“Yes to the car”: ÖVP against a combustion engine ban

It is about “openness to technology”, “against a ban on combustion engines” and a “yes to the car”, said Federal Chancellor Karl Nehammer, Economics Minister Kocher and Styria’s Governor Christopher Drexler (all ÖVP), who are meeting with IV and representatives of car companies, but without Transport Minister Leonore Gewessler (Greens), for a “round table” followed by a press conference.

The ÖVP sees Austria’s strong supplier industry, with a focus on Styria, as being at risk. A year ago, the ÖVP called an “auto summit” with the same demand, and Nehammer has since raised the demand for an end to a “combustion engine ban” in the EU more often. However, the EU does not envisage a ban on combustion engines, but requires that new cars be CO2-neutral from 2035. This means a ban on refueling with the fossil fuels petrol and diesel and is thus interpreted as a “combustion engine ban”. But combustion engines that are fueled with CO2-neutral fuel (SAF) remain expressly permitted – under pressure from Germany. Hydrogen-powered cars also remain permitted. In this respect, the regulation is seen as technology-neutral at EU level. The EU also points out that in any case it will be reviewed in 2026 whether the end of fossil fuels for new cars should come in 2035 as planned. The EU regulation does not provide for a ban on vehicles that have already been registered.

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“Politics is not intended to create uncertainty”

However, SAF, the only known, potentially CO2-neutral fuel for combustion engines, is highly controversial in science because large amounts of – green – electricity are needed to produce it in an environmentally friendly way. It is generally assumed that it is more energy efficient to run a car with electricity than to use electricity to produce SAF and then burn it in a car engine.

On Monday, Drexler called for “openness to technology” in the Ö1 morning journal, which also includes not banning combustion engines. He trusts science and engineers more than “hundreds of EU representatives” when it comes to technical answers to climate protection. It is about competition between modern technologies. “In any case, politics is not intended to create uncertainty, quite the opposite,” assured Drexler.

The ÖVP can feel at home in its political family at the EU level, because the European People’s Party (EPP) is also calling for an end to the ban on combustion engines. In Germany, on the other hand, the red-green-liberal federal government discussed at an auto summit in November 2023 how to achieve the target of 15 million electric cars by 2030 and how to support a further market ramp-up of battery-powered models.

Study: Austria’s car industry urgently needs more research

Also on Monday, the lobby organization Oecolution, which is financed by the WKÖ and IV, published a study commissioned by the Economica Institute. According to the study, Austria’s automotive industry urgently needs more research. Otherwise, it could lose touch with China and the booming innovation there – especially in the field of electromobility. According to Oecolution, Austria must continue to work on improving the energy efficiency of combustion engines and accelerate research into the rapid reduction of CO2 emissions in the area of ​​biofuels and e-fuels “in the transition phase when many combustion engines are still in use.”

But Austria also has “an important future field that needs to be further developed: alternative drives”. These include electric cars, hydrogen cars and “other innovative approaches”. “Since we do not yet know what technological breakthroughs await us, it is of great importance to intensively advance research in these areas,” says the study.