Ban on new petrol/diesel cars by 2030 - AIBU to be excited?

[almostautumn]

The government are set to announce a ban on sales of new petrol and diesel cars by 2030. As someone who lives in a polluted city (London) and worries about the effect that carbon emissions are having on my family’s health, I’m so excited by this news because I think it will really change our children’s lives for the better. And it’s fantastic that it’s only 10 years away!

www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-54981425

I think we do need to do this, but better alternatives must become available to those not in London/big cities. There is virtually no public transport where I live and electric cars are stupidly expensive, take ages to charge and don't go far enough.

As someone who lives in the Highlands and Islands, this ban really worries me. We've regular road closures resulting in 60 mile detours on roads that then get shut due to flooding and accidents from all the extra traffic.
Even with the best will on the world, they can't be enough charging points built alongside the big motorways to stop you having a hours wait for a 20 minute 80% charge

i reckon you are right @Duckduckduck123, but undoubtedly that problem won't be resolved until their hand is forced by the sheer number of people needing to charge their cars. the solutions to those kinds of problems always come after the change unfortunately.

Nope, the thought horrifies me.

too little too late.
should be 2022 really.

imo it's a nimby thing. cars need energy to drive and even electricity sometimes comes from immensely polluting sources.

I would have liked more investment into cycle and public transport infrastructure.

individual car ownership needs to be more inconvenient and expensive.

Nope, the thought horrifies me.

Me too.

There are a lot of horror stories being put about by the petrol companies at the moment.

I drive electric and have for he past 5 years. Its marvellous and there is 1/5 of the pollution (this is from electricity generation and includes disposal of batteries). This btw is a genuine figure, taking account of two similar cars.

Charging networks need to be improved but overall no doubt it's the future and it will flip sooner than people think.

Be very careful what you read as the petrol companies are literally pouring millions into fake news stories about problems with electric cars most of which can be ignored - stuff like they run out of electric suddenly, they catch fire, you can't charge them in the rain, blah blah. All incorrect.

I would love to buy an electric car/ I’m in the SW, never seen a charging port! Unlike my friend in London who has one outside her house, and along her road. You cannot provide the infrastructure in one part of the country and not another.

It will never happen.

As another poster said it’s all well and good doing this but better alternatives are needed. I love rurally and work in community nursing, I need a car that is reliable for that reason and doesn’t take an age to charge or is overly expensive to buy in the first place

Itll be great for London, no surprise there. The rest of us will suffer for it though unless electric cars get substantially better in range and charge time. And more charging points.

And there's no point unless we also switch to completely renewable energy, we're still burning fuel, just then turning it into electricity before putting it in your car.

It will need massive investment to succeed.
Little structure anywhere for charging especially where people have no drive and park streets away from home etc . Rural areas especially so.
More expensive and inconvenient? It's hardly cheap to run a car is it ? I would not be able to do my job without a car.
Also I'm yet to see anything about noise levels, electric cars are silent as far as I am aware and potentially dangerous - happy to no doubt be corrected on this ....

It's a good thing, and they should stick to it. But they really need to have started working on the roadside charging infrastructure ages ago, including a 100% requirement to build them into new housing estates.

There are currently no public electric charging points in our town of approx 15k people.

What happens if they don’t get the infrastructure in place eg charging points in time? What will people do whilst driving in rural areas?

The Government will lose a lot of money from fuel duty.

And how green are the production of additional electricity needed and the production and disposal of the batteries?

Not happy. Who’s going to be able to afford all this. Another way to demonise the poor as far as I’m concerned.

I think it will be quietly dropped. It's just a PR stunt. Mainly because the infrastructure won't be in place.

We still have incredibly old fashioned town annibg in thus country, with retail parks being built in inaccessible places, quite often with little or no pedestrian access. And new build housing estates stuck on the edge of existing settlements with barely a footpath linking them.

Cycoe path provision is abysmal or non existent. So I don't really see what this ruling about cars is going to achieve, other than preventing poorer people from enjoying the treat of a low cost trip somewhere nice.

I feel I can educate some people here!

So, @Rosie2000 I charge from home 99% of the time. I have a home charger fitted which cost £250 and basically all my mileage is now paid by my electricity bill at 12p per Kwh. It works out at around £3.50 per 100 miles compared to a petrol vehicle which would be around £20.

I do all my local motoring in the electric car and it amounts to about 8000 miles per year, so I am saving £1320 (approx) per year in fuel costs. There is no question it saves me money, and many people also get their electric free by using free charges an/or a variable electric tariff, but I can't be bothered with that. We do have a second car to go longer distances which my husband drives - it's also electric.

There are charger in the SW you just need to know where they are! You can look them up on map apps.

@Gotthetshirt23 Cars have to have a noise by law - they are not silent at low speeds. You have picked up another bit of fake news doing the rounds

Better alternatives are needed to avoid a two-tier society

Sounds good, and for every person who claims to live in the middle of nowhere with no petrol station so have to drill for oil and refine it themselves let alone have electricity, there will be 1000s who can switch effortlessly.

@AlaskaThunderfuckHiiiiiiiii They are WAAAY more reliable than petrol - again beware the propaganda from petrol companies - I have only broken down once in 5 years and that was a puncture!!

What about those of us who don’t have private driveways to charge our cars? The village I live in is basically a main road through a row of about 15 houses and my car is parked out on the street we we don’t have a drive

I do all my local motoring in the electric car

I wish someone would educate you about the environmental and cost saving benefits of leaving the car behind for local journeys. Walk, cycle or get the bus instead.

@Bakeachocolatecaketoday

I feel I can educate some people here!

So, @Rosie2000 I charge from home 99% of the time. I have a home charger fitted which cost £250 and basically all my mileage is now paid by my electricity bill at 12p per Kwh. It works out at around £3.50 per 100 miles compared to a petrol vehicle which would be around £20.

I do all my local motoring in the electric car and it amounts to about 8000 miles per year, so I am saving £1320 (approx) per year in fuel costs. There is no question it saves me money, and many people also get their electric free by using free charges an/or a variable electric tariff, but I can't be bothered with that. We do have a second car to go longer distances which my husband drives - it's also electric.

There are charger in the SW you just need to know where they are! You can look them up on map apps.

I hope you’re equally excited to start paying a premium on your electricity once the government starts losing a fuckton of money from the fuel duty it receives.

This is green washing at it’s best.

@Bakeachocolatecaketoday doesn’t answer my question about whether it would last a whole shift in rural community nursing? I can do over 80 miles a day sometimes and that’s just at work never mind getting home, getting kids from school etc