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Brussels plans to scrap 2035 combustion engine ban

Carmakers will be allowed to make a limited number of petrol and diesel-fuelled cars after deadline

Brussels plans to scrap the EU’s 2035 combustion engine ban, allowing carmakers to continue making a limited number of petrol and diesel-fuelled cars after the ban was meant to come into effect.

The original ban was due to force carmakers to cut their production of all combustion engine vehicles to zero by 2035.

But under a revision of the law to be proposed by the European Commission on Tuesday, European car manufacturers would be allowed 10 per cent of 2021 emissions levels as long as they meet certain conditions.

According to two officials involved in the talks, these may include using green steel to produce vehicles. The bloc may also allow EVs to make use of range extenders — small backup fuel engines — which were previously set to be banned from 2035.

But the conditions are still being discussed by policymakers ahead of the proposal’s presentation, and any change would have to be endorsed by EU governments and the European parliament before becoming law.

The EU’s combustion engine ban was seen as a totemic part of the bloc’s Green Deal climate law. Carmakers heavily lobbied against it, arguing that it would be impossible for them to meet because of the slow take-up of EVs and patchy charging infrastructure.

Governments including Germany and Italy have also been highly critical of the ban, with German Chancellor Friedrich Merz saying on Friday that he supported its easing. “The reality is that there will still be millions of combustion engine-based cars around the world in 2035, 2040 and 2050,” he said.

The EU’s move may increase pressure on Britain’s Labour government to follow suit, even as the UK has said it will not dilute its own plans to shift all new car sales to EVs from 2035.

Other countries such as Spain and France have supported enforcing the ban in the bloc. In a joint paper in October, Paris and Madrid said that the proposed move “must not be called into question” and that the future of the European car industry “will be electric”.

The two countries did, however, advocate for some flexibility such as “super credits” for cars made with European materials to ease pressure on the industry, which is also battling an influx of cheap Chinese EVs and high energy prices.

The commission was due to review the rules next year but brought forward the review under pressure from industry. It declined to comment on the talks.

The changes come even as sales of EVs in the EU have risen 26 per cent from January to October this year, accounting for 16 per cent of the new car market, according to European car industry body Acea.

The strong growth has been driven by more affordable models from both European and Chinese carmakers.

Environmental groups have argued that scrapping the 2035 ban now would widen the gap between the west and China, which has led the transition to EVs.

“Scrapping the ban would be a major mistake for Europe,” said Simone Tagliapietra, senior fellow at the Brussels-based think-tank Bruegel. ‘‘It would do little to help carmakers, as electrification is the future of the industry, and it would seriously undermine what is left of Europe’s reputation as a global climate leader.”

But manufacturers from BMW and Renault to Stellantis have all argued that the pace of transition has been slower than expected, while the industry is under additional pressure since EVs generate less profit than traditional combustion engine models.

Thomas Schäfer, chief executive of the Volkswagen brand, insisted that ‘‘the future is electric”, speaking in Barcelona on Friday. ‘‘On the way there, you need a bit more flexibility to make sure that you can deliver what customers actually want.”

EU accuses Canadian-Pakistani businessman of helping to provide ‘a substantial source of revenue’ to Moscow

The EU has imposed sanctions on the high-profile oil trader Murtaza Lakhani for allegedly assisting Russia’s Rosneft in exporting crude and other petroleum products in breach of western restrictions.

Lakhani is the best known trader to have been targeted by Brussels since Russia’s 2022 full-scale invasion of Ukraine.

The Canadian-Pakistani businessman made his name working for commodities company Glencore in Iraq in the 1990s and later became a key player in the export of oil from the semi-autonomous Iraqi region of Kurdistan.

He founded Mercantile & Maritime Group in 2015 and later invested in state-run Rosneft’s multibillion-dollar Arctic oil project in a joint venture with energy trader Vitol.

M&M and Vitol divested their stake in the project in 2022 in response to western sanctions against Russia. At the time, M&M said it had wound down all commercial activity with Russia in compliance with the west’s restrictions.

However, Lakhani has since faced allegations that he has remained involved with other companies set up to export Russian oil following the invasion.

The Financial Times last month reported that Lakhani had been involved in the supply of Russian oil with three companies incorporated in the United Arab Emirates since 2022. At the time, Lakhani’s lawyers said he did not “own or control” any of the businesses but had “provided them with ad hoc advice and assistance”.

In its decision, published on Monday, the EU accused 63-year-old Lakhani of involvement in an economic sector that provided “a substantial source of revenue” to the Russian government.

“Through his companies, he enables shipments and export of Russia oil, notably from the Russian state-owned oil company Rosneft,” the EU said in official documents. “In particular, Murtaza Lakhani controls vessels transporting crude oil or petroleum products, originating in Russia or being exported from Russia, while practising irregular and high-risk shipping practices.”

In the same package, the EU also sanctioned Azerbaijani oil trader Etibar Eyyub and two other individuals involved in a network of companies including United Arab Emirates-registered 2Rivers Group, which was previously known as Coral Energy.

