Car brand BMW has blamed the lack of "framework conditions" in less developed parts of the world for its reluctance to replace fossil-fuel cars with electric vehicles.
The company refused to sign a multilateral deal presented at COP26 this week, which saw major automotive manufacturers including Mercedes-Benz, Volvo and Ford commit to selling only electric vehicles (EVs) by 2040, in a bid to limit global warming to 1.5 degrees Celcius.
BMW will not consider similar measures, said the company's head of sustainability strategy Thomas Becker, until countries like Italy, Romania and the Czech Republic have scaled up their EV-charging infrastructure. "The job is done in the Netherlands and Norway, so these markets will be fully electric and we will only sell electric cars here," he told Dezeen.
"But we won't decide today that we are sure that the guys in Italy will do their job properly."
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