EU’s electric vehicle drive leaves supercars at the back of the grid

theguardian.com:

Petrolhead supercar owners who love the rumble of a V8 and the aroma of exhaust fumes are being told to prepare for a legally enforced smoother and cleaner ride.

The EU this week agreed draft legislation banning the sale of new petrol or diesel cars by 2035, ignoring a plea from Italy for a “Ferrari exception” to allow its supercar industry to continue making its petrol-powered products.

After 16 hours of tense negotiations in Luxembourg environment ministers of the 27 countries agreed to the ban as part of the EU’s “Fit for 55” plan to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by at least 55% by 2030​.

The UK government has already set out plans to ban the sale of new petrol and diesel vehicles from 2030, with a similar ban on hybrids five years later.

While most of the automotive industry has long been preparing for the widespread adoption of electric cars, many producers of supercars – loosely defined as high performance sports cars with price tags ranging from £100,000 to more than £1m – have failed to invest in the battery technology needed to power them and claim that customers prefer petrol-driven sports cars.

About 4.2m electric cars were sold across the world last year, up 108% on 2020 and 198% on 2019, according to figures from automotive analyst Jato. However, none of the 22,000 cars classed as supercars or luxury GTs (grand tourers) sold last year were fully electric.

Benjamin Stephan, a spokesperson for Greenpeace, welcomed the news that an agreement had finally been hammered out in Luxembourg but complained that it was “way too late and won’t be enough to keep the 1.5C pledge alive”.

“Banning new oil-burning cars is the right thing to do, but a 2035 phase-out is much too late to limit global heating to 1.5C and keeps us