Just when you thought ‘future-proof’ motoring meant going hybrid or all-electric, rumours have been leaked regarding the Governments ‘Road to Zero’ strategy, which is looking at banning the sales of certain new hybrids from 2040, along with diesel and unleaded.
Currently, there is no defined list or parameter regarding the ban, although it’s thought that Road to Zero will target plug-in hybrids that offer less than 50 miles of travel on electric power only, which would mean most of them on sale today.
In fact, it’s been estimated that 99% of the hybrid cars sold today would not be allowed under the proposed legislation.
Knee-jerk reaction
A recent study has described the UK’s air quality as a ‘national health emergency’, so it’s entirely possible that the ‘leaked’ proposals are to combat that. However, a statement from the Department of Transport states “it is categorically untrue that the Government is planning to ban the sale of hybrid (and plug-in hybrid) cars in the UK by 2040. The Road to Zero strategy is yet to be finalised and has not been agreed by ministers”.
As to the reality of the situation, it’s entirely possible that the Government could take this action, but is this more a question of being seen to do something, rather than looking to introduce heavy-hitting measures against cars?
Hybrid-powered cars have been around for decades, the first true hybrid dates back as far as the 1900’s (Lohner-Porsche Elektromobil), but in more recent times, the car that started it all was the Toyota Prius, introduced back in 1997.
The purpose of hybrid
Putting aside performance cars, a hybrid vehicle has been designed for one purpose only, and that is to offer something ‘greener’ for the average motorist. If you wanted economy, there are dozens of cars that will outperform a hybrid in terms of pure MPG, and some cynics may say that manufacturers are jumping on the bandwagon in response to the CAFE legislation (Corporate Average Fuel Economy).
Hybrids have been designed to travel only short distances on electric power but making a vehicle travel further than 50 miles on battery power alone is easy, just ask Elon Musk. The technology is available, manufacturers are already looking to extend the ranges of most of their hybrids anyway, so is this shocking headline anything more than the British Government beating their chest and proving their green commitment to the world?
Mike Hawes, Chief Executive of the SMMT says “unrealistic targets and misleading messaging on bans will only undermine our efforts to realise this future, confusing consumers and wreaking havoc on the new car market and the thousands of jobs it supports”. Surely the number of industry experts who are warning the government on this matter should be raising flags to the Environment Secretary? At this time of change, the car industry needs stability as the transition to an electric world starts.
Long-term effect
Technology changes day-to-day, the legislation does have to keep pace to a degree, but announcements such as this “Hybrids will be banned!” effectively means nothing today. We have another two-decades before we face the ban, isn’t it likely that as a natural progression, hybrids will be able to travel further than 50-miles?
The bigger question should be regarding infrastructure, and how that will affect us. It’s clear that fossil fuels are on the way out, motorists are slowly coming to terms with electrification – just 5.2% of all new vehicle sales this year have been electric, although that number is steadily rising, but while we will be encouraged to go green, just what are the logistics?
Over two-thirds of households in London have no access to off-street parking, being able to access a charging spot could be more difficult than parking outside your own home, and while there are new technologies in development, who foots the bill?
Charging an electric car in public costs around £10 for an 80% charge on average, including subscription costs, connection fees and monthly recurring fees. It is a necessity for an electric vehicle to have an overnight plugin spot as using the public speed charging points can be harmful for the battery with long-term use.
How will this affect you?
Until an official announcement has been made, there is very little that we can do with the information. Whether the Government do/do not ban certain hybrids in 2040, it’s unlikely that any car purchase decision made today will impact any driver in 22 years time.
With that said, gaining a better understanding of where the legislation is heading could sway your purchasing choices later on, keeping abreast of the situation is as much as you can do right now, and we’ll be updating this article when more information is released, so keep checking back.
The pace at which technology moves and changes means that banning hybrids that can’t reach 50-miles is a complete non-event, but given that Government can introduce legislation at any point, maybe we’ll see that target change.
It seems that while stating that banning the sale of new combustion engine cars by 2040 was a very strong message that provided the Government with real environmental credentials, if this change is also announced as official policy it feel like it may hinder efforts rather than improve the situation.
Do you think announcing a ban on the sale of new hybrid engine cars now 22 years beforehand is worth doing? Would it even influence buying a hybrid car now? Let us know in the comments.
What is the point of banning something with absolutely no infrastructure for an alternative in its place, this country cannot even keep our roads maintained to a reasonable standard, yet it is now proposing someone having to set up a network of charging points all over the country, to draw on an electricity supply that will not be able to cope, good plan
2040 is 22 years into the future. They’re not talking about banning anything now. There is no reason ehy the infrastructure could not be in place in 22 years time. Plenty of car parks already have charging points.
Not enough points, if you had a minor swing to electric.
Charge at home or office. Travelling long distances by car produces lots of emissions. Many oRganisations need to recognise the 21 st century and progress from 1970s methods of working.
no parking near my house. have to have a long cable.
Charge at work, or while shopping. You already go out of your way to refuel an ICE car anyway.
Takes Minutes to refuel ICE though, not hours.
Many new cars will 80% charge in 30 minutes, not hours
30 minutes nowhere near good enough! Need to charge while you wait – 80% in 8 minutes max otherwise incredible number of charging points required. Slow charging points in car parks will never be enough. Suggest cost of electric at comparable price to petrol as incentive to get it right!