Through this network Eyyub enables the export of Russian oil, notably from Rosneft, and controls “a large proportion of the vessels in Russia’s so-called ‘shadow fleet’,” the EU said. Eyyub was sanctioned by the UK in May. Eyyub could not immediately be reached for comment.

Lakhani criticised the EU decision to sanction him. “I do not own any vessels, either directly or indirectly, and consider the basis for these measures to be unfounded,” he said in a written statement sent to the FT.

However, he also sought to distance M&M from the designation, stating that his companies were not named in the EU measures and that those businesses would continue operations as normal.

“I will be stepping down from all managerial positions within all companies owned by myself and will undertake a detailed review to ensure full compliance with all applicable regulations,” he said.

Lakhani has continued to travel to Russia since the start of the Ukraine war, regularly attending the annual St Petersburg International Economic Forum.

In a video interview on the sidelines of the event in June, Lakhani said none of his companies were currently doing business with Russia but defended Moscow’s role in the global energy system.

“I see everybody. I still talk to everybody,” he said. “This country is the largest resource country in the world. Hampering it is . . . not a long-term goal for anybody. They will always need Russia.”

The new private fund will run on the Ethereum blockchain and be available to qualified investors

JPMorgan Chase JPM 0.36%increase; green up pointing triangle is joining the list of traditional financial firms seeking to bring blockchain technology to an investing staple: the money-market fund.

The banking giant’s $4 trillion asset-management arm is rolling out its first tokenized money-market fund on the Ethereum blockchain. JPMorgan will seed the fund with $100 million of its own capital, and then open it to outside investors on Tuesday.

Called My OnChain Net Yield Fund, or “MONY,” the private fund is supported by JPMorgan’s tokenization platform, Kinexys Digital Assets, and will be open to qualified investors, or individuals with at least $5 million in investments and institutions with a minimum of $25 million. The fund has a $1 million investment minimum.

Wall Street has waded deeper into tokenization since the passage of the Genius Act earlier this year. The landmark measure, which establishes a regulatory framework for tokenized dollars known as stablecoins, has unleashed a wave of efforts to tokenize everything from stocks and bonds to funds and real assets.

“There is a massive amount of interest from clients around tokenization,” said John Donohue, head of global liquidity at J.P. Morgan Asset Management. “And we expect to be a leader in this space and work with clients to make sure that we have a product lineup that allows them to have the choices that we have in traditional money-market funds on blockchain.”

Investors can subscribe to the MONY fund through the bank’s Morgan Money portal, a money-market investing platform. In exchange, they will receive digital tokens in their crypto wallets.

Like most money-market funds, JPMorgan’s MONY holds baskets of relatively safe short-term debt securities that usually yield more than bank deposits. It pays interest and accrues dividends daily. Investors can subscribe and redeem shares using cash or USDC, the stablecoin issued by Circle Internet Group.

Money-market funds, an investing stalwart since the 1970s, have grown more popular this past year. Assets in money funds total about $7.7 trillion, up from $6.9 trillion at the start of 2025, according to the Investment Company Institute. Meanwhile, the total market capitalization of all stablecoins has grown to more than $300 billion, according to CoinGecko.

Tokenized money-market funds have become an attractive offering for crypto investors because they allow holders to earn a yield while their assets remain entirely on the blockchain. This solves a previous dilemma where investors typically held large amounts of idled cash in stablecoins, which traditionally don’t pass on interest income to holders.

For fund managers, tokenization can help cut costs and reduce the time it takes to settle transactions. Some tokenized money-market funds are accepted as collateral on several crypto exchanges. And proponents say such offerings can help traditional asset managers attract new clients in the digital-assets space.

JPMorgan’s expansion into tokenization is the latest move in a growing trend initiated by several major asset managers, including BlackRock, which operates the largest tokenized money-market fund with more than $1.8 billion in assets under management.

In July, Goldman Sachs and Bank of New York Mellon said they would partner to launch digital tokens that confer ownership of money-market funds managed by many of the biggest investment firms, including BlackRock and Fidelity Investments, as well as their own asset-management arms.

JPMorgan recently tokenized a private-equity fund on its blockchain platform for wealthy clients served by its private bank. And companies, including Robinhood, Kraken and Gemini, earlier this year launched tokenized stocks and exchange-traded funds for non-U.S. investors.

WhatsApp, Meta’s messaging app that millions of Indians rely on daily, is facing a critical moment in India as recent government directions threaten to disrupt how the platform works for everyday users and businesses.

Issued late last month and made public earlier this month, the directions ask certain app-based communication services to keep accounts continuously linked to an active SIM card and impose stricter controls on how the apps function across devices.

New Delhi says the measures are aimed at curbing rising cyber fraud in India, the world’s most populous nation. Digital advocacy groups, policy experts, and industry groups representing major digital platforms — including Meta — have warned, however, that the approach risks regulatory overreach and could disrupt legitimate use, especially in a country where WhatsApp has evolved into everyday infrastructure for personal communication and small-business commerce.

