The government is due to announce shortly that new petrol and diesel cars and vans will be banned from 2040. The measure is part of plans to tackle the UK’s air pollution problems. It mirrors the approach being taken by France and other parts of Europe. While tackling air pollution is laudable, the move looks set to throw the UK’s petrol industry into chaos.
The price of clean air
Clean air is obviously a good thing. However, achieving it could have costly economic implications at a time when the UK economy needs careful handling. Car manufacturers can easily adapt to producing electric and hybrid cars. Many already plan to do so, with BMW being the latest to announce its plans for fully electric vehicles (in this case Minis). Little has been said though, of what will happen to the petrol retail industry when the number of electric vehicles on the UK’s roads rises steeply.
Just under 45 billion litres of road fuel is sold in the UK every year. That works out at around 77 million litres of diesel and 45 million litres of petrol per day. 2.69 million cars were registered in the UK in 2016, the vast majority of which were petrol and diesel models. The sudden disappearance of more than 2.5 million customers per year, when all those buying new cars purchase electric models, could very quickly destroy the petrol industry as we know it. If the government has considered this angle, it’s certainly keeping quiet about it thus far.
What about other vehicle types?
The government has also been conspicuously quiet when it comes to plans for other classes of vehicles. Lorries and buses contribute plenty of nitrogen dioxide to our air, yet the government seems to be pushing the responsibility to tackle those out to local authorities.
Environment Secretary Michael Gove has stated, “What we’re saying to local authorities is come up with an imaginative solution to these proposals.” This puts the ball firmly in the court of local councils when it comes to tackling pollution from public transport. The government will dish out some £200m in funding to those local authorities, which will need to focus on tackling the worst polluted roads through measures such as making buses less polluting, changing road layouts and re-shaping traffic flows.
While it’s good to see the government finally on the brink of announcing its plans to tackle air pollution, PetrolPrices can’t help but think that it is missing a trick by ignoring recently announced technological advances relating to the cleanliness of diesel.
Could it be that the emissions testing scandal vilified diesel to such an extent that the government is unwilling to shout about developments such as Continental’s Super Clean Electrified Diesel technology, which reduces real world emissions by some 60%? Surely it would be more sensible to make it compulsory to retrofit super diesel technology into all diesel cars by 2025, for example. Such a plan could provide a serious head-start on tackling air pollution, with other measures still able to follow in due course.
What’s missing from the government’s plans?
Glaringly absent from the government’s plans is the much-anticipated diesel scrappage scheme. Ministers are believed to be due to consider such a scheme in the autumn, but any firm commitment to do so has been lacking. The possibility of local council diesel scrappage schemes has also been mentioned – a clear sign that the government wants to distance itself from paying any kind of compensation to diesel drivers who feel let down by the U-turn in approach to their vehicles.
Also in doubt are plans for ‘clean air zones’ within cities. When pressed on the issue of charging drivers of high polluting vehicles, Michael Gove commented,
“I don’t believe that it is necessary to bring in charging, but we will work with local authorities in order to determine what the best approach is.”
Again, it seems that central government is keen to sidestep the issue and push it out to local councils to deal with. Could it be that, even with the pressure to produce detailed plans to tackle air pollution by the 31 July deadline, and the announcement of plans to ban new diesel and petrol cars by 2040, the government is still unwilling to tackle the issue head on?
Do you think of the government’s plan to ban petrol and diesel cars and vans by 2040 is the right move? Or should there be more of an effort to embrace newer, cleaner technologies to reduce emissions instead? Let us know what you think in the comments.
Well involving local governments can’t be a bad thing as the more people involved the greater the amount of information and ideas can be processed. This will save on setting up a separate department which will be costly with no productive outcome in that nothing is being manufactured to sell on.
It’s good the government are wanting to do something about pollution but they don’t say how many extra power stations will be needed to supply enough electricity to charge millions of vehicles.
Nothing wrong with reducing pollution but with so much being invested in cleaner and leaner running diesel and petrol engines, along with advances being made in both fuel and hybrid technology, it’s quite a sweeping statement and doesn’t seem to take this into account.
Isn’t this about the time that we’ve been told for years we are going to run out of fossil fuel?
