MEPs vote to lower the 2035 car CO2 target to 87.5%

On 4 November the European Parliament's environment committee voted 48 to 30, with two abstentions, to lower the 2035 CO2 target for new cars to 87.5%, below the 90% the Commission proposed.

The report by rapporteur Massimiliano Salini (EPP, Italy) amends the fleet-wide rules for carmakers and van makers in Regulation 2019/631, file 2025/0420(COD). The committee also cut the 2030 van target to 35%, against 40% in the Commission text and 50% under current law, according to its press release.

The committee went further than the Commission

The Commission's proposal of 16 December 2025 lowered the 2035 targets for cars and vans from 100% to 90%. Carmakers would compensate the remaining 10% with credits for EU-made low-carbon steel or for e-fuels and biofuels.

The committee's text sets these terms:

• Cars: a 2035 cut of 87.5%. Carmakers could cover up to a further 7.5% of the 2021 reference target with credits for EU-made low-carbon steel, taking the total to 95%.
• Vans: 35% by 2030 and 80% by 2035, with steel credits also capped at 7.5%.
• Until the end of 2034, steel credits may count for no more than 3% towards a manufacturer's target.
• Zero-emission vehicles would include "vehicles running exclusively on eligible fuels", meaning cars and vans that use only renewable and low-carbon fuels meeting set criteria.
• Small EU-made electric cars, up to 4.2 metres long, would count as 1.4 vehicles in a maker's average, and highly efficient EU-made electric cars as 1.2. Both multipliers rise by 0.1 for cars registered under social leasing schemes.

Two companion files passed by wider margins

The same day, the environment, internal market and transport committees adopted the automotive omnibus, 2025/0422(COD), by 105 votes to 39 with 21 abstentions. Its co-rapporteurs are Andreas Schwab (EPP, Germany), Michael Bloss (Greens/EFA, Germany) and Merja Kyllönen (The Left, Finland). The committee text requires child presence detection in cars and in vans up to 3.5 tonnes, and door handles that open mechanically in emergencies. It postpones Euro 7 for heavy-duty vehicles by 18 months. It also keeps the method for calculating CO2 from EU-made plug-in hybrids unchanged until the end of 2029, with annual updates from real-world data from 2030.

The environment and transport committees backed the clean corporate vehicles regulation, 2025/0421(COD), by 89 votes to 29 with four abstentions. Its co-rapporteurs are Tiemo Wölken (S&D, Germany) and François Kalfon (S&D, France). The text covers cars and vans registered by companies with more than 250 employees and turnover above €50 million. Each member state would get an aspirational target for zero- and low-emission vehicles in new corporate registrations for 2030 and 2035, ranging from 67% to 95%. From 2028, governments could subsidise only zero- or low-emission corporate vehicles, and only those made in the EU.

Both texts leave the "made in the EU" test to the Industrial Accelerator Act, which the Commission proposed on 4 March 2026.

Member states split on the same points

The Council presidency's progress report of 15 June, prepared for environment ministers' meeting of 25 June, found that on the targets "positions that have been expressed diverge widely". It recorded a number of governments wanting vehicles that run only on "carbon neutral" fuels counted as zero-emission, and others opposed. The committee's definition of zero-emission vehicles takes the first view.

Parliament votes on all three reports and on its negotiating mandates at the plenary session the Legislative Observatory lists for 14 December, after which talks with the Council can begin.

On the record

"Registering combustion engine cars without compensation obligations would remain possible, protecting technological freedom and restoring prospects for the entire supply chain," Salini said in the committee's press release.

Wölken said member states "will have to make clean vehicles, built in the EU, the default option for companies and workers".

Bloss, for the omnibus: "Electric cars are the future, and Europe could build great ones."

What to watch

• 11–12 November: the Brussels mini-plenary; none of the three car files is on its final draft agenda.
• 29 November: an updated utility factor for plug-in hybrids, adopted in secondary legislation, starts to apply, according to the Council presidency.
• 14 December: the indicative plenary vote on the CO2 report, the omnibus and the corporate-fleets regulation.

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