If you have got 30 minutes to waste, lucky you
Simplistic solutions just trip off the tongue, don’t they.
What Aaron said.
But is there electricity near where you park Ken? Electricity is pretty ubiquitous in the UK. If not, then you’re probably a fringe case and not in the demographic for the first 80% of adoption.
oh so that’s ok then – dismissed by being a fring case!
No, not dismissed Mat. I’m just saying it’s not for Ken… yet.
Fringe case? Clearly not a car owner. The vast majority of people do not have a private drive. If not fast charging 80% in 5 mins, then we would need charging points like old parking meters – 1 per car space on every road! Just not feasible!
You are correct in what you are saying in terms of requirement front of house but can you imagine the requirement for backstage?
The power draw would be immense if, maximum case scenario, there were s street full of cars one charge at once off of the same electrical supply.
I’d love an electric car, I’ve had the Nissan leaf for a weekend and thought it was brilliant but I’m disappointed that it’s just not practical enough let alone affordable.
You will probably get sued by someone tripping over the cable ,just imagine every house with a cable running from it ,that’s a lot of slip trips and falls waiting to happen . Cannot see the health and safety people allowing that !
Current requirements for having a charging point at your home say that there must be a dedicated off road parking place, thus eliminating the need for trailing wires across the public footpath.
Just imagine Rows of cables to trip over in a street of TERRACED Houses! You are quite right Stuart! But then our Politicians have absolutely NO COMMON SENSE!
You can use public transport, so some minister was saying forget who
Just completed 550 miles over two days in my EV, no problem with charging or lack of points. Infrastructure is developing well, cars are a dream to drive and most of the time the car is charging when I’m not using it.
This article is typical of the petrol headed press who are unwilling to embrace change. Though on the other hand, keep churning this hype out as it will keep the chargers free for those who want to enjoy the difference.
And how many stops/time waiting to recharge? I can drive 550 miles a single day with only 1 petrol top up taking less than 10 minutes.
PS I would love to have an electric car.
When I had a loan of one for a weekend from Nissan, I did a real world test for my situation as if I needed to be home in an emergency and couldn’t do it.
I work 89 miles from home. I picked up the Nissan leaf from the garage across the way from work in Bristol on a Thursday evening(fully charged), took the car to my hotel (no charging) and then to work in the morning(about 6 miles driven by now) i left work at 1230 Friday to drive the 89 miles to Swansea (84 miles motorway). I had to stop 24 miles from home at bridgend services to recharge for 30 mins as the car showed 26 miles remaining. Now, going one these figures I should have been able to do it but I didn’t have the confidence given my lack of experience with this type of vehicle and we wouldn’t chance it in a fossil fuelled car.
My point is, this type of vehicle can’t always give security when needed. Even at my work place, there are 2 charging points but these are not always available admin there are 3 other electric vehicles to share with and normally in use.
The number public charging point double in the last 12 months, there will be plenty of outlets by 2040, even petrol stations are installing them.
All of these comments in favour of recharging cars at charge points are just misguided. The whole point of having a car is freedom. Where is the freedom in having to plan journeys hours in advance? OK – some cars can be charged in 30 minutes – see comment in the article referring to the effect that this has on battery life, not to mention the ludicrous amount of current needed to do this – how will electricity supplies cope with everyone doing this? And even 30 minutes… would you put up with having to stand around at a recharge point for half an hour in the middle of every long journey?
The whole idea of a vehicle being powered solely by a fixed battery that needs to be replenished by providing electric current is just impractical and wrong, but it’s been pushed down our throats by individuals and companies who have invested in it and who have governments eating out of their hand. There are far better replacements for fossil fuels (e.g. hydrogen cells to produce electricity in situ), and they don’t even necessarily involve replacing the internal combustion engine (just power it with hydrogen) but we’re all getting brainwashed to think electric, electric…. The companies already have people lapping up this idea of having some kind of paid subscription for charging their cars, again undermining the freedom that vehicle ownership is supposed to give us, but very lucrative for those providing such services.
I have owned a toyota rav4 hybrid and a toyota auris hybrid and a never got anything near what the mileage they said, now i have a Mercedes gla 220d and i get better mpg from this
It’s not about mpg it’s about engine emissions. The way we live now will cost our children and grandchildren much, much more than the cost of low/zero emissions vehicles
Sounds like a politically inspired smoke screen or false news.
This is alarmist. The hybrid cars bought today with still be able to be used as will other types of cars as the ban will only mean new diesel, petrol and low range hybrid can’t be brought to market.
By 2040, battery technology will have improved to an extent that all hybrid cars will have an electric only range of at least 50 miles.
These are only rumours, but, if true, I would see it as regulations to prevent manufacturers getting around the ban by making their diesel and electric cars mildly hybrid. This would be an incentive to manufacturers to make their cars even kinder to the environment.
where does the electricity come from to charge these electric cars? we are already woefully short of generation capacity, and they are shutting Eggborough later this year. I expect power cuts jan/feb next year.
How many cars being sold today will be on the roads in 22 years? The ban is also only on new car sales after that date. This story is very much trying to make more out of something than it actually is. The reality is that in 22 years time the vast majority, if not all, new cars will be fully electric anyway.
