The boss of BMW, Oliver Zipse, does not mince his words. According to him, the end of the end of thermal engines is likely to shake the balance of the automobile.
The European Union wants all new cars to be “zero emission” from 2035, forcing manufacturers and customers to turn the thermal page. Oliver Zipse, at the head of BMW, strongly criticizes this regulation, believing that it goes too fast, too strong. It defends an opening to other technologies than electricity, such as hydrogen or synthetic fuels.
Brussels Au Galop, industry on the breach
At BMW headquarters in Munich, tension is guessed without being called. Since the validation by the European Union of the law requiring that, from 2035, all new cars and utilities are “zero emission”, The automotive sector is shaken by a regulatory storm of a rare force. The imposed pace leaves little respite to equipment manufacturers and large groups. Oliver Zipse, Chairman of the BMW Executive Management, has been posing for months in the refractory rack. During his last intervention, he did not hesitate to qualify the European climate policy as “disaster” For the continent industry, reports Challenges. And it is not, according to his words, a simple ideological dispute because the stake relates to the very foundations of the automobile. Zipse defends beak and nails This famous principle of technological neutrality. In other words, why bet only on electric, when synthetic or hydrogen fuel solutions could also reduce, even cancel, emissions?
The BMW manager readily recalls that a electric car Grinds today, during its manufacture, 40% of co₂ more than a conventional thermal. To believe in the electric panacea seems to him, for the moment, hazardous and dangerous. Pollution created by car is not just about the exhaust. It begins in lithium or cobalt mines, extends in factories and ends in a recycling center.
Forced walking to electric also stumbles on the network wall. Zipse says that even Germany, which is often admired for the robustness of its infrastructure, would find it difficult to absorb a total conversion of the park. He believes that such a mutation of the network, to manage to electrify, Request 30 to 40 years of continuous investment. Customers do not always hurry to adopt the electric car, unless substantial aid supports the purchase. The figures show that electricity sales remain fragile over time and that they are very sensitive to variations in aid.
Europe is looking for its course
On the Brussels side, politicians defend the strict application of the calendar. This 2035 objective is part of the large “Fit for 55” program, pillar of the European climate roadmap, which wants Reduce continent emissions by 55% by 2030 Compared to the 1990 level. A vision aligned with the global fight against warming, supported without reservation by many NGOs. However, a flaw has widened. At the beginning of 2025, under the pressure of Germany, the European Commission accepted a compromise allowing new cars driving exclusively with summary fuels (E-Fuels) to continue to be sold after 2035. A detail for some, a safety net for the others. BMW sees it as a life buoy, opening an alternative track, even if the industrial e-fuel sector remains embryonic on a market scale.
Discussions on customs duties add another layer of complexity. Zipse judges Union policy in the matter “Stricter” than that of the United States. Protectionist measures, targeting Chinese vehicles, have sparked a chain reaction on partnerships and, above all, fear of a spiral of reciprocal sanctions. Pressure also comes from global industrial competitiveness. BMW reiterated, during its general assembly of spring 2025, the need to maintain a strong presence in China, not only for its sales, but above all to take advantage of the bubbling technological vitality of the country. Through its repeated positions, Zipse seems to anticipate a possible reversal of the European position. Question of financial and industrial realism, according to him, more than deep personal conviction. There are already, moreover, review clauses provided for in European law. A first step report will fall in 2025, followed by regular assessments supposed to measure the actual feasibility of the rocking towards zero-emission.