If you are waiting for something worth hearing from Michael Gove, don’t hold your breath.
It is clear this is a knee jerk response to EU legislation. The future ofALL transport needs a fully thought through plan including power generation transition timetable (not a deadline) using all technologies. Until this is done chaos will prevail with a major negative effect on our economy.
The government are fantacist how will the revenue from oil workers a d petrol and diesel be replaced and what about the poor people who have to travel miles to work and cant afford electric cars who work un sociable hours and have to be in work before public transport starts to operate the government should consult with real people and come back with a workable solution
I am sorry to be dismissive of this article, but I should have thought that it is pretty obvious what the government is doing by putting in place a ban on new car sales of petrol and diesel cars after 2040. That is, after all, 23 years away and Car Manufacturers are already planning Electric Only Vehicles to be in production well before that date. They know that Public Opinion around most of the world is already well in favour of moving technology in this direction.
So, the Government for once, seems to be trying to box clever on this issue. By putting in a ban by 2040, the situation for cars and light vans will have progressed so far by then, that there will be very few petrol and diesel vehicles left to worry about.
Yes, there is the Petro-Chemical Industry and it’s Retail arm to consider. There will be, clearly, very serious changes there, but over a period of twenty three years that industry can adjust without causing too much pain and a lot will change through changes in work practices and natural wastage. But please remember that the Petrol Companies are very big multi-billion pound industries, they will already be aware of these changes coming internationally and they will not want to be losing profits or highly skilled staff so, they will already be considering diversification and those changes will come to the fore in due course over the coming years.
As for lorries and buses and other heavy vehicles, I have no doubt that these Vehicle Manufacturers are trying to develop vehicles that will be much cleaner by some method or other and we will begin to see these in due course of time as well.
If I am shocked about anything, it is that our so called Government appear, on the face of it, to have thought this issue through, and come up with a time table that will mean that Government and, therefore the Tax Payer, will have little to do. This will be because Public Opinion will have forced the issue on industry well before Government will have to deal with anything that may cost money. If that works, then they have been, for once, very clever !!
I am looking forwards to government resupplying the British army with electric vehicles. The RAF and the Navy too, or are they exempt. Imagine no noise at airports with electric planes. Half measures again I think, The loss of fuel taxes, more unemployment with fuel station closures, Sounds like a whole load of fun and games to me.
How else are we going to clean up our cities which are getting bigger. Local authorities are already trying by introducing trams etc. Electric buses are being trialled. Electric taxis are under development in extreme location.
Nobody has been concerned at the huge number of ‘petrol’ stations closed in the last 20 or so years because we want cheap fuel. What about all the out of city jobs lost?
We might need more power stations but many are now being fuelled with ‘sustainable’ fuel.
There won’t be any Volvo petrol or diesel after 2019 except perhaps for hybrid. BMW have just announced the electric mini from Crowley. Other manufacturers will surely follow suit.
So by 2040 there will not be many if any petrol/diesel cars left, so easy for government, and they won’t actually have to do much, others than encourage businesses, councils etc to install charging points.
Who is gonna pay for the electricity to charge the car up? Where are we gonna get the extra electricity from? How are we gonna generate those extra power to power up the vehicles for those millions of ppl who uses the cars for work?
And yet another part of Agenda 21 falls into place or as it’s called right now The 2030 Agenda, WE have to stop this & we have to stop this NOW!
I think the Government is in cloud cuckoo land – where is the extra electricity coming from? As for a snippit I saw on TV about how much cheaper it was to charge up electric cars – it certainly won’t be when the Government suddenly realise how much revenue they’re losing in VAT on petrol and diesel! If our local Council hadn’t closed off so many roads, narrowing chicanes and road bumps, there wouldn’t be the congestion and pollution there is now! How is it sensible to put a bus stop in the middle of a road narrowing chicane – ludicrous, but that’s what our Council has done!
Has anybody given any thought as to where the government are going to get the billions of pounds that at the present time they receive from taxes on petrol and diesel each year when there’s no more petrol or diesel to be taxed.
Vote Jim Hacker for No 10 !