Will lorries, buses & delivery vans still be diesel powered? I doubt that technology will have moved far enough forward to cover “bulk” transport! I also wonder if electricity supplies will be either adequate or even secure.
I guess we will have to use our renowned business and scientific expertise to come up with technologies that address the way things are now, rather than constantly saying – it’s too difficult. Future generations won’t thank us for our selfishness.
Problem is the finance for innovation is in the hands of ‘entrepreneurs’ with one goal, profit. The innovative scientists, engineers & IT guru’s have a totally different slant on the solution to the technological challenge ahead.
All that’s needed is an understanding of each others perspectives.
The greatest advances are forged in the heat of fusion of opposites.
The solutions are out there we have the resources we just need to mend this rift in our now divided nation.
Future generations won’t thank us for our selfishness – utter rubbish
they want all these electric cars plugged in at peak electricity times so they can pull the power from the car batteries to get them over the humps on cold dark windless winter evenings between 17:00 and 19:00
There is a crisis building up in the electrical supply industry it will not be able to supply enough electric to power all these electric vehicles there are millions of cars on the roads today if all those millions of cars were to plug in at night which they would don t think there will be enough juice in the grid to do it as that is extra requirements to what is used now ,think about how many electrical appliances a house and industry uses now and then add all those vehicles .And if the power is cut for some reason I E something over loads and trips out or break s no one is going to work the next morning .plus the fact that as demand increase s for electricity so will the price as that’s how the market works . And why is electricity seen as green energy most of it is not . Drax power station is running on so called environmental friendly bio mass basically wood pellets , trouble is its chewing it’s way through north American forests faster than they can regrow so not as environmental friendly as made out to be.
Well in 22 years tim I could see this evolving into something that could replace all “bulk” transport https://www.tesla.com/en_GB/semi
Bulk transport should be on rail mainly, with just local deliveries, cf Switzerland- oh I forgot, we’d need a national Railway infrastructure that works!
Have you not seen any of the battery busses, taxis and semi ( American terminology) truck/tractor units being developed now. The Tesla Semi goes from 0-60 in 5 seconds ( empty). That’s quicker than my car by about 8 seconds.
How are people who live in a block of flats going to charge their all-electric vehicles – maybe trail a long extension lead through a window? Don’t think so – Government has a lot more thinking to do!!
I guess we will have to come up with some innovative thinking and develop new technology, just as some crazy, innovative people did to get people out of stagecoaches and into those daft newfangled things called trains.
there are public/street charge points. as more EV come on line there will be more charge points in the streets and carparks. when Petrol cars started petrol could only be bought from a few Chemist shops.the uptake was pretty rapid when the public took to the idea of a car.
That’s exactly the situation I am in, my parking space is about 40 metres from my flat which is on the first floor. I live in a town of mote than 50,000 people and there is only one public charging point with two outlets, every time I pass it it’s occupied. The government have got this completely wrong as usual. As with petrol and diesel vehicles, range claims for electric vehicles are wildly inaccurate. It will take years to instal the required infrastructure and for battery technology to give a useful range and how many more power stations will have to be built to cope with the huge increase in demand.
When did the Goverment ever really do a lot of thinking? Oh yes when they gave themselves a fat pay rise
The government have thought – no off-road parking = no charging point = no car!
Scaleletrix?
A better headline would be:
Completely Unsubstantiated Rumour About Hybrid Cars. This really is very poor journalism.
In 22 years we shall have had at least a further four general elections. As it is a constitutional presumption that no legislation can bind a future parliament, it is by no means certain that such a ban will be put in place. Think back to 1997 and the then Government’s promises and ptedictions for today. How many of these actually came to pass? These people are politicians. Applying spin and being economical with the truth is part of the job description.
This government what a joke they tell u to get a hybrid car same as they told everyone to get a diesel car and now they want to ban both make ure mind up
I’ve just had a Toyota Yaris Hybrid as a rental on holiday and I loved it I got over 100km to a gallon of petrol and the performance wasn’t any different to my petrol only car I would seriously consider a Hybrid for my next car regardless of what this article says
And you think that MPG is good?
It was NOT the current Government who told us that diesels were a better option to have, it was Gordon Brown and co
Forget hybrids, and electric vehicles; buy a classic car. Problem solved! And it will gain in value.
Right on, Andy! As an unrepentant petrolhead I have taken the classic car route for years now. I don’t enjoy the stink of diesel on my hands so I currently enjoy a 2005 Jaguar S type 3.0 with a genuine 23000 on the clock and use it gently to achieve an mpg figure that pleases me. I expect it to outlast just about any tiny greenmobile built today. It’s such a buzz to drive as well. I see its modern eguivalent is the choice of Ministers – you never see them taking to a dinky toy do you?
I rather agree with Andy and Roy, although I have a modest Vauxhall to run around in everyday my elderly but still beautiful ’79 Rolls Royce Shadow 11 still turns heads, I drive gently and don’t accelerate or brake hard so fuel consumption is surprisingly good, the ride and driving experience though perhaps not comparable to a modern Audi or similar is still pleasing, and at a gentler pace.
