The EU has scrapped its 2035 sales ban on new combustion cars, a senior lawmaker has said.

While yet to be officially announced, Manfred Weber – president of the EPP, the European Parliament’s largest party – told German newspaper Bild that the plans were “off the table”.

In its place, flexible emission reduction rules will be implemented, he said: "For new registrations from 2035 onwards, a 90% reduction in CO2 emissions will now be mandatory for car manufacturers' fleet targets, instead of 100%."

He added that “there will also be no 100% target from 2040 onwards”, which means that “the technology ban on combustion engines is off the table”. 

Weber told Bild that the EU’s decision “secures tens of thousands of industrial jobs", given that engines will continue to be produced for Europe, while also sending an “important signal to the entire automotive industry”.

This latest bombshell follows reports from earlier this week that EU lawmakers were looking at moving the 2035 ban to 2040.

This was to reflect new EV adoption forecasts and also due to lobbying from European governments and some of the industry’s biggest car makers, including Volkswagen, Renault, Mercedes-Benz, BMW and Stellantis.

But Weber's comments all but confirm that the EU has instead adopted a more radical approach and binned the legislation it signed off in 2021, which would have effectively forced car makers to sell only electric vehicles.

The EU is expected to make the official announcement on Tuesday 16 December.

What this means for the UK – which was the first country to propose a sales ban on new ICE cars in 2020 – has yet to be announced.

The UK has a much higher EV adoption rate than the EU, albeit still below the government-mandated target (28% for 2025).