Only electric cars: – The end for petrol and diesel

Sales of electric cars in Europe have so far been relatively lukewarm. That is, with the exception of Norway, which sells far more electric cars than any other country in the world when we look at the number of inhabitants. In recent months, 50-60 percent of new cars have been purely electric.

Now, however, things are about to happen, helped by warnings from the EU about even tougher emission requirements from new cars in Europe. From 2030, emissions will be cut by 60 per cent compared with today, followed by a 100 per cent cut in emissions in 2035.

Tougher emission requirements

This means that in practice it will be impossible to sell cars with petrol or diesel engines in Europe after this.

– In Europe, we will end sales of cars with internal combustion engines in 2033 (Audi) and 2035 (VW), says VW’s sales manager Klaus Zellmer to the German newspaper Munchner Merkur recently.

– In the USA and China it will be a little later and in Africa and South America a good deal later due to the political conditions and poorly developed charging options, says Zellmer.

2030 is the end

In any case, VW is slower than most manufacturers to stop selling fossil cars in Europe. Since its inception, Tesla has only sold electric cars. Smart, which is part of Daimler and Mercedes-Benz, now only sells electric cars. Jaguar will end sales of petrol cars in 2025 and Lotus in 2028. Many other car brands have, as the list below shows, set 2030 as the end date.

Long before this, however, most manufacturers will have a wide range of electric models on the road.

Toyota, which is still waiting with the first electric car until the beginning of next year, has not yet set a final end date for the sale of petrol and diesel cars in Europe. However, the factory’s plan is to have 70 electrified models on sale in 2025. 15 of these will be pure electric cars.

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Volvo’s plan is to launch a pure electric car a year until 2025, when 50 percent of their new car sales in the world will be pure electric cars.

Electric cars are the future

– In order for us to remain competitive and have the money to develop new models and new technology, we choose not to invest in a business that is declining. We have chosen to invest in the future – that is, electric cars, says Volvo CEO Håkan Samuelsson.

It is not just new emission requirements in Europe that are causing car manufacturers to cut cars with internal combustion engines.

Demand is also increasing in countries that have been slow so far. In our neighboring country Sweden, 16 per cent of new car sales in May were electric cars. In Germany, almost 27,000 of the 230,000 new cars sold in May were pure electric cars.

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Much cheaper batteries

For a long time, the price of batteries has been an obstacle to electric car sales. This is now changing dramatically. Ten years ago, the batteries cost around 1000 dollars – 8500 kroner per kilowatt hour. Now the price is approaching 100 dollars, or around 850 kroner at today’s exchange rate, according to the American RMI – an independent organization of researchers who work for a rapid transition to new energy sources.

Last but not least, several countries have set a date for when it will become an alliance to sell fossil cars. Norway will again be the best boy in the class, and the politicians have set 2025 as a goal. Countries such as the United Kingdom, Sweden, Denmark and most German states have adopted 2030 as the date for banning fossil cars.