Survey: Majority against phasing out combustion engines by 2035

BERLIN (dpa-AFX) - The planned ban on new cars with combustion engines in Europe from 2035 is met with widespread opposition among Germans. According to a survey conducted by the opinion research institute YouGov on behalf of the German Press Agency, 44 percent of respondents demand that the federal government oppose the ban on new diesel and gasoline cars.

Only a quarter for the end of combustion engines by 2035

Another 19 percent want the government to push for a postponement. Only 24 percent expect the government to push for maintaining the regulation in 2035.

A total of 2,057 eligible voters were surveyed between September 12 and 15, 2025. According to the institute, the survey is representative.

From 2035, no new cars with gasoline or diesel engines will be registered in the EU. This was decided in 2022. The goal is to reduce CO2 emissions in the transport sector. In Germany, representatives of the CDU/CSU and the business community, in particular, are exerting pressure to reverse the EU decision. Lower Saxony's SPD Minister-President Olaf Lies (SPD) also recently called for a reversal of the 2035 ban on combustion engines.

In the survey, the planned phase-out of combustion engines received majority support only among supporters of the Greens and the Left Party; the strongest resistance came from AfD voters.

Does climate protection make life more expensive?

A clear majority of respondents (60 percent) also assume that climate protection will make life in Germany more expensive in the long term. A total of 13 percent expect no impact on the cost of living. 17 percent believe that climate protection will make life cheaper in the long run.

Nevertheless, there is some support for climate protection. 36 percent of respondents want the government to do more, 29 percent are satisfied with the current course, and 24 percent expect less commitment to climate protection.

According to EU figures, the Earth's temperature last year was 1.6 degrees Celsius above the pre-industrial level. At the Paris Climate Conference in 2015, the international community set the goal of limiting warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius if possible, but at least to well below 2 degrees Celsius. Scientists consider this increasingly unrealistic./hrz/DP/zb