UK ban on diesel and petrol cars brought forward to 2035
The UK ban on sales of petrol and diesel cars has been brought forward to 2035, and it will include sales of hybrid and plug-in hybrid vehicles too.
But now the new Boris government has decided they’re going to bring that forward to 2035, and the ban will include not just conventional petrol and diesel cars, but anything with an ICE engine. Which means sales of hybrid and, more controversially, plug-in hybrids will be banned too.
It’s a move which is likely to cause huge concern in the motor industry, with just 15 years to go before all the investment in ICE engines needs to be written off it will be an enormous challenge to deliver a complete sea change in private, and commercial, transport in such a short time.
Apart from the huge challenges for car makers to move to an EV only model range – which means either BEV or Hydrogen Fuel Cells – there are huge infrastructure issues to address, not least the national grid and charging stations, and the thorny issue of how the government will replace the pushing on £30 billion a year it garners from fuel duty.
Expect road charging to rear its head for all cars sooner rather than later.
Steve Street says
If that’s the case why were we shown people fling a glass and drinking to prove how clean they are? Hydrogen is by far the better option but the infrastructure is not in place and the manufacturers not buying in for this reason
Cars UK says
The drinking water stunt was to show the ONLY thing coming out of the tail pipe is water. But it is no more than an ICE car, although the ICE car has a lot of other stuff coming out too!
Steve Street says
And where will all the charging electricity come from? Nuclear power or will we just open the coal mines up again. Knee jerk reactions without forward thinking. Look forward to rolling blackouts as all the cars get plugged in at night.
By product of hydrogen fueled cars, water tons and tons of water imagine the m25 on a usual cold day filled with hydrogen cars water dropping from exhaust pipes freezing on the road!
Cars UK says
Where the electricity we’ll need comes from is a very valid point, but Hydrogen Fuel Cell cars actually only emit about the same amount of water as an ICE car.
Patrick Moody says
I think you’re on the right lines with this. I’d suggest an earlier cut off for anything non plug-in, because frankly the “self-charging” hybrids are basically just a more complex version of a conventional ICE car, given that there’s no way to make them move without burning fossil fuel somewhere along the way. At least it’s possible to run a PHEV with no fuel burned, so a later cut off for the PHEVs would make sense.
Peter Szczesiak says
It’s a joke it needs to be 2025 for non hybrid ICE and 2030 for all ice/hybrids, this is to little to late