It’s 22 years down the line technology changes at an alarming rate who knows what we will be driving then this just scare mongering
I drive a Honda Jazz hybrid and its great but I don’t have to plug it in. It uses battery and petrol and charges itself as it goes along. Much better than trailing wires all over the place!
It didnt even get the Hybrid bit right Honda Insught Gen 1 was the first Hybrid on sale very poor article, The reality is though Hybrids should have a real range and 50 miles is a good start 100 would be better. only us the buying public force the makers to do better
Always thought hybrids represent the worst of both worlds – battery packs, electric motors, management systems as well as an internal combustion engine. The fuel savings just don’t justify the impacts of the build
It’s not about fuel savings, it’s about reducing emissions from engines.
It might be the best compromise for some people, but the maintenance on vehicles with this complexity will be far higher than pure BEVs in 10 years time.
With Brexit & the recent rumours of the foreign investment in Nuclear power going pear shaped? How will the current power networks cope with a population with plug in vehicles. Utilities companies are already assisting the national grid using fossil fuelled generators on a profitable basis called TRIAD?
As others have stated, the infrastructure is not there presently to support a nation with battery charged vehicles & boy, unless massive investment is made starting now it won’t be achievable by 2040.
Maybe I’ve missed something?
You have missed the large amount of wind turbines going up everywhere! Offshore ones are going to be very large with no subsidies [already being tested] and the winds reliable where they are placing them. On a regular basis we are now going days without any electric created by coal, things are changing fast but unless you are focused on it you wouldnt know
“and the winds reliable where they are placing them” – no, at time of peak GB electricity demand there is often a large (up to 3000 km in Northern Europe area) anticyclonic weather system with no clouds = no insulation = cold = peak demand (around 6pm in winter) but there can be a european wind lull of up to a week, and no solar of course at the darkness peak. National demand is 330 TWh a year, total GB storage is 0.032 TWh across the four pumped storage sites. Google “youtube david mackay final interview”, At last in this interview, recorded just 10 days before very sadly passing at age 48 from Stomach Cancer but only released much later on, he said what he could never openly say as Chief Scientific Adviser :
Minute 21:00 – EVs (electric vehicles) “will be a massive hit” (am sure he’s right; and sooner than anyone realises).
Remarks about batteries (can never be anything like the required scale to be relevant to technologies that can’t reliably generate at peak) are at 9 minutes 50 seconds, also “batteries are not a realistic solution/the price would need to be 100 times less” at minute 11.05 [my comment : clearly a suitable niche solution for fast short-duration frequency response, a premium market a few are being built for based on premium grid contracts for delivery from 0.5 to 10 seconds; but that doesn’t invalidate his point at all, batteries cannot cover a wind lull and cannot deal with the fact solar makes 15 times as much in summer as in winter in GB, and nothing in the dark]
“… idea of powering the UK with renewable energy is an appalling delusion” 9 minutes 10 seconds (minute 9.10) in
“Pay attention to mathematics, the laws of physics, the realities of engineering” minute 9.40
“we need a plan that adds up” // “intermittency is a real problem” minute 9.50
“renewable proponents haven’t done the numbers to achieve proposed solutions” minute 10.10
12 minutes 50 seconds – asked what he prefers for GB generation mix, as he is at end of life and has, as he explains (and says why), avoided ever saying so directly previously; he says “I suppose the time has come”, and gives the answer, CCS’d-fossil-fired-power-stations and nuclear; almost zero wind and solar, they are in his view pointless, a waste of money if you have something reliable which is what you need, for the winter – you’d just have to turn down your nukes and CCS to make room for wind and solar. Says public cares a lot about cost, which also supports this outcome. [note release of this video was delayed until some time after he had died, at his request]
At 16 minutes 10 seconds : he found on arriving at DECC (now BEIS) civil servants had clearly advised ministers not to subsidise solar, but ministers ignored them. “Britain is one of the darkest countries in the world”. Better to use solar where its output profile meets demand much better. But society always needs reliability. “So Las Vegas can have some solar”, but he jokes, “it will also need a nuke”.
Minute 21:40 – repeat from earlier, that “making the numbers add up” (pretending we can cope solely with a very high proportion of solar and wind) with unrealistic assumptions on energy efficiency and storage, is folly
“if you can get through the winter with CCS and nuclear, there is no point in adding any wind and solar” minutes 14 – 15
“society needs reliability in its electrical system” minute 18 +
>>Utilities companies are already assisting the national grid using fossil fuelled generators on a profitable basis called TRIAD?
