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 live rurally, drive about 50 miles return trip to and from work - public transport is not an option for me.

My nearest supermarket is a 20 mile round-trip.

I could have written this. Why is it a problem? I'm seriously thinking of getting an electric car next. My next door neighbour already has. She loves it.

but some of the "It won't happen" comments read like wish fulfilment
You misunderstand. I mentioned Crossrail. I am all for renewables and I’d love an electric car, but can’t get one for the reasons mentioned in my original post. I have no concerns re performance or range and having off street parking, getting a home charging point wouldn’t be an issue. But I wasn’t talking about the technicalities of engineering with regard to Crossrail and comparing it to the electric car infrastructure required. I was citing it as a ‘project’ that has, due to many external factors (detractors, protests, challenges), taken (so far) 13 years, with at least another 2 years to go from just the approval stage - disregarding all stages prior to approval. That was my point. To mangle a Wilde quote, it is a triumph of experience over hope to realise this government, and frankly any subsequent government, whomsoever they may be, will not be up to the task of planning, approving, passing, funding and building the infrastructure, including the mooted 16 new power stations, within the next nine years. By the time they do get there, hydrogen might be the way to go anyway thus rendering years of time and billions of pounds wasted. And also by which time the geopolitical pitfalls of the electric car battery industry may well be overtaking the geopolitical pitfalls of the oil industry of the present/past.

I think there may already be some prototype electric tractors, I remember seeing something from John Deere. There are also tractors that run off various kinds of farm produced fuels.

Though I rather wonder if the future in farming involves a lot of large tractors anyway. If we are talking about sustainability, the kinds of large farms that are becoming increasingly common aren't the most sustainable.

They will really have to get a wriggle on with changing the infrastructure before then. Also is this just a ban on buying new cars? Can we keep our old cars if they're diesel? It sounds like a step in the right direction but any UK gov will inevitably fuck it up

Absolute bollocks. I've just brought a car over £60,000. No way will I be getting rod mid of that in 8-10 years

@Lunar567

As with Covid scare mongering this tread shows that Mumsnet is promoting government propaganda - Great reset in this case. People who believe this Green agenda is good for the country have no critical thinking.

@Lunar567 it's actually the opposite - there are huge swathes of Mumsnet promoting the propaganda of the petrol companies and car companies.

It's actually quite sad how many statements are made by people here about electric vehicles which are completely untrue and just fake news paid for by the oil companies.

@ihatesandpits

Absolute bollocks. I've just brought a car over £60,000. No way will I be getting rod mid of that in 8-10 years

It's new vehicles. Not old ones.

I like the idea and would love an electric car - I live in London. I still don’t understand how I’d charge it realistically as I don’t have a drive (neither do any of the other 300 house on my road). Hopefully some smart technology will be along in time to solve this but it’s a hell of an undertaking.

After reading an article, you’ll still be able to buy second hand petrol cars after 2030, and buy fuel for it.
The announcement applies to brand new cars. There will still be loads of petrol/diesel cars on the road after 2030. Possibly for decades.

It is a good step but it doesn’t address the issue of the limited life of the car battery (how do we dispose of it?) and the fact that electricity still requires fossil fuel. I really wish there was more funding into hydrogen for cars which would be much better for the environment.

@Pomelos Tesla batteries are designed to last between 300,000 to 500,000 miles. This is a lot longer than your standard petrol and even diesel cars.

@MagnoliaXYZ we do similar distances for work and amenities from our village
We have an electric car it's not a problem, range is improving all the time and ours has 292miles in theory but more like 250 in real life. This is a massive increase from the electric cars we were looking at a few years back.
Can't charge at work so charge at home a couple of times a week.

We have an electric car it's not a problem, range is improving all the time and ours has 292miles in theory but more like 250 in real life. This is a massive increase from the electric cars we were looking at a few years back.

Just out of pure curiosity how much was your vehicle? 292 miles per charge sounds great but something tells me vehicles offering such distances are vastly out of my price range.

.and the fact that electricity still requires fossil fuel. I really wish there was more funding into hydrogen for cars which would be much better for the environment.

And of course that then begs the question of how is this magic hydrogen is going to be produced .

www.newscientist.com/article/mg24232333-300-hydrogen-has-a-dirty-secret-lets-not-think-its-always-a-green-fuel/

People had better be prepared to pay for "green hydrogen"....otherwise all they will be doing is dumping their own personal pollution "out of sight, out of mind", and not in their own back yard.

