With growing concerns over the environment, the writing is pretty much on the wall for fossil-fuelled cars in much of the Western world. With most European countries looking to ban the sale of new vehicles using diesel or petrol by 2040, the clear emphasis is on a phasing out stage where, sooner or later, pretty much all cars will be electrical-powered.
With the UK set to introduce this ban in 2035, however, a report via TheNextWeb is suggesting that this date may (not for the first time) be moved forward and, rather dramatically, potentially to 2030.
UK Fossil-Fuel Car Ban
Just to clarify, this date will not see petrol or diesel cars banned outright. So if you’ve just bought a brand new one, don’t panic, it’s not going to be kicked off the road in 10 years’ time. The ban will specifically apply to the sale of new vehicles mandating that they must be entirely electric.
If the UK does proceed with this new legislation, however, it will make it one of the world’s leaders for the electric car transition. Well, with the only exception being Norway who has already set their date for 2025. Albeit, about 45% of their cars are already electric so it’s not quite as dramatic for them.
What Do We Think?
Moving the date forward to 2030 (from 2035) would certainly prove to be a very popular move with the environmentalists. Whether it would actually be practical though is another question entirely. Many would argue (with more than a little success) that the UK barely has the infrastructure to cope with the relatively few electrics cars already on the road. Let alone the addition strain this would put on the already stretched electric supply. I mean, nobody wants more nuclear power plants, but that is undoubtedly the road (no pun intended) that we’d have to go down!
Still, who knows, if you buy a new car in 2030, you might have to go electric and whether that will be good or not… Well, only time will tell!
What do you think? – Let us know in the comments!
Could have ramifications for the second hand car market. There won’t be enough second hand electric cars to satisfy the lower end (<£5k) car sales market in 2030. I presume this would be new car sales only, which would be okay. I can see a lot of people in cities moving to not having a car at all if there are issues with the second hand market. Those cargo bikes are getting popular…
They could ban all non-electric (or hydrogen if that ever takes off) cars including second hand cars, from, say, 2040, giving the final sales in 2029/30 a 10 year lifespan.
I would expect a classic car exemption of some sort – could be based on car value, so people don't claim their old rustbucket is exempt.