No more combustion-engine cars built in the European Union from 1 January 2030: incentives first, fines after

Petitioner:  Frederic Eger, citizen of the Union (France), resident in Latvia

1. What the petitioner asks

The petitioner asks the European Parliament to adopt a resolution calling for the following measures, and to use its powers to see that they are enacted.

No production of combustion-engine cars in the European Union from 1 January 2030. Scope: passenger cars and light commercial vehicles (categories M1 and N1) with an internal combustion engine, hybrids and plug-in hybrids included, whatever fuel they burn. From that date only zero-tailpipe-emission vehicles may be built: battery-electric vehicles, hydrogen fuel-cell vehicles, and solar-electric-hydrogen vehicles that combine solar cells, a battery and a fuel cell.
Fines from 1 January 2030 on every car manufacturer that has not switched completely to zero-tailpipe-emission vehicles. The fine is charged per vehicle built, builds on the excess-emissions premium already in Regulation (EU) 2019/631 and is set high enough that continued production costs more than conversion. The revenue is paid into a fund that finances points (c) to (f).
Research and development subsidies for manufacturers of fully solar and hybrid solar-hydrogen fuel-cell cars, so that they phase out combustion-engine production by 2030. Funding comes from Horizon Europe and the Innovation Fund and is tied to a dated conversion plan that each manufacturer publishes.
A tax credit of 10% and a tax relief of 10% for buyers of zero-emission cars. Tax is a national competence, and fiscal measures under Article 192(2) TFEU need unanimity in the Council. Parliament is therefore asked to call on the Member States to adopt these measures, each setting its own tax base, and to ask the Commission to clear them quickly under the state-aid rules (Articles 107 and 108 TFEU).
Recycling of old combustion-engine cars, and a flat payment of €8,000 to any citizen who hands in a combustion-engine or hybrid car and acquires an electric, hydrogen or solar car. The payment is made at the point of sale as a discount, so that households do not have to advance the money. It is paid only against a certificate of destruction from an authorised treatment facility under Directive 2000/53/EC, which prevents fraud and the export of old cars to other countries. It is financed from Union instruments such as the Social Climate Fund, from national budgets and from the fines in point (b).
The same tax credit, tax relief and installation subsidies for operators of fuel-station networks, whoever owns and operates them, that install electric vehicle charging points at their stations. The incentive also covers hydrogen dispensers, solar canopies and battery storage. It comes with a binding schedule of minimum numbers of fast-charging and hydrogen points per station, rising every year from 2027 to 1 January 2030 and enforced by penalties. This builds on Regulation (EU) 2023/1804 and does not replace it.
Alignment of the sales rule. The same date, 1 January 2030, applies to placing new combustion-engine cars on the Union market, so that imported cars are treated like those built in the Union.
Readiness reporting. The Commission reports to Parliament every year until 2030 on the rollout of charging points, hydrogen supply and grid capacity. If a gap appears, the answer is faster rollout and more support, never a later date.
2. Why 1 January 2030, and why now

2.1 The date of 1 January 2030 is the hard point of this petition and it does not move. Many climate models warn that severe damage begins in this period, and the only way to mitigate it is to act now. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change finds in its Sixth Assessment Report that limiting warming to 1.5 °C requires deep and rapid cuts in greenhouse-gas emissions before 2030, and that each further delay raises the risk of changes that cannot be reversed. A car registered in 2035 is typically still on the road in the late 2040s, so every year of delay locks emissions into the years just before the Union’s 2050 climate-neutrality deadline (Regulation (EU) 2021/1119).

2.2 Health. The European Environment Agency attributes about 182,000 premature deaths in the Union in 2023 to fine particulate matter, 63,000 to ozone and 34,000 to nitrogen dioxide (the three figures overlap and must not be added). Road transport is one of the main sources of nitrogen oxides in Union cities. Directive (EU) 2024/2881 sets stricter air-quality limits from 2030, and Articles 2, 35 and 37 of the Charter of Fundamental Rights protect life, human health and the environment.

2.3 Energy security. The Union imports the overwhelming majority of the oil it burns. Every combustion-engine car replaced by a car running on Union sunlight and renewable hydrogen reduces that dependence.

2.4 Treaty principles. The polluter-pays and precautionary principles (Article 191(2) TFEU) and the Union’s duty to pursue a high level of environmental protection (Article 3(3) TEU) support acting early rather than late.

3. Why solar-electric-hydrogen answers the grid and infrastructure problem

3.1 Solar-electric-hydrogen vehicles are the solution to the grid and infrastructure problem. Such a vehicle carries solar cells, a battery and a hydrogen fuel cell. The solar cells supply part of its daily energy, the battery covers everyday trips and the fuel cell provides long range, so the vehicle draws less from the grid and charging peaks are flatter. Hydrogen counts as zero-emission only when it is renewable hydrogen as defined in Directive (EU) 2018/2001; hydrogen made from natural gas does not qualify.

3.2 Fuel stations already stand on every major road and drivers already stop there. The incentives in point (f) turn them into the Union’s charging and hydrogen network. With solar canopies, battery storage and on-site electrolysers, a station becomes a local energy hub that produces part of its own power and hydrogen and eases the load on the grid.