Once again the private motorist is being used as a cash cow. What about all the hgv’s, coaches and taxis, don’t they generate any pollution. And of course we are going to get a third runway at Heathrow so can expect 1200 aircraft a day spraying kerosene /avgas fumes over the capital. The greatest emission from aircraft is on take of and landing and Heathrow already charges a pollution levy to aircraft using it.
All elctric cars are a bad idea. There is not the infrastructure in place to charge them and if you want fast charging points it means laying new 3 phase mains cables everywhere also we have not got the generating capacity. We are already having to import power from France to cover th shortfall at peak times and in a few years time there will be even fewer power stations as the older nuclear and fosil fuel one reach end of life. One figure I read, was that the equivalent of 12 nuclear power stations would have to be built by 2040 to cope with the demand. Wind, solar and even tidal is all well and good but how do you store the electricity for when the wind does not blow etc? I recently passed a substation near Doncaster, and was amazed to see rows of diesel generators being installed presumably to cope with the lack of capcity. No, hybrid or preferably hydrogen powered cars are the way to go.
L
As far as I can see from what is being indicated is that all NEW cars will have to be electric by 2040. So I am assuming if you have a petrol or diesel car in 2040, you will still be able to run it after the deadline, so therefore, looking around the roads today, there will still be petrol and diesel cars running around after 2040, possibly for the next 20 odd years after that date. People may well hold onto their cars longer than normal, especially if the electric infrastructure is not in place. And if your a classic car enthusiast, 50 years or more. Am I right?
One thing is certain, there may be no tax to pay at present on electric cars with low emissions and under the value of £40000 but you can bet your bottom dollar that in the not too distant future there will be a tax levied on electric vehicles whether they are low emission or not and the value will not come into it. They will have to replace the vehicle excise duty with something or how will they pay for the upkeep (ahem!) of the roads?
I agree with the comment that hybrid or hydrogen is the way to go – preferably hydrogen as this is absolutely zero pollution but, as with electric, there will have to be an enormous amount of money spent in recharge points. Also, have they managed to produce electricity without creating any pollution? I saw on TV last night that solar and wind turbine is going to produce enough energy to fuel the electric cars but I don’t think this will be feasible in the UK.
Should the Government decide to make lorries electric then we can expect a HUGE increase in prices for anything we buy and JIT deliveries will become a thing of the past as lorries have to stop and recharge every 150/200 miles!
Trains are already being electrified to a point but as the Government have decided to postpone/block/do away with the electrification of the Transpennine Rail Route, we are still going to have heavy pollution. As for planes!!
In 23 years many PM’s and governments will have come and gone, petrochemical companies will have had the chance to silence the eco lobby, the only way petrol/diesel cars will disappear is when we run out of fossil fuels. How else will the government run tanks, ships etc.?
A few people have mentioned air travel and pollution. No one has mentioned shipping. I seem to remember about ten years ago an article describing how 16 (yes 16) cruise liners produced as much pollution as EVERY vehice on the roads at that time, their engines are enormous and run on something akin to tar. HMS Hood went on a world tour between the wars and did about 10 feet (3mts) to the gallon! How much pollution will the new aircraft carriers produce? Will the Army have battery driven tanks? The new elecric Mini will have power provided courtesy of Germany, brought over here by polluting shipping?
Hammer the private motorist, as usual, were easy meat!
Sorry, the article claimed that 16 cruise liners produced as much pollution as every vehicle on the roads IN THE WORLD!
Does anyone really think that the giant oil companies are going to let this happen.
My guess is that they are already lobbying hard.
What of the attitude of the the oil producing nations such as Saudi Arabia?
I would like us to be free of Arab oil but will it really happen?
Have they considered the small car producers like Morgan, Caterham and a revived TVR.
Will they just be allowed to go to the wall?
This proposal will stop all research into cleaner internal combustion engines.
Have they thought about the infrastructure?
If every filling station converted all their pumps to electric charging points, it wouldn’t go anywhere near to meeting demand. Why not? Because you can fill your car with fuel in 5 minutes.
How long will it take to re-charge your batteries. 5 hours perhaps!!
Then there is the cost of batteries and the cost of replacing them. It might be cheaper to scrap the car!!
It sounds to me a typical Tory ‘back of an envelope’ idea.
