California bans new cars with internal combustion engine

The US state of California has announced that it will completely ban the sale of new cars with internal combustion engines from 2035. Restrictions are to be imposed even before then.

Restrictions from 2026

For environmental reasons, the U.S. state of California has decided to gradually restrict the sale of new cars with internal combustion engines. The California Air Resources Board, which is responsible for the matter, would like to significantly improve air quality in the West Coast state in particular. The first restrictions will take effect in 2026. Then 35 percent of newly registered cars in California must be emission-free. Four years later, the share of zero-emission vehicles in new registrations must have risen to 68 percent. Finally, from 2035, new registrations of vehicles with internal combustion engines will be completely banned.

Back in 2020, the California Air Resources Board announced that it would no longer allow any new cars with internal combustion engines after 2035. Now, the specific rules that had been drafted over the past two years have been unveiled.

Other U.S. states could follow suit

California is central to the auto industry in the United States. As the most populous state, California also represents the largest sales market for cars in the US. For this reason alone, the auto industry could be significantly guided in its further product planning by the rules that apply in California. In addition, it has already been observed in the past that other states have taken their cues from California’s legislation in this respect. It can therefore be assumed that other states could enact similar regulations. All in all, this points to a far-reaching change in the automotive industry, which California Governor Gavin Newsom summed up succinctly: He spoke of a significant step on the way to abolishing the exhaust, which will seem as antiquated to future generations as today’s telephones with dials.

Such regulations, which aim to push the internal combustion engine out of the market, are by no means limited to the USA. The EU already enacted an equivalent ban some time ago: Here, too, no new cars with internal combustion engines may be registered from 2035. In 2021, at the World Climate Conference in Glasgow, numerous countries also agreed to end internal combustion engines by 2040.