Since the start of the new European Parliament and Commission a lot of media headlines have focused on the upcoming revision of the EU’s CO2 for Cars Regulation – and whether this will slow down the drive to de-fossilise road transport.
Actually, the opposite is true. A more flexible approach that takes into account proven greenhouse-gas-reduction solutions such as renewable ethanol will make these decarbonisation goals easier to achieve. There’s still a way to make this work.
Up until now, the European Commission has bet on one technology for de-fossilising road transport: electrification. That has proven politically and logistically complicated, as European citizens continue to be wary of buying battery electric vehicles and Member States seek more flexiblity in how they achieve GHG-reduction ambitions.
The fact is the EU needs more than one solution for reducing GHG emissions from cars: electrification, yes, but also sustainable renewable fuels that deliver proven results now. This includes EU renewable ethanol, which lowers GHG emissions by more than 79% on average compared to fossil petrol and works in today's petrol and hybrid cars and infrastructure.
The EU needs more than one solution for reducing GHG emissions from cars: electrification, yes, but also sustainable renewable fuels that deliver proven results now
In early March, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen made an encouraging statement on this front, talking about the "need to listen to the voices of stakeholders who ask for more pragmatism in these difficult times, and for technology neutrality, especially when it comes to the 2025 targets" for reducing emissions from cars.
These “stakeholders” include European citizens, who are voting with their pocketbooks. Every month, sales figures from the European automobile industry confirm the need for a more flexible EU approach to de-fossilising road transport, as sales of battery electric vehicles are not yet living up to the Commission’s expectations.
In fact, hybrid vehicles are now the number-one category of new-car sales, representing 35.2% of sales so far in 2025 and “remaining the preferred choice among EU consumers”, according to ACEA.
Gasoline, gasoline hybrid and plug-in hybrid cars together make up more than 71% of new cars. These vehicles will be on the roads for a long time, and the most immediate and cost-effective way to reduce their greenhouse-gas emissions is with renewable ethanol.
Importantly, these cars can run on renewable fuels that are readily available and deliver immediate GHG reduction. Even after 2035, plug-in hybrids running on a blend of 100% renewable bioethanol and bionaphtha will meet the regulatory requirements for carbon-neutrality. Everybody in Europe wins: automotive companies, motorists, farmers whose crops produce renewable fuel.
This synergy is illustrated this spring across the EU in a project called the Tour d’Europe, in which cars and trucks on a three-month road trip across several countries are demonstrating the decarbonisation potential provided by renewable fuels, raising awareness about their accessibility and ease of use in Europe, and underlining their significant role in reaching the EU's objective of climate neutrality by 2050.
The Tour d’Europe cars and trucks are equipped with a software tool called a ‘digital fuel twin’ (DFT) that will verify the use of renewable fuels and the resulting reductions in CO2 emissions.
European citizens and businesses support the EU’s climate neutrality ambitions. But it’s clear that questions remain on the best ways to achieve those ambitions. President von der Leyen and many Members of the European Parliament have signaled their willingness to be more flexible and use all technologies that work. Pragmatism is a much safer bet.
Sign up to The Parliament's weekly newsletter
Every Friday our editorial team goes behind the headlines to offer insight and analysis on the key stories driving the EU agenda. Subscribe for free here.