Volkswagen will stop selling combustion engines in Europe by 2035

Car manufacturer Volkswagen will stop selling cars with combustion engines in Europe by 2035. The company confirmed this on Saturday to the German newspaper Münchner Merkur.

“In Europe, we will move out of the combustion engine sector between 2033 and 2035,” Volkswagen sales board member Klaus Zellmer told the daily. “In the United States and China, we’ll do that a little later.” Zellmer reports that the switch to electric vehicles will take ‘a lot longer’ in South America and Africa, because the ‘political and infrastructural frameworks’ are still missing.

Zellmer also says that electric vehicles should account for 70 percent of European Volkswagen sales by 2030. By 2050, the entire Volkswagen fleet must be completely CO₂ neutral, according to the company.

Several other automakers are working to electrify their offerings. Ford will only sell electric cars in Europe by 2030. That same year, 40 percent of Ford’s global vehicle sales must be electric. Volvo says it will only sell electric cars from 2030 and Honda wants to have completely switched to EVs by 2040.

European countries are also pushing the switch to electric vehicles. For example, Norway wants only electric cars to be sold in that country by 2025. France wants the same by 2040 and the United Kingdom wants to limit the sale of cars with combustion engines by 2030.