3.3 Smart charging. Every charging point financed with public money must support smart charging and, where the vehicle allows it, bidirectional charging, so that parked vehicles help balance the grid instead of straining it.

4. Objections and answers

All the objections and answers in this section.

4.1 “The Union has already set the date: 2035.” Regulation (EU) 2019/631 does set a 100% reduction for 2035, but that rule is being loosened now: the Commission’s proposal of 16 December 2025 (procedure 2025/0420(COD)) would replace it with a 90% target. A softer date keeps combustion-engine cars on sale into the 2040s. The petitioner asks Parliament to move the other way.

4.2 “Taxes are for the Member States.” Correct, which is why point (d) is a call on the Member States and a request for state-aid clearance. What the Union decides directly is research funding, fines, product rules and state-aid control, and these carry most of the weight of this petition.

4.3 “Technology neutrality: e-fuels and biofuels should be allowed.” A combustion engine emits nitrogen oxides and particles at the tailpipe whatever it burns, and e-fuels need several times more electricity per kilometre than a battery or a fuel cell. Renewable fuels should be kept for aviation and shipping, which have no alternative.

4.4 “Electric cars pollute too: electricity, batteries, tyres.” Life-cycle studies, including those of the European Environment Agency, find that electric cars emit less over their lifetime than combustion cars even on today’s Union electricity mix, and the gap grows as the grid gets cleaner. Regulation (EU) 2024/1257 (Euro 7) sets limits for brake particles and tyre abrasion. Regulation (EU) 2023/1542 sets recycling and due-diligence rules for batteries, and the recycling of old cars under point (e) returns steel, copper and other materials to Union industry.

4.5 “It is too expensive for households.” No one’s car is taken away. The rule applies to cars built from 1 January 2030, existing cars keep driving, and the €8,000 payment is voluntary, the same for everyone and paid at the point of sale. The tax credit and tax relief lower the price further, and the household stops paying for fuel.

4.6 “It will destroy jobs.” The subsidies in point (c) keep production and employment in Europe instead of leaving a market that is moving to electric to makers outside the Union. Workers in combustion-drivetrain plants can retrain with the European Social Fund Plus, the Just Transition Fund and the European Globalisation Adjustment Fund for Displaced Workers, and charging, hydrogen, fuel-station conversion and recycling create work too.

4.7 “There are not enough chargers, and the grid cannot cope.” Section 3 answers this: solar-electric-hydrogen vehicles draw less from the grid, and fuel stations become charging and hydrogen hubs with solar and storage. Regulation (EU) 2023/1804 already requires fast charging along the main roads and hydrogen stations by 2030, and point (h) tracks progress every year.

4.8 “2030 is too soon for industry.” The date is more than three years away, the subsidies come first and the fines only start on 1 January 2030. The cost that hurts investors most is uncertainty: every new softening of the rules makes investment harder to justify. A firm date, backed by funding, lets manufacturers and suppliers plan.

4.9 “Imports will undercut Union makers.” Point (g) applies the same date to the sale of new combustion-engine cars in the Union, so imported cars are treated like Union-built cars. Articles 114 and 192 TFEU together support a rule that covers both manufacture and sale.

4.10 “It takes away freedom of choice.” The Union has already banned leaded petrol, asbestos and ozone-depleting substances, and no one today calls those bans a loss of freedom. Buyers keep a free choice among battery-electric, hydrogen and solar-electric-hydrogen cars, and anyone may keep and drive an existing car.

4.11 “The Union is only a small share of global emissions.” The Union is one of the world’s largest car markets, so its rules shape what manufacturers build and how fast the price of zero-emission technology falls. The health and energy-security gains stay in the Union whatever other countries decide.

5. Standing, competence and what Parliament is asked to do

All the paragraphs in this section.

5.1 Standing. Under Article 227 TFEU any citizen of the Union or resident may petition Parliament on a matter within the Union’s fields of activity that affects them directly. The petitioner is a citizen of the Union living in Latvia. He breathes the air of Union roads and cities and pays, through taxes and insurance, for the health and climate costs of combustion-engine traffic.

5.2 Competence. The subject falls within environment policy (Articles 191 and 192 TFEU), the internal market (Article 114), industry (Article 173), research (Articles 179 to 190), transport (Article 91) and state aid (Articles 107 and 108). It is already regulated by Regulation (EU) 2019/631, now under amendment in procedure 2025/0420(COD).

5.3 Requests to Parliament. (i) Declare the petition admissible and forward it to the Committee on the Environment, Climate and Food Safety (ENVI) for consideration in procedure 2025/0420(COD). (ii) Invite the Commission to give its opinion on the petition. (iii) Request the Commission, under Article 225 TFEU, to submit the proposals needed for points (a) to (h). (iv) Allow the petitioner to present the petition at a meeting of the Committee on Petitions.

Frederic Eger 

PUBLIC PETITION

PETITION TO THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT

Committee on Petitions (PETI), submitted under Article 227 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union