The headline news from the announcement of the Government’s air quality strategy is all about the ban on the sale of petrol and diesel cars from 2040 onwards.
What does this mean for the car you own and might want to sell in a few years’ time – and what does it mean if you can’t stretch to a new car, and only ever buy used?
The answer to that might seem to be ‘not much’. Petrol and diesel cars will one day become obsolete, that much is for certain – with or without legislation, that was always going to be the case, and there’s currently some debate as to whether the new rules will actually have any effect, or whether organic change will happen well before 2040 anyway.
But it isn’t that big, attention-grabbing headline that should be of most concern to used car buyers. More worrying is the effective licence the air quality strategy gives to councils to charge older vehicle owners for driving their cars into city centres.
Granted, the Government’s stance on this is that it should be used as a last resort – but given the seeming keenness of councils around the country to enforce this sort of legislation (no less than 27 British towns and cities have proposed or been given the go-ahead to create clean air zones), I wouldn’t bet against it.
While these charges will affect all owners of older vehicles, it’s likely that they’d be skewed against diesel cars, as per London’s T-Charge and Ultra Low-Emissions Zone (ULEZ) schemes. The former targets all cars that don’t comply with Euro 4 emissions standards, but the latter slaps an extra charge on diesel cars that don’t hit the newer Euro 6 regulations.
Already, used diesel values are roughly on a par with their petrol counterparts in certain classes of car, negating the idea that you’ll get back the extra you pay for buying a new diesel when you part with it. As we’ve already discussed, if this methodology is applied nationwide, there’s a strong chance it will hit diesel car values further, meaning drivers who currently own diesels may find they get far less than they expected when the time comes to sell on. And if that is the case, the ubiquity of diesel models and the paucity of their equivalent petrol versions will only exaggerate the switch in values.
Here’s the dilemma that could face used car owners before too long if councils get their way: let’s say you own a 10-year-old diesel Volkswagen Golf, and your town introduces a ULEZ-type charge. Suddenly you can’t commute to your office in the town centre anymore without incurring a £10 daily fee. Chances are you’re going to want to get out of that pretty quickly, either by selling privately or part-exchanging it. The problem is, everyone in your area, and indeed the whole country, has had the same idea; as a result, 10-year-old Golf diesels are now worth about 3p.
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The time bomb is already ticking used car sales (especially diesel) and prices are likely to start tanking with immediate effect..., I have a very nice old six cylinder petrol car at the moment so I will keep it 'till it virtually falls apart so I suspect there will be problems for all car markets but maybe not for the same reasons except the ultra-premium brands which I reckon will likely see an enormous increase in worth. I suspect this is going to be a slow-motion train crash.
Electric bikes
The government could encourage use of electric bikes as an alternative stream for reducing pollution.
The rules for electric bikes are absurd at the moment. You have to pedal to get electric assistance. And the electric assistance can only assist up to 15 mph. This makes an expensive electric bike a bit of a no-go for almost everyone. If they changed the rules to allow full propulsion, even if it was only at 12–15 mph, it would encourage people who would never cycle to work to start doing so.
Then the government needs to pass a law that all new roads must have full segregated cycle paths alongside them.
Then they need to be serious about changing current routes that are begging to be converted so cyclists can use them properly. I would love to cycle the eight miles to work but i would be killed within a few months. The 'corridor' I use to get to work os crying out to be converted to bike-friendly status. Painting a blue stripe down the edge won't cut it.
Just imagine how many people would be happy to hop on a fully propelled electric bike and cruise gently to work on a car-free track. At th emoment, you simply can't do this.
Combustion engine
Maybe it's time we serious looked I to some of the invention that allow Combustion engine to be fuel by no oil products and produce zero pollution we see you tuse and other site filled with engines running on water etc vapours end so and we also know that major oil companies hold patients on inventions that would have ride use of petrol and diesel.
People still collecting old cars and like to run them. It's hobby no its more than a hobby it's a major employer in the uk.
There are 10 of thousands of small business around keeping cars on the road and they pay huge amounts of taxes to the UK government. Do we really want to end our love of cars.
The government will loose a huge amount of revenue from petrol diesel and all the service parts associated with mains ing and running a car.
No fuel tax, as people turn to solar and wind to charge there electric cars let's face you force down this rOadby so any good car owner will produce there own energy and say stuff you Westminster for not listening to car owns, we are not this issue in cities look at gas boilers and central heating systemsystem they produce more NOx than any car.
Hold on what about caravan and RV leisure industry currently no electric car can tow a caravan infactve very few hybrids can for that matter.
Are we saying good by to the holiday industry all those jobs in caravan and leisure gone!
This is a badly through the through concept with politician and lobby group who have not got a clue about car transports or how people live.
Most of our expertise live in major cities, they haven't a clue how normal people in the rest of the country live, people with no train, buses taxi's and the nearest shop might be 30 + miles away. People who holiday in caravans because there pay is to low for the family to our anything else the people who travel 70 to work because the cannot afford to live near or family jobs make it impossible to move. I would like all these experts to talk to people like myself I am a scientist chemical and biological I am also car person I am more expert than some of the experts and as for government ministers they are the least knowledgeable of all, sorry Mr gove you are totally with understanding in this subjects maybe you need to bring someone onto his team who not so city London centric.
People are obsessed with electric cars but Hydrogen seems to have been forgotten. We need alternative to batteries electric motor are fine but batteries are not. Energy storage need to be better and energy use age and efficiency needs vastly improving.
Do not throw away very good cars because the fuel is wrong. I suggest we look a alternative fuels for the engines clean fuels.
The motor industry have worked hard but the government have do little to make petrochemical industry change there ways yes additives to make fuel clean and other tech has come about but still they not worked on an alternative to the black stuff hard enough.
Forcing change and hurting the poorest in our nation is what this government and other have been doing. They have been using petrol and diesel cars to force social engineering on our world
.the internal Combustion engine has brought about a huge change in social mobility, the cheap easy way to travel for all has meant people have had more freedom than ever the car has been a major part in government loosing control and people spreading ideas the Combustion engine allows use to travel almost anywhere we want but battery car will stop use remove that freedom unless there is a huge change.
Currently the uk cannot produce the energy it needs we would at least 10 huge power station on top of those planned to meet 2040 electric car needs .the government will need to invest at a time revenue are dropping plush councils are doing nothing .
They are making our road network worse closing lanes off make the room for vehicles less lowering speed limits and making get about difficult for car owners.
I suggest Mr get someone like me on his team the voice of reason before its to late.