– embedded smaller say 20 MW gas-fired diesels or spark engines, until 31/3/2018 could receive £45/kW triad avoidance (absent reform this would have risen to £70/kW by 2020) for running at three highest half hours of national demand called triads, as they count as negative demand and reduce their Supplier’s chargeable demand at such times, when all demand-side Grid charges (TNUoS) are levied in relation to half-hourly metered (almost all non-domestic) demand. Grid-connected power stations or embedded generators >100 MW can’t get this payment. It’s called triad-related embedded benefit, it was reduced by 1/3rd from 1/4/2018 (google for charging reform CMP264 if you care), another 1/3rd reduction from 1/4/2019, and by 1/4/2020 the distortion will have been abolished. The distortion meant that less efficient gas-fired diesel (diesel means compression-ignition, regardless fo fuel) and spark-ignition type engines could undercut larger more efficient combined cycle gas turbines (CCGTs) in the annual “CM” auctions for capacity mechanism support to help make sure there is enough fossil capacity to “back up” wind and solar; capacity payments were abolished on 27th March 2001 when the pool ended, but have had to be brought back because of wind and solar intermittency. Electric Vehicles are well-suited to demand side response i.e. if charging overnight, you on average need 10 kWh (varies wildly by user of course), you don’t much care when that goes in and can take it when it is windier. Daytime, you may for a discount be willing to take it when it is sunnier, if charging at work for instance. The grid has ample capacity, the last-mile DNO assets (street cables) may not if each home gets 2 or 3 EVs, but it’s solvable. The street cable capacity issue is eminently solvable, and not everyone will be able to charge at home. SECMP0046 will be part of the solution – you can google that.
Yes it would influence what I buy, as I hope to buy a car that would last a very very long time. And I want to buy a greener car. My choice would be ford. So if they were on the list I wouldn’t be happy. I would personally have a charge point at my home, but for people who don’t have that luxury the government need to put charge points everywhere and maintenance them regularly. Doesn’t Britain what to help the environment become a greener place to leave in. Seems like we are the only country who is not on board of being a cleaner country
First, on Government advice, I moved from petrol to diesel, then our illustrious members of the Civil Service, or as i call them, sycophantic parasites, told us that Diesel is now the bad man of fuels, so I have just recently bought a Hybrid. Im buggered if Im paying out again on some idiots whim. If they want us now to buy electric, fine, but the government, after all this miss information, must fund it 100%, or they can shove their ideas where the sun doesn’t shine!!! Annoyed, you bet I am!
My thought is that in 22 years time the Hydrogen Fuel Cell will be all the rage and power the majority of new cars.
Never going to happen it takes to much energy to make hydrogen which you then turn into electric waste of time and energy
if you electrolyse to make the hydrogen at ambient (normal) temperature, that’s a 50% efficient process. (very high temperature electrolysis achieved by a special nuclear reactor could be 80% efficient, but there are no such reactors operating). The fuel cell is 75% efficient, 25% of energy in the H2 going as heat (fuel cell is actively cooled), so you lost 60% of your original electricity before it gets to the wheel motors. Much better to put the electricity into the batteries, their charge/discharge cycle efficiency is well over 95% so most of the original ‘leccy gets to the wheel motors. Much better. It is cheaper to synthesise the H2 from methane (mains gas), which is how all industrial hydrogen is actually being made – destroying nearly half the energy content of the methane in the reformation process and making lots of CO2 to try and store somewhere. Really, pure EVs are a much better way. New Renault Zoe best model has range 250 miles if you’re gentle with it. If they’d only put bricks in it to pre-charge with heat in winter overnight from the charger, winter range could be better as heat is high grade energy, cheaper than batteries to store the heat needed for cabin heating/demist….
I have a hybrid toyota Rav 4 car which does not require a charging point as it used the energy of breaking to produce the charge
Breaking what?
like the diesel promotion by mr brown, current hybrids are a scam to reduce or avoid paying RFL.
the are impractical, are more polluting when manufacturing and when running on fossil fuel and we don’t have the infrasctructure to cope with increase electricity demand of EV’s. Finally the government would still need to collect taxes so will RFL be switched to electricity tax??
Bring on hydrogen cell fuel
They cannot switch road fuel duty (collects £40b) to an electricity tax as they cannot distinguish which is charging ‘leccy and which is leccy used for other purposes, quite a lot of it in non-gasified areas where electric heating is used. Gasified home : 3,900 kWh p.a. of electricity (recently revised from 3,600 kWh p.a.). Non-gasified home : 10,000 kWh p.a. of electricity. The smart meter is between the service fuse and the consumer unit, it sits on the live tails, it does not meter by circuit within the house. Did you notice they are putting in the tracking and national billing infrastructure to charge all foreign lorries for using our major roads in GB ? Nice trial for something larger scale, huh …. Did you think how that could be later adapted to collect tax from all motor cars (whether EV or fossil .. the fossil people get to be taxed on their fuel as well) in relation to their actual driving ?? Like they already do on the dartford crossing. At least local roads would never be tolled. I merely speculate, of course.
Think it’s called road priceing not much been said about it yet as it’s going to upset a lot of people and is a sure fire vote loser.
you need fossil fuels to make the hydrogen.
No you don’t. Electricity and water is what you need. Waver power, wind power, Hydro electric!
You bet ! You will end up sitting in the dark because you won t be able to afford to put the lights on !
Utter waste of time
I currently have a PHEV with a range of 34 miles and do 80% of mileage on electric. If the range was 50 miles I think I would do 90%. The remote charging infrastructure is a joke of complexity and I am a long way from adopting all electric but think a hydrogen fuel cell hybrid is the best solution.
Yes it would influence my purchase because l would be thinking about it’s possible future sale price when the time comes for me to change the car. Comments from the Government don’t breed confidence in the future!
I am certain this is a good move. Long before 2040, EVs will have become like flat screen tellies and smartphones – suddenly, everyone you know will have one, then so will you
Mmm. I have neither a flat screen TV or a smartphone. LG.
