Greece stop fossil fuelled car sales in 2030
Greece wants to ban the sale of new cars with combustion engines from 2030. This was announced by Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis. As early as 2025, all new taxis and one third of rental cars in Athens and Thessaloniki will have to be electric.
The planned phasing out of internal combustion vehicles is part of a new environmental law that sets “emission caps” for various sectors such as buildings, transport and energy production, as well as specific obligations for decarbonisation. With these measures, the Greek government aims to reduce the country’s greenhouse gas emissions by 55 per cent by 2030 and, in the next intermediate step, by 80 per cent by 2040 – before reaching the zero-emissions limit in 2050. However, it is not clear from the Greek media reports which base year the percentage reductions are to be made in comparison to.
According to the information provided so far, two dates are important for the transport sector: from 2025, all new taxis in Athens and Thessaloniki are to be “electric or emission-free vehicles”. In the same year, one third of the rental vehicles are also to comply with these specifications – but it is unclear whether this is also only the case in the two major cities or nationwide.
From 2030 onwards, the sale of new cars with combustion engines is to be banned – used cars may therefore continue to be driven and traded. Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis is said to have pointed out in his cabinet that Greece thus has a more ambitious goal than the EU – the EU proposal, which still has to be ratified by the national parliaments, provides for a limit of zero grammes of CO2 for new cars from 2035.
Other areas of the policy proposal include targets for the generation and storage of electricity from renewable sources – which, as we know, is important for electrified transport. In addition, the installation of oil-fired heating systems is to be banned in new buildings as early as 2023 – if a sufficient gas network is available.
“We are talking, therefore about a multi-level, coherent program that leads Greece to the new era with goals and schedules. In a development that, on the one hand, will offer clean and cheap energy but at the same time will also offer many, good new jobs and a better quality of life to the citizens,” says Mitsotakis. “In a development that, on the one hand, will offer clean and cheap energy but at the same time will also offer many, good new jobs and a better quality of life to the citizens.”
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