They are always floating madcap ideas to see if anyone reacts.
Remember ‘middle lane hogging’? Most people think that it became an offence, but it didn’t because of difficulty in defining it and enforcing it.
I see a u-turn on the horizon.
What about all the revenue from tax on fuel the government will lose? They aren’t going to write that off are they? We will be taxed to the hilt on something else, probably our electricity bills to pay for charging our vehicles up!
Far more effective to electrify trains; run buses on used cooking oil, or go back to the ‘trolley ‘ buses and improve public transport. Oh sorry, that would mean the cost would not be bore by the motorist!
Why is there so little talked about ‘green fuel’ in the U.K.: France has been running its buses on sunflower oil for over 30 years!
I’m disabled and have a diesel estate to carry my wheelchair. I’ve got 3 years to find a solution and live very near the M4 too so I’ll get that premium too unless they exempt disabled badges?
There isn’t a viable electric solution to an estate and I can’t see one on the horizon in the next 3 years. There is the Volvo xc90 but my budget is no where near the cost of that one or any similar.
What will happen to motorbikes?
What will happen to classic cars?
Has anybody thought how they are going to charge all these cars . Will it be a charge garage charge points with 100 plus cars on charge at a time where do we have the space for car parks like that if you think you can charge up at home . What about millions of people don’t have parking at home on a driveway or parking at work . Will we see cables running from houses out to the street . Normal charge takes 8-10 hours fast charge for about 80% about 30 minutes . At present we are queuing for up to 10 minutes to fill with petrol with about 10 cars on the forecourt . Fast charge is not good for batterys . Think about it !
Batteries need copper and zinc as well as the casing materials which are a finite resource.
Where will it all come from, bearing in mind the transportation costs.
Also, batteries wear out, where are the recycling and dumping sites going to be?
Electric cars that I have seen have very little space for luggage.
The area in which I live often has power cuts,, so everyone coming home from work and plugging in to charge cars for work next day, will not be able to get to work, bearing in mind the poor public transport links in the area.
I like the comment about electric cables snaking across pavements in areas where there are no drives or garages. Presumably the car owner will have to pay extra insurance to cover claims for injuries caused by tripping over these cables.
I too saw the brief TV snippet of the proud owner of an electric car smugly plugging in his car to a power point, and claiming it cost less than £2 to charge his car. You can bet the Government will tax that electricity by making us pay for smart meters to record how much we use to run the vehicles.
Finally, how big will lorry trailers have to be to give them a reasonable range of mileage for essential journeys? I can foresee depots for connecting charged trailers of batteries scattered throughout the country in order to keep vital transport running. Drop off the discharged unit, couple on a new one.
And who is going to travel in an airplane powered by electricity? Dream on…!
Good thing hydrogen can be used to power engines, but how far can any vehicle go before needing a refill, and will current petrol stations be converted to supply it?
Let’s hope someone in Government can get a grip of joined up thinking very quickly. Otherwise the workers of the future are in for a hard time. I am glad I know I will not be alive to see the chaos that is going to ensue.
This is clearly a PR exercise as the Government must surely be aware that diesel engines are already on the road that emit ZERO NO2. My Audi A4 Ultra is 2 years old and uses the Adblue technology – indeed the engine will not run without it – so NO2 is totally eliminated. Furthermore CO2 emissions are below 100 g/km – so no Tax to pay :). All the Government have to do, if they are serious about air quality, is tell car makers that all diesels must be to this standard from next year. That would make a huge difference BEFORE 2040..
Quite simple. I will remove the diesel engine from my vehicle and replace it with a steam engine and a boiler. I will then be able to burn the surplus of plastic bottles the tree huggers are screaming about. Two problems splved, simple.
Having just read an article on this very subject on ‘Oilpro’ website it would appear that the hype is a bit off target..
Mr Gove apparently said ‘conventional’ petrol and diesel vans would ‘no longer be sold’ This allows for Hybrid diesel and Hybrid petrol cars. There was no mention of ‘Plug in’ hybrids, which like purely Electric would require a massive increase in available power at peak times and the ‘re-wiring of all homes to allow for batteries to be charged. This could be interesting if you live in a tower block. Also the ‘re-wiring’ of the country would cause an unprecedented amount of pollution in mining and preparing the materials for cabling. Also the big lie of ‘Zero Emissions’ which claims EV is clean would be exploded by the massive increase in power production to support the system and of course there will be a massive tax hike if you use anything other than ‘green energy’ for your EV.
