The European Parliament's transport committee was due to vote on the EU's "auto package" on 5 October. It will not. The vote has been put back by roughly two weeks, with the plenary vote still pencilled in for November.
The stated reason is that the parties of the centrist platform need more time to agree among themselves. That is procedural language for a disagreement that has not been settled, and it is worth being precise about what the disagreement is actually over — because it is not the headline number.
What the package would do
The Commission's proposal replaces the 2035 requirement that new cars emit 100% less CO2 than the 2021 baseline with a 90% cut. In fleet terms that is 11 grams per kilometre instead of zero. On electrive's reading, the effect is that something like 27% to 29% of new registrations after 2035 could still be combustion cars, plug-in hybrids or range-extenders.
That part is not new, and this site has set out what is and is not settled about the 90% target before. The point that bears repeating: this is a proposal. Until Parliament and Council adopt it, the 100% requirement adopted in 2023 remains the law.
The conditions are what the fight is about
The Commission did not offer the 10% as a free allowance. It attached strings, and the strings are what the conservatives object to.
| Condition | What it does |
|---|---|
| Low-carbon EU steel credits | Up to 7% of the reference target |
| Climate-neutral fuels | Up to 3%, via verified biofuels and e-fuels |
| Super-credits for small EVs | Favourable fleet accounting for electric cars under 4.20 m |
| Intermediate targets | Spread across 2030-2032 rather than fixed annual steps |
| Company-fleet targets | Concrete electrification requirements from 2030 |
| Battery Booster | €1.5 billion for EU battery production |
| Administrative relief | €706 million a year in reduced bureaucratic burden |
The European People's Party, whose Jens Gieseke (CDU) is the rapporteur on the file in the transport committee, has criticised the conditions attached to the relaxation. The softening of the target and the price of that softening are being negotiated as one object, which is why a two-week delay was easier than a vote.
Why a Tesla owner should care about the small print
Two of these clauses touch Tesla directly, and neither is the 2035 date.
The first is the super-credit for electric cars under 4.20 metres. Tesla sells nothing in Europe near that size — the Model 3 is about 4.72 m and the Model Y about 4.79 m. A mechanism that gives manufacturers extra fleet credit for small electric cars rewards Dacia, Leapmotor, Citroën and the coming wave of sub-€25,000 city EVs, and gives Tesla no benefit at all. It is an industrial policy aimed at a segment Tesla has chosen not to enter.
The second is the compliance pool. A 90% target with flexibilities is a looser target, and a looser target reduces what a manufacturer will pay another manufacturer for help meeting it. Tesla has earned real money selling that help, and the pool has already been thinning — Porsche left the Volkswagen pool for XPeng in August. The weaker the 2035 obligation, the less the pooled credit is worth.
What to watch
The committee vote, roughly two weeks out, then the plenary in November. The company-car quota remains the other live dispute. Nothing is law until both chambers have voted, and the final text can still move in either direction.