The UK government is set to confirm it wil bring forward a ban on the sale of new combustion-engined cars from 2040 to 2030 in an effort to speed up widespread electric vehicle (EV) adoption – but hybrid cars are set to be allowed until 2035 under the revised proposals.
According the Financial Times the widely anticipated move will be confirmed next week as part of a wider package of green initiatives announced by Prime Minister Boris Johnson. The annnouncement has reportedly been delayed several times since this autumn due to the government focus on tackling coronavirus.
A proposal to end sales of petrol and diesel-fuelled cars (including hybrids and plug-in hybrids) by 2040 was first announced in 2018 as part of the government’s strategy to reach net-zero carbon emissions by 2050, before transport secretary Grant Shapps said earlier this year that such action could be taken by 2035 or even as early as 2032 if possible.
Members of the public were offered the chance to submit their views in an online consultation process that closed at the end of July this year.
While the new ban on pure combustion engined petrol and diesel cars has been brought forward, the news that hybrid cars can be sold until 2035 will be a boost to the industry, given that EVs still account for a relatively small percentage of total orders. It is not yet clear what type of hybrid systems will be allowed during that five-year period.
Criticism of the planned ban tends to centre around the limited state of the UK’s public charging network, which is widely thought to be incapable with accommodating an influx of EVs. The Guardian reports that the government’s ambitious new plan comes in response to assurances from unnamed sources that the infrastructure will be ready by 2030.
In May last year, the Committee on Climate Change (CCC) voiced concern that the original 2040 date wasn't soon enough to meet the net-zero target, calling upon the government to “continue to support strengthening of the charging infrastructure, including for drivers without access to off-street parking”.
In response, the government doubled its EV charger fund allocation to £10 million in an effort to encourage EV uptake in urban areas in January this year. It also suggested that some of the money could be used to develop a publicly accessible charger monitoring platform, which could then be integrated into sat-navs and route-planners.
It remains unclear what effect the pandemic has had on the government’s bold infrastructure improvement programme, which included the installation of 3600 new streetside charging points this year.
In a letter sent to Grant Shapps recently, three Labour shadow ministers called on the government to bring the combustion ban forward to 2030. Matthew Pennycook, Kerry McCarthy and Alan Whitehead said 2030 would be “an ambitious and an achievable phase-out date for new ICE vehicles”.
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Mild hybrids?
How are they defining 'hybrid'? By 2030, most ICE powertrains will be mild hybrid anyway, so will this actually change anything? The technology suppliers say that mild hybridisation at 48V can deliver '70% of the benefit of a full hybrid at 20% of the cost'. If the ICE and electrification are optimised to work together as a highly integrated powertrain, you could easilly double that 20%.
I heard homes were to be
I heard homes were to be switched to electrical heating so no more gas supplies. Which will mean homes running heating, showers, hot water, cooking, tumble dryers, washers, dishwashers and everything else plus charging a car with a big battery - on an 80/100A domestic feed. I will believe it when they start digging up the streets to every house. Not happening 2025, 2030, 2035...
This is just a gameplay to keep the Extinction mob at home until Greta gets a boyfriend and loses interest.
The Apprentice wrote:
Someone elses comment reminded me of something else, multi car households, so add to all the above 2 or more car chargers and the loading is way, way beyond domestic capacity and no playing with switching chargers on and off is going to cover that without potentially leaving lots of people with insufficiently charged cars for freedom to travel as they wish, when they wish.
New upgraded mainline distribution, new substations, main roads dug up and disrupted for decades, every street dug up to every premises and a hell of a lot more than some extra windmills. Even more convinced its utter fantasy.
This seems to be to be
This seems to be to be another of Boris's moonshot ideas. He shouts "Whoa", stamps his foot on the gas pedal but has yet to engage his brain into gear.
I am all for the advancement to EVs - and in fact own one, but to think that the infrastructure will be in place within 9 years to support up to 2 million EVs being driven off new car dealer forecourts each year is cloud cuckoo fantasy land. The fact remains that for EVs to become a viable alternative to ICE's owners need off road charging and in most towns and cities this is impossible and there are not enough lamp posts for on street charging. I doubt whether the cost of EVs will become more affordable than ICE vehicles by 2030, particularly in the small and cheap car segments thus rendering ownership to those with deep pockets. Sales or new cars will therefore fall with the consequential loss of employment in production and sales. Outside of the EU the UK market will be too small for manufacturers to tool up for our market so choice of models until such time there is a common European date to move to zero emission cars is likely to be limited and expensive. The UK automotive is going to be taking a hard knock regardless of whether there is a free trade deal or not from 2021 so the last thing they need is more uncertainty. Frankly why invest in new models and production facilities in a market where so many obstacles are being placed in your way. It may seem a spiffing idea for Boris to burnish his green credentials before the next COP conference and for Grant Shapp to look smug in his Tesla Model 3 but doesn't this idea (I will refrain from saying plan because it isn't) smell of London centric thinking and completely out of touch with the Tories new found Red Wall voters. Let's aim for 2035 with the possibility of an extension to 2040 for hybrids.