Germany has thrown a spanner in the works of EU plans to ban the sale of internal combustion engine cars in the block by 2035. 

In a last minute move, Germany, backed by Italy, Poland and Bulgaria, blocked the final approval of a law that would mandate only zero-emission cars and vans being sold in the EU from 2035. The concern of the Berlin government is that the new rules take no account of the developments being made in synthetic, or e-fuels, which use a traditional combustion engine and have zero emission potential, as the manufacturing process extracts CO2 from the atmosphere. 

The move by Germany has delayed the final vote on the regulations, and EU and German officials are now in talks to find a suitable compromise.