environment puts the practical consequence at up to 39 per cent of vehicles sold after 2035 still carrying an internal combustion engine, largely as plug-in hybrids and range extenders.
The relaxation sits inside a package the European Commission proposed in December 2025. The Commission had already softened its original plan to 90 per cent. The parliamentary committee went further, on the argument that European manufacturers are absorbing Chinese competition at home while losing share in China.
The votes ahead
The proposal carries the support of the three largest party groups. All members of the European Parliament vote on the package in December, which fixes the Parliament’s position before negotiations with the Council, where member state governments are still deliberating.
Parliament is simultaneously working on the Industrial Accelerator Act, which would attach European local content conditions to state and fleet purchase incentives. Battery electric models would need to meet the local content test to qualify, a provision aimed squarely at imported Chinese vehicles.
What else softened
Van targets came down as well. The 2030 reduction for light commercial vehicles drops from the 40 per cent the Commission proposed to 35 per cent, with an 80 per cent target for 2035. Stellantis and Renault, both heavily exposed to electric van volumes, have argued that uptake has lagged every forecast.
Cars can also count green steel produced in Europe against a further 7.5 percentage points of their obligation, with the offset capped at 95 per cent. The 2030 target permits averaging of emissions credits across the fleet. Small electric cars of 4.2 metres or less earn 1.4 credits, and highly efficient European-built electric models earn 1.2.
Vehicles running on compliant alternative fuels such as biofuels and e-fuels can be counted as zero emission after 2030, a provision that keeps a door open for liquid fuel pathways the Commission had wanted to close.
The competitive read
Read the package as a single instrument rather than four separate concessions. Europe is trading a slower electric transition for a protected domestic supply chain. The 7.5 point green steel offset, the credit multipliers for small and efficient European-built cars and the local content test for incentives all reward production inside the bloc, while the lower headline target gives incumbent manufacturers room to keep selling hybrid drivetrains.
For Chinese manufacturers, the arithmetic of exporting into Europe changes less than the arithmetic of building there. A car assembled in Hungary or Spain with European steel and a European battery pack clears the incentive test. One shipped from Shenzhen does not.
Editor’s note: This is an adapted translation of the original Gasgoo report. It has been trimmed and restructured for readability for an international business audience. The full original (in Chinese) is at https://auto.gasgoo.com/news/202611/5I70476999C108.shtml.