France and Germany trade engine flexibility for Europe-first car support

France and Germany have traded concessions over the EU car industry’s two hardest questions: how quickly to phase out combustion engines, and who gets public help to build the next generation of vehicles. Paris will support replacing the EU’s effective 2035 ban on new combustion-engine cars with a requirement to cut exhaust emissions by 90 percent, while dropping a proposed obligation for manufacturers to compensate for the remaining emissions. In return, Berlin accepted tighter “Made in Europe” conditions for industrial support, favoring production in the EU while leaving limited access for selected European partners such as the UK. The deal is not EU law yet, but it puts the bloc’s two biggest auto powers behind a strategy that pairs a slower transition away from combustion engines with stronger protection for local manufacturing.