Such a long time ago darling, I know, but do you remember then energy secretary Grant Shapps talking about the 2030 pure-combustion car ban?
“We’ve always been more forward-leaning on this stuff than the EU,” he said, a whole 182 days and two cabinet jobs ago. But if you thought then that his words sounded like nothing more than glibness and bluster, it turns out you were right.
There’s plenty of news and analysis elsewhere in this mag on the week’s zero-emission realignment, so I won’t dwell on what it means for mainstream car makers and energy sellers, whose reaction is dependent on how it affects their bottom line: JLR is pleased it will have more time to develop an electric Range Rover that doesn’t require an HGV license; others are upset because the British buy expensive new cars.
A few words, though, if I may, on the specialist car sector. In March, Shapps was talking about a proposal whose small print said micromanufacturers, even those registering just a handful of cars per year, needed to fall into line with the big players in 2030.
A kit car built in your shed in 2031, then, would have needed to be zero-emission, despite its overall environmental impact being minuscule even if petrol-powered yet likely worse, even over the longer term, if it used today’s battery tech.
Britain has the best specialist car makers, and more of them, than anywhere else in the world. And for them, the UK market and its legislation are critical and far from being a minor spreadsheet readjustment.
Now – or ‘for now’, perhaps, because it turns out that proposals due to come into force in 2024 hadn’t even been finalised, let alone those that will now arrive a decade later at best – it seems they can take stock.
Micro-manufacturers are dependent on big companies to supply their technology. There are exemptions in EU legislation, which the UK might eventually opt to follow, that will let them move to new energy when it improves the product by being available at the right price and the right weight. That, at least, whatever the rights and wrongs of the rest of it, is sensible.
The Stonehenge conundrum
The West Country roadside megalith complex that is Stonehenge re-entered the news this week because Unesco – which regards the monument as a World Heritage Site – thinks the proposed A303 tunnel that will run beneath the place is worse news than the way the current road layout runs. Or, rather frequently, doesn’t run.
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I don't think you're reading this right. The only way to survive the coming changes in the car market is to get ahead of the curve. The sooner companies electrify their products, the more likely they are to survive. Laggards who 'wait for the mainstream market' will experience a BlackBerry/Kodak/Nokia moment. This is the lesson from previous technology shifts and market disruptions. The innovators survive and the laggards fail. If we want to protect specialist car makers, which includes all those UK-based companies converting existing combuston cars to electric, then the government should support them. One way to do that would be to remove VAT from the price of converting classic cars to electric, which would reduce costs for owners looking to convert their old classics.
Good points. No need to keep going with ICE just because the government says you can.
I suspect that when the likes of Caterham launch an EV it will sell a few, there is certainly a desire from a few for a fun EV. But i fear that once the initial damand is satisfied, it wont take long for people to decide to buy old ICE cars instead of a shiny new EV. So the longer that new ICE fun cars can be bought the better.
I also wonder if there will be an active market in the makers rebuilding their cars and selling them as 'new in all but name' as i cant see this being banned by any proposed rules, and should ensure a steady supply of 'new' fun cars.
It might make the cars rather like 'Triggers broom' but who cares if we can keep on buying and driving them. The issue in the end will be fuel, but i cant see that being an issue for 30 years plus, plenty of time for a non dino based fuel to be easily available.