With over twenty years to implement it could be doable but that’s up to the car manufacturers to produce vehicles comparable to present day cars. I see recharging as an issue in the short term.
As far as charging vehicles in town for emissions in towns and cities could it just be a way of producing income and what if you live in town with such a vehicle??
Well involving local governments can’t be a bad thing as the more people involved the greater the amount of information and ideas can be processed. This will save on setting up a separate department which will be costly with no productive outcome in that nothing is being manufactured to sell on.
It’s good the government are wanting to do something about pollution but they don’t say how many extra power stations will be needed to supply enough electricity to charge millions of vehicles.
Nothing wrong with reducing pollution but with so much being invested in cleaner and leaner running diesel and petrol engines, along with advances being made in both fuel and hybrid technology, it’s quite a sweeping statement and doesn’t seem to take this into account.
Isn’t this about the time that we’ve been told for years we are going to run out of fossil fuel?
If you are waiting for something worth hearing from Michael Gove, don’t hold your breath.
It is clear this is a knee jerk response to EU legislation. The future ofALL transport needs a fully thought through plan including power generation transition timetable (not a deadline) using all technologies. Until this is done chaos will prevail with a major negative effect on our economy.
The government are fantacist how will the revenue from oil workers a d petrol and diesel be replaced and what about the poor people who have to travel miles to work and cant afford electric cars who work un sociable hours and have to be in work before public transport starts to operate the government should consult with real people and come back with a workable solution
I am sorry to be dismissive of this article, but I should have thought that it is pretty obvious what the government is doing by putting in place a ban on new car sales of petrol and diesel cars after 2040. That is, after all, 23 years away and Car Manufacturers are already planning Electric Only Vehicles to be in production well before that date. They know that Public Opinion around most of the world is already well in favour of moving technology in this direction.
So, the Government for once, seems to be trying to box clever on this issue. By putting in a ban by 2040, the situation for cars and light vans will have progressed so far by then, that there will be very few petrol and diesel vehicles left to worry about.
Yes, there is the Petro-Chemical Industry and it’s Retail arm to consider. There will be, clearly, very serious changes there, but over a period of twenty three years that industry can adjust without causing too much pain and a lot will change through changes in work practices and natural wastage. But please remember that the Petrol Companies are very big multi-billion pound industries, they will already be aware of these changes coming internationally and they will not want to be losing profits or highly skilled staff so, they will already be considering diversification and those changes will come to the fore in due course over the coming years.
As for lorries and buses and other heavy vehicles, I have no doubt that these Vehicle Manufacturers are trying to develop vehicles that will be much cleaner by some method or other and we will begin to see these in due course of time as well.
If I am shocked about anything, it is that our so called Government appear, on the face of it, to have thought this issue through, and come up with a time table that will mean that Government and, therefore the Tax Payer, will have little to do. This will be because Public Opinion will have forced the issue on industry well before Government will have to deal with anything that may cost money. If that works, then they have been, for once, very clever !!
I am looking forwards to government resupplying the British army with electric vehicles. The RAF and the Navy too, or are they exempt. Imagine no noise at airports with electric planes. Half measures again I think, The loss of fuel taxes, more unemployment with fuel station closures, Sounds like a whole load of fun and games to me.
How else are we going to clean up our cities which are getting bigger. Local authorities are already trying by introducing trams etc. Electric buses are being trialled. Electric taxis are under development in extreme location.
Nobody has been concerned at the huge number of ‘petrol’ stations closed in the last 20 or so years because we want cheap fuel. What about all the out of city jobs lost?
We might need more power stations but many are now being fuelled with ‘sustainable’ fuel.
There won’t be any Volvo petrol or diesel after 2019 except perhaps for hybrid. BMW have just announced the electric mini from Crowley. Other manufacturers will surely follow suit.
So by 2040 there will not be many if any petrol/diesel cars left, so easy for government, and they won’t actually have to do much, others than encourage businesses, councils etc to install charging points.