I’m jacking in work this year, considered selling my Diesel Jeep but no decent Hybrid SUV’s to be found as of yet so the Jeep stays.
Selling my other diesel MPV, soon but am replacing that with a 1950’s Cadillac just to have something interesting to drive for weekend trips.
May reconsider a Hybrid SUV if there’s a nice one in 5 years time
Classic cars are the way to go. Restore something good to look at on our streets and sod the governmen’s woolly thinking. The whole world is going to hell on a handcart and you never see the PM and her cronies in anything less polluting than a top model Jag do you? What’s good for her is good for all of us. the good officer always leads from the front!
Is that the 1959 V 8 Elvis Presley was so fond off absolutely awesome car especially in black would love one of those myself .
Ban this Government from ever making a decision about anything as so far they have betrayed the entire nation and, literally giving home to at least 1000,000
Terrorists that are destroying all that offends them – being us the racist British.
Petrol prices are rising only by the tories hands alone on orders from the U.Ns operations room for AGENDA 21.
This really grinds my gears. What a ridiculously biased and badly researched article. I guess it’s what we should expect from an organisation that makes its money from drivers of fossil fuelled cars. “Charging an electric car in public costs around £10 for an 80% charge on average”? Where did you get that totally incorrect figure from? I have an electric and a diesel vehicle and I can tell you that the maximum I’ve ever paid for a charge was £6 and that included a £3 connection fee. If you subscribe to someone like Polar and charge often it works out at under £2 a charge. Your £10 figure would be biased if it were true, but it’s not even correct so why state that?
Hi Peter, we took this data from a What Car? article and did a mean average to work out the cost for one charge with no previous subscription. Have a look at the data here: https://www.whatcar.com/news/electric-vehicle-charging/
have had prius cars for 6 years. mpg in hot weather 70. cold weather much less. Overall excellent. Towns are the problem. Leeds has so many one way/no entry/ loop road etc which leaves people not intimately familiar with the latest changes driving round and round polluting the place. It was recently called one of the worst polluted places in England – no surprise there then. Harrogate is jammed with traffic due to no ring road round the north- north-south traffic comes trough the town
highways must make the first moves backed up with govt money
The UK.gov have forgotten the other end of the issue, electric cars may be zero emmision, but electric generation certainly isnt. there are several EU6+ diesels that are less damaging to the environment than standard mix electicity. Hydrogen is another issue, its highly flamable (see hindenburgh) and takes a lot of electricity to create. The UK currently is on course not to have enough electricity for our current needs in the medium term future due to a lack of new plants comming online, to replace those that will be retired, let alone the added power needed to replace all that currently generated by vehicles own ICE. On top of this, the grid is not equipedto distribute this much power and would need significant upgrade for everyone to be able to charge a car at home, let alone those two or three car families. Public Charging provision is a joke, we need more than two points per public car park and a lot more tesla supercharger style stations, all of which needs grid capacity.
Electricity generation isn’t free from emissions, but at least it isn’t inefficiently burning diesel fuel in congested cities both contributing to climate change and public health. Electricity can come from any number of sources, and the grid is already almost free from coal. I find the claim that new diesels are cleaner than the current grid hard to believe. I agreed the grid isn’t designed for all cars to charge at once and the infrastructure isn’t there yet, but it’s a similar argument that horse and cart drivers might have had before the petrol stations were built, and look where we are now. As to the grid supporting all the cars charging, cars can be scheduled to charge at different times to reduce the huge load on the grid, and with vehicle to grid systems I’d argue the grid is in a far better state as power will be able to flow both ways like the Nissan Leaf. With this in mind all it takes is mreo wind and solar, especially residential solar, and the problem is solved.
Not when it’s dark or not windy!
That’s why we need more hydroelectric and tidal power.
And the Government have removed grants for more clean electricity production so yes there will be a shortfall on supply. Electricity is not that clean when you vector in the manufacture and delivery of the mechanics that produce it. Yes new Euro 6+ diesels are proven to be less polluting than some petrol cars now but as long as we burn dead dinosaurs there will be some negative issues. What the government wants for cities is not workable in rural areas. Give grants to home owners to get the solar panels / tiles onto every roof but I doubt even that will plug the gap in supply / demand. I’ll stick with my diesel just now thank you. Oh and my daughters work transport doing 120 miles a day…diesel Polo… 0£ road tax and 70+mpg. Can’t get better than that!
If and when the Government sort the mess out and make it affordable to the working man little will change.
Don’t agree with the horse and cart -> petrol analogy. We already heavily use electricity, it’s not a case of missing infrastructure, it’s a case of necessity for an enormous growth in scale. A 1.5 tonne vehicle needs a lot of energy to be propelled, and even to charge within 8 hours or so (which I would argue is completely unacceptably slow) creates a much bigger current demand than any household appliance.
For instance, suppose you have a 100 bhp electric car (quite low powered by today’s standards), which is approximately 75kW. For the car to run at half power for 2 hours (an average to long daily work commute) you’d need 150 kW hours of energy. Charged over 8 hours (and assuming 100% battery efficiency!), this would require over 9 kW, or about 38 amps at mains voltage. The typical domestic supply is capable of supplying only maybe as low as about 60 amps – but that’s its limit, and of course doesn’t mean that everyone on a street can use that much current at once. If you switch on your electric shower at the same time, you’re going to exceed that limit. And that’s just at the domestic end.
