Car emission standards in 2026: the EU and the US have split

Updated September 26, 2026 · 5 min read

In 2026 the two biggest regulatory blocs stopped pointing the same way. The European Union is tightening a binding fleet-average CO2 limit that falls to zero for new cars in 2035. The United States no longer sets a greenhouse gas standard for cars at all: in February 2026 the Environmental Protection Agency rescinded the finding its authority rested on and repealed every federal vehicle GHG rule with it. Both statements come from the regulators themselves, and they are dated below.

That divergence is the story of car emission standards right now, and it is easy to miss because the phrase covers two different regimes that are usually discussed as one.

Two regimes wearing the same name

“Emission standards” means one of two things depending on who is speaking.

Criteria pollutants — nitrogen oxides, particulate matter, carbon monoxide, hydrocarbons — are the health-related limits measured per vehicle. This is what Euro 6 and Euro 7 in Europe, and the EPA’s Tier standards in the United States, are about. A car either meets the limit or it cannot be sold.

Greenhouse gases — carbon dioxide, essentially — are regulated in Europe as a sales-weighted average across everything a manufacturer registers in a year, not per car. A maker can sell a large petrol SUV as long as enough low-emission cars sit alongside it in the same year’s fleet.

The distinction matters for reading any news story on this subject: a country can loosen one regime and leave the other untouched, and in 2026 that is exactly what happened.

The European Union: a fleet average heading to zero

EU CO2 rules run under Regulation (EU) 2019/631, which sets a fleet-wide target for the average CO2 of all new passenger cars registered in Europe. The European Environment Agency states the trajectory plainly:

• 2020-2024: 95 gCO2/km measured on the old NEDC cycle, equivalent to about 115.1 gCO2/km on WLTP
• 2025-2029: 93.6 gCO2/km
• 2030-2034: 49.5 gCO2/km
• From 2035: 0 gCO2/km

The last line is what people mean when they say the EU is “banning petrol cars in 2035”. It is not phrased as a ban on a technology; it is a fleet average of zero, which no combustion car can contribute to. The mechanism is a penalty on the manufacturer, not a prohibition on the buyer.

The measured result so far: average CO2 from new cars registered in Europe fell 28% between 2019 and 2023, then stayed flat in 2024 as the share of battery-electric cars slipped slightly. Almost all manufacturers met their binding targets in 2024, the year before the stricter 2025 figure began to apply.

What the 2035 line means in practice, and how it differs from a sales mandate, is set out in our page on zero-emission vehicle rules for 2035.

The United States: the federal CO2 standard is gone

On 12 February 2026 the EPA finalised the rescission of the 2009 Greenhouse Gas Endangerment Finding — the determination that greenhouse gases endanger public health and welfare, which was the prerequisite for regulating them under Section 202(a) of the Clean Air Act. Without it, the agency says it lacks statutory authority to set GHG standards for new motor vehicles, and it therefore repealed all federal greenhouse gas emission standards for light-, medium- and heavy-duty on-highway vehicles and engines.

In the EPA’s own words, manufacturers “no longer have any future obligations for the measurement, control, and reporting of GHG emissions for any highway engine and vehicle”, including model years built before the rule took effect.

Two boundaries are worth keeping straight, because the headline invites a wider reading than the rule supports. The action covers greenhouse gases only — the EPA states that it “does not affect regulations on any traditional air pollutants”, so the federal limits on nitrogen oxides, particulates and the rest still stand. And it removes an obligation rather than creating one: nothing in it prevents a manufacturer selling electric cars, or changes what the same model has to do to be legal in Europe.

What a buyer should take from the divergence

Car makers do not build one car per rulebook. A model sold in both markets is engineered once, to whichever constraint binds hardest, and from 2025 that is the European fleet target rather than anything federal in the United States. The practical consequence is that the European number continues to shape which powertrains appear in a model line, even for buyers who will never see a European road.

The second consequence is about what a headline figure tells you. A fleet-average rule says nothing about the car in front of you: it constrains the mix a manufacturer sells, not the emissions of any single model. If you want the figure for a specific car, the useful comparison is the whole fuel chain rather than the regulatory label — which is what well-to-wheel emissions measures, and what the “zero-emission” label does and does not cover explains.

What this page does not claim

This is a page about the two frameworks we can source directly from the regulator that runs them. China, Japan, India, the United Kingdom and others each operate their own CO2 or fuel-economy systems, with their own test cycles and their own timetables, and we do not publish figures for them that we have not read in a primary document. Where a number appears above, the document it came from is named at the foot of the page with the date we read it.

Frequently asked questions

Which car emission standard is strictest in 2026?

For CO2, the European Union, whose fleet-wide target for new cars is 93.6 gCO2/km for 2025-2029 and falls to zero in 2035. The United States has no federal vehicle greenhouse gas standard after February 2026. For traditional pollutants such as NOx and particulates both blocs still run per-vehicle limits.

Did the US ban electric cars or repeal pollution rules?

Neither. The EPA repealed the federal greenhouse gas standards for road vehicles and says the action “does not affect regulations on any traditional air pollutants”. Rules on nitrogen oxides, particulates and the other criteria pollutants are unchanged, and nothing in the rescission restricts what manufacturers may sell.

Is the EU’s 2035 target a ban on petrol cars?

It is a fleet-average CO2 target of zero for new cars from 2035, enforced through penalties on manufacturers whose registered fleet misses it. The practical effect on new-car showrooms is close to a ban; the legal mechanism is not one, and the distinction matters when the rule is reviewed.

Why is the EU number quoted two different ways?

Because the test cycle changed. The 2020-2024 target of 95 gCO2/km was set on the older NEDC procedure and is equivalent to roughly 115.1 gCO2/km measured on WLTP, which is the cycle in use today. Comparing an NEDC figure with a WLTP one without converting is the most common error in this subject.

Sources

European Environment Agency, CO2 emissions performance of new passenger cars in Europe (published 3 August 2026) — Regulation (EU) 2019/631 targets for 2020-2024, 2025-2029, 2030-2034 and 2035, the NEDC-to-WLTP equivalence, the 28% decline from 2019 to 2023 and the 2024 compliance position; retrieved 17 September 2026. US Environmental Protection Agency, Final Rule: Rescission of the Greenhouse Gas Endangerment Finding and Motor Vehicle Greenhouse Gas Emission Standards under the Clean Air Act — the 12 February 2026 date, the repeal of federal GHG standards for on-highway vehicles, and the statement that traditional air pollutant regulations are unaffected; retrieved 17 September 2026.

Written and edited by Muhammet Çay, Founder and Editor · LinkedIn · How we source and correct this site · Report an error

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