UK Govt says new petrol and diesel cars to be banned by 2040

[dunnoreally]

It's official. http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-40723581

Seems a bit heavy handed to me: won't most people be driving EVs by then anyway, so they'll only be penalising a small minority of hobbyists?

[Striple]

maybe my rusty mx5 will finally be worth something!

[Pica-Pica]

Oh well I will be 92 then, and most certainly driving an electric vehicle! Meanwhile, the 335d will have to do.
A question though. Where will all terraced houses, and cars parked on streets have chargers? I see a class/income division here.

[Jex]

Pica-Pica said:

Oh well I will be 92 then, and most certainly driving an electric vehicle! Meanwhile, the 335d will have to do.
A question though. Where will all terraced houses, and cars parked on streets have chargers? I see a class/income division here.

And where will all the electricity come form? We already close to critical on generation capacity and with the inertia in the system, will there be enough clean generation capacity by then - it's only 23 years away. How long does it take from the decision to build, for example, a nuclear power station and for it to be on line? Hinckley Point C was approved by the Government in 2008 (how long did it take to get to that point I wonder). It is hoped it will be generating by 2025-27, although that looks a little optimistic. Apparently fusion is still about 40 years away!

[mikal83]

Ban petrol n diesel cars after 2040............what, Shirley its the SALE of NEW cars after 2040. You can still sell a petrol car on new years eve 2039! Bet it will be cheap, and I bet they will get a concession to sell of old stock well after that date as well..

[fatjon]

The increase on load on the national grid and the provision of millions of charge points will cost us a fortune. I smell taxes coming our way only to handed over in big brown envelopes to EDF and the Chinese.

[frozen-in-wiltshire]

Every time I hear how fab EVs will be - nobody ever talks about what happens in rural areas. Farm vehicles run on diesel, what are they going to do - have 850 BHP diesel tractors replaced by EVs? not anytime soon methinks! I just heard that Green Party muppet on BBC talk all about how great EVs would be in the 'city' - but what about the rest of the country? How does that work?

And what about all the city homes where there is no charging point (flats, cars parked on-street etc.) What do people there do, park on the street and run cables across the pavements? Lawyers are going to have a field day on personal accident claims with that.

I realise it's coming, but really, where are the practical considerations about all of this?

[Javelinman]

So by then I will be 78 and my Amc javelin will be 67
Hmmm
Petrol will still be around ? But they will,tax it through the roof to steer us all to Electric cars they will tax
So this is all about the Giverments in league with the car giants like the Americans were in the 50s to boost the car production and make jobs hmm
but they will be built by then by robots !
They will then find a a way of making it impossible to get insurance on a normal car
So for the moment let's just use gas guzzling cars and have some serious fun guys
"If it sucks gas it kicks as"

Think I will be emigrating to A country who won't give a s!!t

[Mad Jock]

Listening to all the talk on the radio today about this, and not one mention about how the shortfall in tax from the sale of petrol and diesel will be accounted for. Green energy might be free from emissions, but it will be very expensive if they shift the tax burden on to electricity supply.

As none of us have our own refinery, we are somewhat burdened with fuel tax if we but y the stuff. If we have invested in home solar panels and charge our electric cars that way, how will the government tax that?

You might get a free lunch, but you won't get a tax free lunch, you'll still pay tax on it somewhere down the line, and it will end up being no cheaper than filling up with petrol in the first place.

Personally I will be in my nineties by the time this comes along, and if I am still alive, I expect to have my driverless car on call to whisk me away to the local supermarket.

At least there's been no mention of banning petrol powered motorcycles...yet.

[vetteheadracer]

I feel very strongly about this. Petrol cars contribute 7% of nitrogen oxide emissions compared with 37% for diesel cars. When compared from 2000-2017 to amount of nitrogen emissions has fallen by about half and emissions from non-vehicles still contributes to more than 50% of the total!

I feel so strongly about this I have created a petition to get the Government to change this to just diesel cars.

https://www.change.org/p/uk-parliament-stop-uk-gov...

