A major international car manufacturer has called out Europe’s new petrol and diesel car ban rules, blasting officials focus on electric vehicles. Christian Schultze, European research and development manager at Mazda, suggested that internal combustion vehicles could still play a role and form part of a “multi-solution” approach.
The European Union has focussed almost entirely on electric cars as its primary method to cut CO2 emissions on the road by 2035. Electric cars are believed to be more efficient and offer lower greenhouse gas emissions than petrol cars running on alternative fuels.
Christian explained: “Mazda are not the forerunner for electrification and that might puzzle some people.
“For us, it’s hard to understand from a logic and engineering point of view why the European Union has strictly voted for electrification as the only solution for the future. We are following what we call our ‘multi-solution’ approach as we are not 100 per cent happy with this decision from the EU.
“We want to avoid introducing more CO2 into the Earth’s atmosphere, and there are many ways to do that as the combustion engine is not the devil in the box. The problem is we’re using fossil fuels, which produce CO2, the internal-combustion engine itself is not the issue.”
Christian explained that Mazda was looking into the viability of using other systems such as e-fuels and carbon capture technology.
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Hybrid cars can continue to be sold until 2035, when all brand-new vehicles will have to be zero-emission. Mazda has taken tentative steps into the electric car market, with the Mazda MX-30 the only model available so far.
However, the brand will expand its line-up with the launch of the all-electric Mazda 6e expected later in 2026. The car will come with 348 miles of battery range with rapid charging capabilities, but will set road users back around £38,995.
