# France and Germany Strike Car Deal Tying Softer 2035 Engine Rules to 'Made in Europe' Demands > Paris and Berlin have agreed a joint position that would loosen the EU's effective 2035 ban on new combustion-engine cars while pushing automakers to source far more of their components from European factories, setting up a fight with Brussels and the European Parliament over the final terms. - Source: Berlin Today - Canonical URL: https://berlintoday.eu/article/france-and-germany-strike-car-deal-tying-softer-2035-engine-rules-to-made-in-europe-demands - Author: Doug Brown - Section: Business - Published: 2026-10-16T23:42:11.676Z - Updated: 2026-10-16T23:42:11.676Z - Tags: Germany, France, European Union, automotive industry, 2035 engine ban, Made in Europe, Friedrich Merz, Emmanuel Macron --- France and Germany have reached a bilateral agreement on how to handle the EU's looming 2035 deadline for combustion-engine cars, pairing a softer version of the emissions rule with tougher requirements that automakers build their vehicles using European-made parts. The deal, struck on the sidelines of an EU leaders' gathering in Brussels, signals how the bloc's two biggest car-producing nations want to reshape a Commission proposal that has unsettled their domestic auto industries. Rather than rejecting the 2035 target outright, the two governments are aiming to recast it, trading flexibility on emissions for a harder line on where the cars and their components actually get made. ## A Softer Emissions Line Under the Paris-Berlin position, carmakers would need to cut CO2 emissions by 90 percent by 2035, rather than the 100 percent effectively required under the original rule, and without the offsetting mechanism the European Commission's proposal would have demanded for the remaining emissions. That gap is designed to leave room for some combustion-engine and hybrid models to keep rolling off production lines past 2035, rather than forcing a hard cutoff to all-electric sales. ## A Hard Line on 'Made in Europe' In exchange for that flexibility, the two countries want new local-content rules: 70 percent of a car's components, batteries excluded, would need to be produced in Europe, along with at least 10 percent of battery content. Qualifying production would extend beyond the EU to Norway, Iceland, Switzerland and the UK, provided those countries sign on to agreements guaranteeing reciprocal market access. A source close to the French presidency framed the goal bluntly, saying the arrangement is meant to create a European preference so that factories on the continent do not end up as little more than assembly plants bolting together parts made elsewhere, a pointed reference to concerns about Chinese and other non-European suppliers gaining ground inside the EU's own car industry. ## A Joint Message From Two Governments Under Pressure In a joint statement, the two sides said their shared ambition was to transform the automotive industry successfully while holding onto the bloc's climate ambitions, a formulation meant to show they are not abandoning the 2035 goal so much as trying to make it survivable for an industry both countries depend on heavily for jobs and exports. ## What Happens Next The Franco-German position now heads into a broader EU negotiation. Members of the European Parliament are scheduled to vote on the Commission's own proposal on November 23, and lawmakers and national governments will still need to agree on the final flexibility terms before anything becomes binding, meaning Tuesday's agreement is a starting position for that fight rather than its conclusion. ## Why It Matters With Europe's auto sector already squeezed by weak demand, Chinese competition, and the cost of the electric transition, how this dispute resolves will shape not just emissions policy but where the next generation of cars sold in Europe actually gets built. France and Germany are betting that a stricter local-content rule can do double duty, protecting jobs at home while giving their industries more time to adjust to the end of the combustion engine. --- Originally published by Berlin Today. Free to cite with attribution and a link to https://berlintoday.eu/article/france-and-germany-strike-car-deal-tying-softer-2035-engine-rules-to-made-in-europe-demands.