“cars can be scheduled to charge at different times” – seriously? So we’re all going to be OK with working in shifts around one another so as to make using our vehicles to commute practical? “The slave becomes the master” comes to mind.
35 million and rising private cars and vans in the UK where does all that electricity come from? The grid has major instabilities at times now, when there is no wind at night, this, coupled with the fact that a number of nuclear power stations are coming to the end of their life, will be a major problem without saddling it with huge peak demand when commuters arrive home.
What’s wrong with hydrogen fuel cell technology? Hydrogen produced when the wind blows and/or the sun shines and when demand for electricity is low is surely the answer. Better than lugging heavy and life limited (and dangerous) lithium ion batteries around.!
If a battery powered car catches fire the fire brigade will have to stand and watch because of electric shock risk.
We only have to look at what happens when everyone gets up to put the kettle on for a cup of tea at once during the break from a popular TV program. The surge in the electricity supply is near to breaking.
To put things into perspective: Current efficiences: Cars – Petrol 20%, Diesel 40%, Electric 60%, but electric from coal/oil 33%. Hence electric = petrol (60% x 33%=20%). Diesel better but much more pollution.
Electric from Natural Gas 45% x 60% = 27% only a little better. So clean electric – wind/sun/tidal is the answer. NOT nuclear – radioactive for 1’000 years. if only fusion power was possible!
Nuclear power stations are the way forward
Until you realise you need to deal with the spent fuel rods! Where you going to put them for the 100’s years they will be dangerous. Thats worse than a bit of soot / Nox from the combustion engine!
Why is everyone sold on electric cars when the real alternative (hydrogen) is being almost completely overlooked? Most of the UK can’t practically own an electric vehicle because of the charging issues. You don’t have this with a hydrogen cell vehicle. Existing petrol stations could easily adapt to provide hydrogen, and there’d be no massive infrastructure changes required. What’s more, many existing vehicles could be adapted to run on hydrogen instead of fossil fuels, so there’s really no excuse for people to not get on board this bandwagon except for the current lack of fuelling points.
Hydrogen is a fundamental non-starter for passenger vehicles. It takes so much energy to collect it that could could just be used directly to charge a BEV, that it doesn’t make sense. I’m not sure which charging issues you mean, there aren’t many chargers as there aren’t yet many cars to use them yet. Massive infrastructure? It’s just a small box on the wall or post in the ground to charge, no major infrastructure is needed.
John, totally agree.
Aaron, I think you miss the point – hydrogen is just another valid, and arguably much more practical, delivery method for electrical energy – more practical than (slowly) charging up a large, heavy battery. “Recharging” a hydrogen vehicle is just the same as refilling an LPG one, but the source of the power (which produced the hydrogen) comes from potentially the same place that the power to charge a battery does.
The throttle point for electric vehicles is lithium supply for batteries. Hybrids generally use NI-MH batteries so they are not competing for the same limited resources of Lithium. A better approach would be for the government to progressively reduce the maximum CO2 emissions (or punitively tax them) for cars which would progressive move people towards Hybrid PHEV, and EV models.
What everybody seems not to mention is that come 2040 all motor vs bought before then will still be able to be used
What a silly article!
By 2040 the hybrids being made today will be 22 years old. How many cars that old are in use today?
The health issues caused by pollution won’t be fixed by electric cars: the problem of particulates is mostly caused by tyre dust.
Electric vehicles make just as much tyre dust, if not more, due to their greater weight and faster acceleration.
Agree on the ‘silly article’ and 22 years but tyre dust is just a small part of the particulate output of a car compared to that from diesel.
So public transport will be overloaded. Or perhaps the streets will be clogged with bicycles!
it would be more to the point if we are really talking about emissions saving the planet to ask when car makers are going to be forced to supply parts for the models they make for a minimum of 30years and warranty the bodywork against corrosion for 20 years.
giving vehicles much longer service life would cut down pollution alot more than going electric
2040 don’t expect to be around to see that, if I am it’s unlikely that I’ll be driving. In fact I doubt I’ll be able to leave the house, as I don’t suppose I’ll be able to afford a taxi if such a thing still exists. Will we have a railway system that is affordable, reliable, and of sufficient frequency meet the needs of the millions of people who may be forced off the roads. Same goes for the buses, will there be any or enough. Will they provide a rural public service or will I be expects to walk to the nearest town or main road to get one on the one day a week that they will be running.
All very dire but I am becoming concerned that the powers that be (not necessarily HMG) don’t want the soft classes being mobile, or being informed. Better we are priced off the roads/rails and stay put.
Yes any ban of anything should be subject to official notice of at 150% of the average life span of whatever it is that is to be banned!
So how will we haul goods around on 44tonne trucks when cars can barely cover a few miles? Everytime alternative fuels are mentioned there is never a consideration for the movement of goods ( which includes food by the way) .
Tesla Semi, 600 mile range
What Aaron said.
Get the off the roads and revitalise the rail netwok.
Has anyone thought about what the impact to the planet would be with millions of spent batteries having to be replaced every five or so years?…..Thought not!