The directions, which app providers including Meta, Telegram, and Signal must comply with within 90 days of their issuance on November 28, require messaging apps to remain tied to the SIM card used at sign-up. The web and desktop versions of these apps also require users to log out every six hours and re-link their devices via a QR code to regain access.

“Mandatory continuous SIM–device binding and periodic logout ensure that every active account and web session is anchored to a live, KYC-verified SIM, restoring traceability of numbers used in phishing, investment, digital arrest, and loan scams,” the telecom ministry said in a press release earlier this month, adding that India suffered cyber-fraud losses exceeding ₹228 billion (about $2.5 billion) in 2024 alone.

The Indian government has clarified that the rules do not apply when the SIM remains in the device, and the user is roaming.

While the directions apply broadly to major instant messaging apps, their impact is likely to be felt most acutely by WhatsApp, which is used by more than 500 million people in India. The app’s adoption in India is also unusually deep. As much as 94% of WhatsApp’s Indian monthly user base opened the app daily in November, while 67% of WhatsApp Business users in the country did the same, according to Sensor Tower data shared with TechCrunch. By comparison, 59% of WhatsApp monthly users in the U.S. opened the app daily, alongside 57% for WhatsApp Business.

Many merchants in India rely on the WhatsApp Business app — a smartphone-based version of the service tailored for small enterprises — typically registering the account on a SIM-linked phone while handling customer conversations through WhatsApp’s web or desktop client on another device. Unlike larger companies that use WhatsApp’s Business APIs for automated, CRM-linked communication, these small businesses access their customers through WhatsApp Business and its companion web interface, meaning mandatory SIM binding and frequent forced logouts could break workflows for order-taking, support, and customer engagement.

The potential disruption in India comes as WhatsApp has been steadily expanding its multi-device and companion-device capabilities, allowing users and businesses to stay logged in across phones, browsers, and devices without relying on a single active smartphone.

Rapid expansion to deep entrenchment

The directions come as WhatsApp is undergoing a significant shift in India, its biggest market, with growth increasingly driven by retaining existing users rather than rapidly expanding its new user base.

WhatsApp’s monthly active users in India on mobile devices are up 6% year-over-year in the fourth quarter to date, even as downloads have fallen nearly 49%, per Sensor Tower data shared with TechCrunch. Compared with late 2022, WhatsApp’s monthly active users in India are up 24%, while downloads are down 14% over the same period, the market intelligence firm said.

“It could be fair to say that user (MAU) growth for WhatsApp in India across the past few years has been driven more by retention (successfully re-engaging existing or previous users) than acquiring new users,” said Abraham Yousef, senior insights analyst at Sensor Tower.

Data from Appfigures shows WhatsApp Business has consistently recorded more estimated first-time installs than WhatsApp Messenger in India since early 2024, reflecting how growth has increasingly been driven by merchant adoption rather than broad-based consumer expansion.

Part of that pattern reflects how WhatsApp is used in India, said Randy Nelson, head of insights at Appfigures. It is common for merchants to maintain separate WhatsApp identities for personal and customer communication, often enabled by dual-SIM phones, while a single business can generate multiple installs across staff and shop devices.

Sensor Tower data points in the same direction. WhatsApp Business monthly active users in India were still growing year over year in late 2025 and are up more than 130% compared with 2021, far outpacing WhatsApp Messenger’s roughly 34% growth over the same period, the market intelligence firm’s data estimates.

While overall engagement remains higher on WhatsApp — with Indian users opening the app daily and spending an average of 38 minutes a day in November, compared with 27 minutes on WhatsApp Business — the gap looks different in the U.S., where users spent about 23 minutes a day on WhatsApp and 27 minutes on WhatsApp Business, Sensor Tower estimates show.

India’s directions raise “serious questions of technical feasibility”

In a statement last week, industry body Broadband India Forum (BIF), whose members include Meta, said the measures could result in “material inconvenience and service disruption on ordinary users,” adding that they raise “serious questions of technical feasibility.”

The directions hinge on a new and still-contested classification of Telecommunication Identifier User Entities (TIUEs) under India’s telecom cybersecurity rules, said Kazim Rizvi, founding director of New Delhi-based public policy think tank The Dialogue, effectively placing messaging apps within a telecom framework — a shift from their traditional regulation under the country’s IT Act — through executive directions rather than formal legislation.

“The directions derive their power not from statute but from delegated legislation,” Rizvi told TechCrunch. “Moreover, the lack of public consultations or technical working groups risks creating compliance friction without addressing the underlying fraud vectors.”

India’s telecom ministry did not respond to a request for comments.

For now, companies including Meta have limited room to challenge the directions in court, according to tech policy experts.

Challenging the directions would typically require showing either that they exceed the scope of the underlying law or that they violate constitutional protections, said Dhruv Garg, a tech policy advisor and partner at the Indian Governance and Policy Project — a high bar that may be difficult to meet in this case.

Meta declined to comment on this article.