Who is gonna pay for the electricity to charge the car up? Where are we gonna get the extra electricity from? How are we gonna generate those extra power to power up the vehicles for those millions of ppl who uses the cars for work?
And yet another part of Agenda 21 falls into place or as it’s called right now The 2030 Agenda, WE have to stop this & we have to stop this NOW!
I think the Government is in cloud cuckoo land – where is the extra electricity coming from? As for a snippit I saw on TV about how much cheaper it was to charge up electric cars – it certainly won’t be when the Government suddenly realise how much revenue they’re losing in VAT on petrol and diesel! If our local Council hadn’t closed off so many roads, narrowing chicanes and road bumps, there wouldn’t be the congestion and pollution there is now! How is it sensible to put a bus stop in the middle of a road narrowing chicane – ludicrous, but that’s what our Council has done!
Has anybody given any thought as to where the government are going to get the billions of pounds that at the present time they receive from taxes on petrol and diesel each year when there’s no more petrol or diesel to be taxed.
Vote Jim Hacker for No 10 !
Once again the private motorist is being used as a cash cow. What about all the hgv’s, coaches and taxis, don’t they generate any pollution. And of course we are going to get a third runway at Heathrow so can expect 1200 aircraft a day spraying kerosene /avgas fumes over the capital. The greatest emission from aircraft is on take of and landing and Heathrow already charges a pollution levy to aircraft using it.
All elctric cars are a bad idea. There is not the infrastructure in place to charge them and if you want fast charging points it means laying new 3 phase mains cables everywhere also we have not got the generating capacity. We are already having to import power from France to cover th shortfall at peak times and in a few years time there will be even fewer power stations as the older nuclear and fosil fuel one reach end of life. One figure I read, was that the equivalent of 12 nuclear power stations would have to be built by 2040 to cope with the demand. Wind, solar and even tidal is all well and good but how do you store the electricity for when the wind does not blow etc? I recently passed a substation near Doncaster, and was amazed to see rows of diesel generators being installed presumably to cope with the lack of capcity. No, hybrid or preferably hydrogen powered cars are the way to go.
L
As far as I can see from what is being indicated is that all NEW cars will have to be electric by 2040. So I am assuming if you have a petrol or diesel car in 2040, you will still be able to run it after the deadline, so therefore, looking around the roads today, there will still be petrol and diesel cars running around after 2040, possibly for the next 20 odd years after that date. People may well hold onto their cars longer than normal, especially if the electric infrastructure is not in place. And if your a classic car enthusiast, 50 years or more. Am I right?
One thing is certain, there may be no tax to pay at present on electric cars with low emissions and under the value of £40000 but you can bet your bottom dollar that in the not too distant future there will be a tax levied on electric vehicles whether they are low emission or not and the value will not come into it. They will have to replace the vehicle excise duty with something or how will they pay for the upkeep (ahem!) of the roads?
I agree with the comment that hybrid or hydrogen is the way to go – preferably hydrogen as this is absolutely zero pollution but, as with electric, there will have to be an enormous amount of money spent in recharge points. Also, have they managed to produce electricity without creating any pollution? I saw on TV last night that solar and wind turbine is going to produce enough energy to fuel the electric cars but I don’t think this will be feasible in the UK.
Should the Government decide to make lorries electric then we can expect a HUGE increase in prices for anything we buy and JIT deliveries will become a thing of the past as lorries have to stop and recharge every 150/200 miles!
Trains are already being electrified to a point but as the Government have decided to postpone/block/do away with the electrification of the Transpennine Rail Route, we are still going to have heavy pollution. As for planes!!
In 23 years many PM’s and governments will have come and gone, petrochemical companies will have had the chance to silence the eco lobby, the only way petrol/diesel cars will disappear is when we run out of fossil fuels. How else will the government run tanks, ships etc.?
A few people have mentioned air travel and pollution. No one has mentioned shipping. I seem to remember about ten years ago an article describing how 16 (yes 16) cruise liners produced as much pollution as EVERY vehice on the roads at that time, their engines are enormous and run on something akin to tar. HMS Hood went on a world tour between the wars and did about 10 feet (3mts) to the gallon! How much pollution will the new aircraft carriers produce? Will the Army have battery driven tanks? The new elecric Mini will have power provided courtesy of Germany, brought over here by polluting shipping?
