Italy could ban the sale of all fossil-fuelled cars by 2040, following the example set by other European countries according to two committees in the Italian Senate.
The environment and public labour commissions have proposed that the government evaluate a potential ban, as part of a package of measures to reduce emissions.
The proposal also aims to support the uptake of electric vehicles. The government should develop a system of power tariffs to develop e-mobility and draw up rules to allow its participation in the power markets, the two commissions said. It should also define an action plan to take electric cars to 3pc of the market within the next 5 years, they said.
Italy's energy regulator Aeegsi authorised the launch of pilot projects to test the participation of new technologies in the ancillary market service (MSD) in May and national grid operator Terna has recently presented a project on distributed generation. Electric vehicles could potentially provide storage capacities to the grid and help integrate more renewable energy but policies will need to be drawn up to ensure that vehicles are incentivised not to charge at peak time and make it attractive to engage in power storage schemes.
The two senate commissions also said that the new national energy strategy (SEN), which includes electric mobility and energy efficiency, should include targets for 2050. The strategy is currently under public consultation until the end of August although the presidents of the chamber of deputies' environment and industry commissions, Ermete Realacci and Guglielmo Epifani, have asked to extend the consultation until 15 September.
The commissions said they wanted to renew and reduce the national vehicle fleet and reduce car usage. In almost all Italian regions, around 60pc of commutes to work are made by car and this should be reduced, the commissions said.
