'Spectacular' electric car sales weaken pressure to shelve combustion engine ban, EU climate chief says

By Kate Abnett and Bart H. Meijer

LUXEMBOURG, June 25 (Reuters) - A "spectacular" rise in electric car sales is weakening political momentum to roll back the European Union's planned ban on combustion engine cars, the bloc's climate commissioner said on Thursday, as governments laid bare divisions over the policy.

The European Commission last year proposed a rollback of the EU's effective ban on new combustion-engine cars from 2035 after pressure from Germany, Italy and the auto sector, changing the target to a 90% emissions reduction instead.

"Some have indeed been saying, both member states and the European Parliament, 'Isn't this a sign that the status quo was already good enough?'," Commissioner for Climate Wopke Hoekstra said before a meeting of EU climate ministers in Luxembourg, referring to the original target requiring a 100% cut in CO2 emissions from cars by 2035.

"The numbers are truly spectacular... Electric vehicle ​sales, ⁠particularly in the three largest markets, but also secondhand (are) truly very impressive," Hoekstra said.

Electric vehicle sales have surged in some countries in recent months, as the U.S.-Israeli war with Iran has driven up oil and fuel prices.

EV sales in Europe's biggest market Germany jumped by 39% last month, versus May 2025, data from the non-profit International Council on Clean Transportation showed. France (93%) and Italy (85%) also posted large year-on-year sales increases, though in Poland, EV sales last month dropped by 26%.

EU countries are now negotiating the proposed rollback, and could yet amend it.

Diplomats told Reuters countries were split — with some arguing for smaller changes to the car CO2 rules, and others seeking to weaken it further than Brussels proposed — and it was not yet clear which side would prevail.

Germany and Italy urged the EU on Thursday to further soften the combustion engine ban, in Italy's case to allow more vehicles powered by biofuels, rather than going all-in on CO2-free electric cars. 

"Having a European strategy focused on one technology is going to put us at risk in the future," Italy’s environment minister Vannia Gava told the meeting.

France and Sweden were among those to defend the combustion-engine ban, warning that weakening it would delay urgently needed investments to help European EV manufacturers stay competitive.

Weakening the policy after the Iran war's energy fallout would be a "terrible signal", French climate minister Monique Barbut said.

(Reporting by Kate Abnett, writing by Bart Meijer; Editing by Aidan Lewis)