[Z064life]

vetteheadracer said:

I feel very strongly about this. Petrol cars contribute 7% of nitrogen oxide emissions compared with 37% for diesel cars. When compared from 2000-2017 to amount of nitrogen emissions has fallen by about half and emissions from non-vehicles still contributes to more than 50% of the total!

I feel so strongly about this I have created a petition to get the Government to change this to just diesel cars.

https://www.change.org/p/uk-parliament-stop-uk-gov...

Signed - with pleasure.

So will the UK also be banning flights and ships in and out of the UK?

[GetCarter]

vetteheadracer said:

I feel very strongly about this. Petrol cars contribute 7% of nitrogen oxide emissions compared with 37% for diesel cars. When compared from 2000-2017 to amount of nitrogen emissions has fallen by about half and emissions from non-vehicles still contributes to more than 50% of the total!

I feel so strongly about this I have created a petition to get the Government to change this to just diesel cars.

https://www.change.org/p/uk-parliament-stop-uk-gov...

Good luck with that!

[Z064life]

GetCarter said:

Good luck with that!

Got over 20 years to get a sizable number of signatures, but our voice needs to be heard?

[JagerT]

Oo goody another thread on this subject.

[mfp4073]

When any Government give's a deadline like this, you can bet your arse that they will miss it by miles!...the whole thing will be screwed up years before 2040 anyway.
What worries me is there are plenty of clueless dip sts who want to buy an electric car because they think electricity is magic, and pollution free.

[frozen-in-wiltshire]

vetteheadracer said:

I feel very strongly about this. Petrol cars contribute 7% of nitrogen oxide emissions compared with 37% for diesel cars. When compared from 2000-2017 to amount of nitrogen emissions has fallen by about half and emissions from non-vehicles still contributes to more than 50% of the total!

I feel so strongly about this I have created a petition to get the Government to change this to just diesel cars.

https://www.change.org/p/uk-parliament-stop-uk-gov...

+1 on that - I have signed up

(and for anyone who thinks this is a waste of time - look over the last few years at the number of immense tts that have done the same and got a result - there is absolutely no reason why we can't make ourselves heard too)

[mac96]

A ban seems a bit of an irrelevance to me- you would hope that by 2040 electric cars would be good enough and cheap enough to mean that practically noone would want to buy a petrol or diesel car by then anyway, except a few die hard hobbyists whose pollution impact won't matter.
And if they aren't, the government in say 2035 will just have to put the ban back to 2050.

[tali1]

......have Volvo been hacking into Govt files ????

[350Matt]

one thing I've not heard mentioned so far with this news is what are they going to do about the loss of fuel tax revenue?
as lets not forget a litre of fuel costs about 50p to get it to the pump the rest is all tax

as they going to come up with special car flavoured lekky and tax the bejeesus out of that instead

how will they police that..

special sockets in your garage with a special meter that runs 4 times faster than the domestic meter?


I spy a hundred ebay kits in the future to get round the legislation on the cheap

as with most government legislation they haven't thought it through......

I also note the the wording is carefully worded 'petrol and diesel only' cars who are they kidding all it takes is bolt on a starter motor generator instead of an alternator and 'boom' its a hybrid and if there's a car sold in 2040 thats not a hybrid then I show you a racing car - possibly

never mind the hybrid part is only good for 3Kw / 8mph.....

[Grey Eddy]

Yet another half arsed ill judged, badly planned "policy"...read scheme to get their grubby fingers into my wallet!

Timescales...
25 years ago i was driving a diesel Vectra, not too bad a car really (relatively speaking), and served it's duties well. It is certainly directly comparable to today's cars.

Are they honestly telling me that my 2017 diesel SUV wil have magically morphed into some autonomous personal transportation pod, that is fuelled by spangle dust, in a similar time frame?
Get real!

Feckem.... I'm going to hold out for my personal jet pack, just like they promised me 50 years ago!

Edited by Grey Eddy on Thursday 27th July 16:36