@Hearwego

After reading an article, you’ll still be able to buy second hand petrol cars after 2030, and buy fuel for it. The announcement applies to brand new cars. There will still be loads of petrol/diesel cars on the road after 2030. Possibly for decades.

Hurray, if electric cars are still as expensive and inconvenient as they are now.

@Byllis I didn't say anything about Crossrail so I don't know why you tagged me in that sentence. But as you have mentioned it Crossrail is just one of many over budget, overdue major infrastructure projects. And for those going on about the private sector, they will cherry pick the high revenue sites likes urban areas and major roads and ignore the rest of the country without major government initiatives and subsidies - see public transport, mobile phones coverage and broadband for examples.
I have zero faith in this government having the bandwidth to cope with this and Brexit and post Covid economic recovery. Come 2028/9 it will be postponed because we aren't ready. I think that 8s sad because if I could charge it I would have an EV now but I can't charge at home (and I work from home) and the nearest charging point is in the centre of town 9 miles away.

I think it's important to remember that electric cars will only form a part of the transport picture.

Several companies are investing in the development of synthetic, carbon-neutral fuels effectively carbon-neutral petrol and diesel. These fuels will be important because there are some modes of transportation which will never be especially suited to electrification trucks and road haulage, aviation and shipping. These things are not going to go away.

Synthetic fuels, while expensive and complicated to produce at the moment, are a legitimate pathway and could allow for significant numbers of ICE cars to remain on the roads post 2030/35. We might even find, if the development of these fuels moves forward over the next few years, that the current proposals are amended to allow a little more flexibility over what kind of vehicles are sold after 2030.

@CarlottaValdez

I like the idea and would love an electric car - I live in London. I still don’t understand how I’d charge it realistically as I don’t have a drive (neither do any of the other 300 house on my road). Hopefully some smart technology will be along in time to solve this but it’s a hell of an undertaking.

In London you go to a public charger and then it lasts a week or two of not much use...

People seem to think you need to have the car permanently plugged in, you don't.
I have a garage and charge there most of the time, but there was some work being done so i had the car out for 2 weeks and didn't need to charge it once

I got to posts written at 8am yesterday morning and lost the will to live!

There's such naivety from those who have enough money and privilege that this is a good idea. It's like nothing exists outside their self righteous bubbles.

You really must go and drive this 80k car, it will solve all your problems when you live in the countryside and work as a farm labourer or district nurse.

@ineedsun

I got to posts written at 8am yesterday morning and lost the will to live!

There's such naivety from those who have enough money and privilege that this is a good idea. It's like nothing exists outside their self righteous bubbles.

You really must go and drive this 80k car, it will solve all your problems when you live in the countryside and work as a farm labourer or district nurse.

^this

@ineedsun

I got to posts written at 8am yesterday morning and lost the will to live!

There's such naivety from those who have enough money and privilege that this is a good idea. It's like nothing exists outside their self righteous bubbles.

You really must go and drive this 80k car, it will solve all your problems when you live in the countryside and work as a farm labourer or district nurse.

This has been answered a number of times...

EV's are not £80k, you can get them for much much less - many older ones are available for £5k ish now. This is an emerging market - "cheap" cars will only be available when volumes of EV's get to 10+ years old.

The technology is emerging, and yes new cars are expensive but they always have been and always will be.

District nurses are/would be easily able to afford and use a currently available EV, and fit all their stuff in it and go the distances they need to go.

If you are in the market for a banger, you need to wait a bit longer for them to appear in the market.

So was there any mention of flying in the green bill? Are we planning on developing electric planes?

I'm not against EVs, DH has a hybrid car but to assume it's an option for everyone is absolutely stupid. And even EVs produce significant air pollutants in brake dust etc.

@LittleMissLockdown you're right it is an expensive make/ model. Ours is on an all inclusive lease (maintenance, servicing, tires, insurance, breakdown cover ) so works out very affordable for us whereas buying outright wouldn't be. In fact it is quite a bit cheaper due to the lease than the equivalent petrol/diesel car and is cheaper than my VW golf was per month.
I was mainly giving it as an example of how quickly things change in the market that kind of range wasn't available until very recently. More affordable options are emerging as more companies enter the market place and the technology evolves.