Hammer the private motorist, as usual, were easy meat!
Sorry, the article claimed that 16 cruise liners produced as much pollution as every vehicle on the roads IN THE WORLD!
Does anyone really think that the giant oil companies are going to let this happen.
My guess is that they are already lobbying hard.
What of the attitude of the the oil producing nations such as Saudi Arabia?
I would like us to be free of Arab oil but will it really happen?
Have they considered the small car producers like Morgan, Caterham and a revived TVR.
Will they just be allowed to go to the wall?
This proposal will stop all research into cleaner internal combustion engines.
Have they thought about the infrastructure?
If every filling station converted all their pumps to electric charging points, it wouldn’t go anywhere near to meeting demand. Why not? Because you can fill your car with fuel in 5 minutes.
How long will it take to re-charge your batteries. 5 hours perhaps!!
Then there is the cost of batteries and the cost of replacing them. It might be cheaper to scrap the car!!
It sounds to me a typical Tory ‘back of an envelope’ idea.
They are always floating madcap ideas to see if anyone reacts.
Remember ‘middle lane hogging’? Most people think that it became an offence, but it didn’t because of difficulty in defining it and enforcing it.
I see a u-turn on the horizon.
What about all the revenue from tax on fuel the government will lose? They aren’t going to write that off are they? We will be taxed to the hilt on something else, probably our electricity bills to pay for charging our vehicles up!
Far more effective to electrify trains; run buses on used cooking oil, or go back to the ‘trolley ‘ buses and improve public transport. Oh sorry, that would mean the cost would not be bore by the motorist!
Why is there so little talked about ‘green fuel’ in the U.K.: France has been running its buses on sunflower oil for over 30 years!
I’m disabled and have a diesel estate to carry my wheelchair. I’ve got 3 years to find a solution and live very near the M4 too so I’ll get that premium too unless they exempt disabled badges?
There isn’t a viable electric solution to an estate and I can’t see one on the horizon in the next 3 years. There is the Volvo xc90 but my budget is no where near the cost of that one or any similar.
What will happen to motorbikes?
What will happen to classic cars?
Has anybody thought how they are going to charge all these cars . Will it be a charge garage charge points with 100 plus cars on charge at a time where do we have the space for car parks like that if you think you can charge up at home . What about millions of people don’t have parking at home on a driveway or parking at work . Will we see cables running from houses out to the street . Normal charge takes 8-10 hours fast charge for about 80% about 30 minutes . At present we are queuing for up to 10 minutes to fill with petrol with about 10 cars on the forecourt . Fast charge is not good for batterys . Think about it !
Batteries need copper and zinc as well as the casing materials which are a finite resource.
Where will it all come from, bearing in mind the transportation costs.
Also, batteries wear out, where are the recycling and dumping sites going to be?
Electric cars that I have seen have very little space for luggage.
The area in which I live often has power cuts,, so everyone coming home from work and plugging in to charge cars for work next day, will not be able to get to work, bearing in mind the poor public transport links in the area.
I like the comment about electric cables snaking across pavements in areas where there are no drives or garages. Presumably the car owner will have to pay extra insurance to cover claims for injuries caused by tripping over these cables.
I too saw the brief TV snippet of the proud owner of an electric car smugly plugging in his car to a power point, and claiming it cost less than £2 to charge his car. You can bet the Government will tax that electricity by making us pay for smart meters to record how much we use to run the vehicles.
Finally, how big will lorry trailers have to be to give them a reasonable range of mileage for essential journeys? I can foresee depots for connecting charged trailers of batteries scattered throughout the country in order to keep vital transport running. Drop off the discharged unit, couple on a new one.
And who is going to travel in an airplane powered by electricity? Dream on…!
Good thing hydrogen can be used to power engines, but how far can any vehicle go before needing a refill, and will current petrol stations be converted to supply it?
Let’s hope someone in Government can get a grip of joined up thinking very quickly. Otherwise the workers of the future are in for a hard time. I am glad I know I will not be alive to see the chaos that is going to ensue.