The European Union plans to ban the sale of new internal combustion engine cars from 2035.

A document viewed by Bloomberg reveals that the European Commission intends to require emissions from new cars and vans to drop by 65 per cent from 2030 and drop to zero from 2035. These standards will include rules that require national governments to bolster vehicle charging infrastructure.

Europe intends on becoming the world’s first net-zero emissions continent by 2050. Before that happens, it has set a target to cut greenhouse gases by at least 55 per cent from 1990 levels by 2030.

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“There’s no way around it, reaching net zero by 2050 means phasing out combustion vehicle sales by 2035 at the latest,” head of advance transport research for BloombergNEF, Colin McKerracher, said.

Passenger cars account for about 12 per cent of total CO2 emissions in the European Union and existing fleet-wide emissions goals require a 37.5 per cent reduction from 2030. Barclays Plc believes it will be difficult for carmakers to achieve a 60 per cent emissions reduction target by 2030 even with plug-in hybrids, meaning more all-electric models will be required.

“These targets should not come as a surprise, although they clearly require an accelerated shift,” Barclays auto analyst Kai Alexander Mueller said in a statement.

“Tightening the CO2 targets this much is a huge boost for Europe’s EV market,” added McKerracher. “The steady drumbeat of European automakers upping their EV commitments recently is probably an indication that they knew much tighter targets were coming.”