EV batteries easily last 10 years other than the first generation of Nissan Leaf. After that time they can be used for stationary storage , which Nissan and BMW are already doing. After they are no more use there they can be recycled and the metals recovered, so the only real expense is the mining and extraction of the metals in the first place, which is becoming better with each new EV as the exotic material need like Cobalt reduces.
What Aaron said.
Please paste a link to the source for your five year timescale Les Plumb.
Although I am in favour for both hybrid and all electric cars, as things stand at the moment I cannot see how the infrastructure can be put in place for the all elrctric vehicle. If we all got an all electric car can someone explain to me how the substations will cope with the load? and I am not including buses and heavy goods vehicles. I was informed that charging the batteries of an electric car requires around 2.5 kilowatts of power for 10 hours. I accept that this will be improved in the future but nevertheless it needs to be taken into consideration plus the average home is fused at 50 to 60 Amps atthe input to the meter, well charging your car and running houdehold appliances will be too much I reckon. These questions need answers. before anyone states what wiil be banned and when.
By the way I drive a Prius and I love if.
Banning sales of NEW cars is not the same as banning use of OLD cars. Now, this is to be 22 years into the future and judging from speed of plug-ins being developed this is absolutely relaxed schedule. Stop scaremongering!
Charging a EV car at a public charge will range in price from £0 to £5 for a 95% charge, only one chrge company has a monthly charge. Public charge points are not harmfull to the battery unless you run the battery to zero constantly and rapid charge all of the time. however you can limit the speed of charging even at a rapid point. so no harm comes to the battery
If they haven’t even bought out the white paper on this then, no they should not bring it out until it has been properly agreed. But saying that, if their aim is to try and stop the majority of the public from driving cars, then they should ALL set the example by doing away with their gas guzzling cars. If they feel they need a car because of their status, then they should have electric cars that can only go as fast as 50 miles per hour. The public use their cars for all different reasons, if the government are worried about the pollution as we all are, then they really need to look at the amount of c**p that public transport vehicles are emitting. People have spent so much money buying vehicles that the government have said are good to buy due to the environment and then they go back on their words as they did not get proper proof first by using more that one companies findings. They need to stop with their back and forth indecisive ways and man up to making mistakes and helping these owners in a realistic way to replace vehicles they bought on their say so.
Did you not know there is one rule for government minister s and the rich and powerful ,and another for us ordinary souls ,it’s not there jaguar X J s and Range Rovers that cause pollution but the masses in there Ford’s and Vauxhall’s . Obviously more tax is the answer to cut down on the number of the masses driving cars .
The banning and taxing of vehicles is purely base on political idioligy with very little scientific background and certainly no strategic planning.
Witness the diesel debacle and the 40k tax.
No justification on add blu diesels and no rational on 40k level
Maybe it would be a better idea for the government to make public transport including the rail & national coach network more affordable so that it becomes irresistable, cheaper and easier for most of us to use rather than try to force vehicles to become all electric.
We already hear that we do not have adaquate supply of electricity to meet our needs for the near future so how one can expect it to cope when everyone goes EV and plugs in overnight (assuming they can find somewhere to do so) is beyond me.
EV cars with short ranges would still serve a purpose effectively being used outside of the working day to provide for leisure activities, picking up the shopping, etc. – as they have much smaller capacity batteries they would need less charge to fully top them up and this could be achieved by solar roofing panels providing a trickle charge to the battery throughout the day, ready for the evenings use.
The cartel is calling the tune here………..soon the price will rise to over £1.80 a litre and the “oh its the operating cost that have caused the increase ” comment raise its head soon.
The £1 a litre is the line in the sand that will never be crossed again even if the price crashed to levels of $27 a barrel they need to recoup the loses from the last 18 months and that’s why it will keep going up , after all the shareholders are more important .
Forget this item. We shall not be using Road Transport in any way conceivable.against today’s means of conveyance.
Fossil fuel is to virtually disappear within the next decade with advanced electric propulsion in vehicles programmed in advance of journeys; automated ‘driverless’ cars will have been developed with road controlled sensors. Road Traffic infringements will be eradicated and RTA injuries almost unheard of save for Pedestrian negligence.
Another idiotic move again like the diesel they asked people to go for. We Are the laughing stock of the world with these silly ideas. Get a life and leave alone.
Agree with most contributors it’s those civil servants at it again !! I am an avid hybrid car owner for the last 6 years. Your article is somewhat misleading. There are 2 types of hybrids out there ones that you pre-charge the vehicle that gives you a limited mileage on electric only and then having to re-charge again ! or the best option and the one I endorse which is the hybrid which self charges on the move and runs on electric only at lower speeds but always available to assist the petrol engine giving incredible MPG. I changed to self charging hybrid cars and its changed my life…. Long live self charging hybrid cars.
Don’t panic captain !
Thought Gordon Brown said that diesel was best so go and buy. I did so what’s different about this go and buy a Hybred in a couple of years time they will find that there isn’t enough power being generated , so more power stations that create as much or perhaps more pollution than a diesel / petrol car. Its all a game, pity that politicians don’t wake up and live in the “real” world where people have to work for a living and NOT drive around in cars all paid for by us gullible public. If you see China and other countries building these power plants fired by coal, what do or must you think, a race that is over to clean the air of the world.