In a submission to the European Commission, Europe's main auto lobby said Brussels' current emission-reduction targets were "based on outdated premises and optimistic assumptions", and "no longer realistic to achieve".
"The current CO2 regulation has put in place a very rigid one-dimensional pathway," Sigrid de Vries, director general of the European Automobile Manufacturers' Association (ACEA) said, calling for reform.
The commission last month promised to fast-track a review of its plans to end combustion-engine vehicle sales, following pressure from the embattled auto sector. A proposal is expected for December.
The EU currently requires carmakers to progressively cut carbon emissions produced by new vehicles sold in the 27-country bloc, until new combustion-engine sales are completely phased out by 2035 -- under the threat of steep fines.
ACEA, which represents major manufacturers from BMW to Stellantis, on Wednesday laid out a series of desired changes that de Vries conceded would likely result in "more emissions" of planet warming gases but help a key industry.
"What you stand to benefit is a competitive, thriving auto industry," she told a press briefing.
They include giving carmakers CO2 credits for scrapping old cars and additional credits for selling small EVs, "to incentivise their production despite their very low margins", according to the text.
Cars running on renewable fuels, such as biofuels or synthetic fuels, should count as zero-emission -- a feat currently reserved for electric vehicles (EVs) -- ACEA said, envisaging a more favourable treatment also for plug-in hybrids.
And the group suggested manufacturers be allowed more time to meet an intermediate 2030 target, spreading the goal over five years.
Clean transport advocacy group T&E criticised the proposals as a "shopping list" of measures that would "destroy" a central pillar of EU industrial and climate policy.
If implemented, all together the changes would almost halve the share of EVs sold in 2035 to 52 percent of the total market, the group estimated.
"This position is a disgrace. It will completely undermine the investment certainty needed for Europe to catch up in the EV race," said T&E cars director Lucien Mathieu.
Road transport accounts for about 20 percent of total planet-warming emissions in Europe, and 61 percent of those come from cars' exhaust pipes, according to the EU.
The bloc aims to be climate-neutral by 2050 under an ambitious climate agenda that is increasingly under attack from industry and the political right.
Europe's auto sector employs 13 million people and accounts for about seven percent of the bloc's GDP but it has been hammered by fierce competition from China and a slower-than-expected shift to EVs.
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