As of 2024, 60 countries are set to ban gasoline and diesel cars by specific dates to combat climate change. Norway leads the charge, aiming for a total shift to electric vehicles by 2025. Europe is moving quickly too, with the EU targeting 2035, though some countries are pushing for even earlier bans. In the U.S., California’s 2035 phase-out has sparked mixed reactions among states. Sri Lanka is making headlines with its ambitious 2040 ban on all combustion engine vehicles. This global push signals a dramatic shift toward cleaner transportation, but implementation challenges remain.

By 2024, sixty nations and territories had committed to phase out gasoline and diesel vehicles by a specific date, setting goals, signing pledges, or announcing plans to do so. Climate scientists view this as an imperative step toward achieving net zero carbon emissions for all nations.

Norway, a leader in electric mobility, is about to undergo the earliest phase-out of its type.

Coltura reports that more recently, relevant statements for the middle of the century came from countries like Vietnam and Indonesia.

The region with the greatest prohibitions in the works is Europe, as Statista’s Katharina Buchholz explains below. The European Union enacted a regulation in early 2023 that will make it illegal for member states to sell automobiles with gasoline engines starting in 2035. Still, there has been a great deal of back and forth since. In Germany, the measure established an initial deadline for the sale of cars fueled by gasoline, in addition to Italy, Romania, Bulgaria, the Czech Republic, and Hungary. The nation well-known for its auto sector led an effort to push for a synthetic fuels loophole before to the final approval of the new regulations, which CNN deemed exceptional.

Several nations in the European Union have already agreed to phase out gasoline-powered vehicles and have established even stricter timelines. Even earlier, between 2029 and 2031, the Netherlands, the Flanders region of Belgium, Sweden, Greece, and Slovenia aim to ban gas-powered automobile sales. Norway is the only nation in the world to surpass this, with about 80% of newly sold automobiles being electric now, and 100% expected by 2025.

When California established a phase-out date for new sales of these vehicles in 2022, also for 2035, it sparked disputes among U.S. states on gasoline automobile phase-outs, much like the situation in the EU. Under the Federal Clean Air Act, 17 states had previously connected their car standards to California’s. However, just five states—Washington, Oregon, Massachusetts, New York, and Vermont—adopted California’s decision, while Delaware and Connecticut withdrew at the last minute. Although it was originally anticipated that hybrids would also be phased out, some highly advanced models with substantial battery capacities will now be permitted in states that are involved. Other countries that are phasing out hybrids favorably include Canada, Slovenia, Singapore, and Japan; nonetheless, most countries want them out of the picture by the time their ban date arrives.

The Asian nation of Sri Lanka has been establishing the most stringent objectives of any nation, announcing a complete ban on gasoline-powered vehicles, including motorcycles and tuk-tuks, by 2040 in addition to a phase-out of new automobile sales. The nation has already drawn attention from around the world in the recent past for passing extensive laws that proved difficult to enforce. It may be less difficult to phase out gas cars in some smaller nations that do not have their own automakers or their subsidiaries. Cape Verde set an internal objective to accomplish this accomplishment even earlier, by 2035, when it and several other countries signed the COP26 declaration to prohibit the sale of new cars with combustion engines by 2040. It would just need to forbid the import of gas-powered vehicles near that date to accomplish this.

GreatGameInternational reported last month that, according to the Daily Mail, Joe Biden has unveiled a new scheme to phase out gas cars after ordering manufacturers to achieve another 16 miles per gallon to stay operational.

Please leave this field empty

Daily Counter-Intelligence Briefing Newsletter

We will send you just one email per day.

We don’t spam! Read our privacy policy for more info.

Check your inbox or spam folder to confirm your subscription.