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

This is great for people in London with driveways or flat-block car parks with infrastructure for charging. I've had a hybrid car and it used the elec motor to tootle in town, but I live in Cumbria and I went back to diesel because my journeys aren't the same as middle-class London-dweller.
We'd better crack on with the new nuclear plants and the extra windfarms then....
Re hydrogen - yes, it's a very good way forward (I do a bit of work in this area) but it's not there yet. I think I might buy a bloody big diesel in 2029 tbh.

@Winterwoollies Beware fake news. Definitely not true.

@LondonlovesLola There is a plan to put them in streetlights, but this won't work for everything.

@FrostyGirl66 "The carbon footprint on making electric cars is massive. Plus the batteries don't last the life of the car, so extra batteries need to be made and disposed of, which is far from carbon neutral." Fake news again The real world figures show electric like for like has 1/5 of the pollution of petrol (including battery disposal). Also all evidence shows that the batteries are outlasting the cars!

Nope, it's a total nightmare and clearly not even remotely thought through. It will either not happen at all or will be a total disaster. Ten years to basically rebuild the infrastructure of the entire country? Right.

I have 3 DC one in a car seat and a husband no way a Nissan Leaf is big enough.

There aren't enough lampposts in our estate to charge cars. One lamppost for a row of 8 cars.
No way to create driveways for each house either. We're all packed in.

There is talk about putting a charging point on every lamppost. Still won’t be enough though in areas where it’s all on street parking. Lampposts are fairly spaced out.

Lampposts? What lampposts? 😂
I’m alright (Jack) as I have a garage and drive but a good number of our neighbours have no drive and park wherever they can get a spot along the unlit road.

@AlaskaThunderfuckHiiiiiiiii

I have 3 DC one in a car seat and a husband no way a Nissan Leaf is big enough.

Then the Kia e-Nero would be the car for you!

because my journeys aren't the same as middle-class London-dweller.

It’s not just the middle classes who will benefit. Londoners who don’t own cars because they can’t afford one will no longer have to walk their kids to school along terribly polluted roads, with their children breathing in fumes.

There is a plan to put them in streetlights, but this won't work for everything.

Surely that's a ridiculous proposal? Just on my street alone there are roughly 100 houses and 6 streetlights. Lets assume each house has just one car, (not realistic, but makes the sums easier) So 100 cars to charge and I estimate half the houses have a drive.

So 50 cars, 6 streetlights...

There are thousands of people whose working lives involve driving, carers, district nurses, delivery drivers etc etc. How are they going to manage to charge their cars ?
It’s madness on a huge scale to contemplate that this will work without more thought being put into it.
I realise the OP lives in London...but surprise surprise...not everyone else does!!!
I wish everything was not London centric driven, and people who live in London realised there is a whole other part of the country, several in fact, that cannot be used the same as London and treated accordingly!!

Haven't rtft but dh says there aren't enough power stations to generate the electricity needed and it takes like 20 years to get one online?

Considering the amount of miles I drive (when we were allowed), an electric car would be perfectly bloody useless.

I'll keep the oil burner as long as I can and at least get to my destination, without having to plug-in multiple times.

These silent cars are dangerous. When walking around London they sneak up on you out of nowhere. I think they need a fake car noise adding to prevent accidents.

I agree with you, it is absolutely fantastic. Except that it should be sooner, in the next year or two, rather than 10 years. What we are doing to the planet is appalling.

It’s not just the middle classes who will benefit. Londoners who don’t own cars because they can’t afford one will no longer have to walk their kids to school along terribly polluted roads, with their children breathing in fumes.

Have you thought about the implications outside of London OP? Rural areas, towns, poor public transport, School/ work not within walking distance?

It's a ridiculous, London-centric idea that will not work out in the real world.

The nearest public charging point to me is over 10 miles away. And there's one of them. The next closest is another 15+ miles away from that one!

I live in terraced housing and you can rarely park outside your home to charge it from there. We do have a driveway but only space for one car and there's no electric point in the garage anyway.

It's a bonkers idea that will require many billions in investment before it could ever become a reality.

[quote Bakeachocolatecaketoday]@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[/quote]
My neighbour has a Mitsubishi hybrid SUV which, when running in electric mode, is almost completely silent. I have been surprised by it a few times now. The law comes into effect from 2021 so any existing cars do not have to make a noise.

Oh this is such greenwashing nonsense. It’s an easy political win, but it’s a practical nightmare.

Most of the lithium is mined from South America, but converting everyone to electric will have huge consequences for lithium production etc.

The energy demand for making all new cars electric will be huge, and electricity needs to be produced either from fossil fuels or nuclear (and some renewable of course).

Not everyone will have easy access to a charger, and not everyone does the right kind of driving.

The cost of power will go up when the fuel duty revenue goes down. They won’t be cheap to run forever.

Electric vehicles absolutely have their place and on the whole I support a move towards more electric and fewer emissions, but a blanket policy is ill thought through and short sighted.

And as for this current government? Well they have considerable form for poorly thought through plans that can’t be executed. So there’s that.

@Bakeachocolatecaketoday it’s a moot point anyway as I said above I have no driveway for charging in a small village which is a main road through a row of 15 or so houses, and no there isn’t enough lampposts

Have you thought about the implications outside of London OP? Rural areas, towns, poor public transport, School/ work not within walking distance?

Clearly the appropriate infrastructure needs to be put in place. But it’s not like the entire country will suddenly switch to electric in 2030. It’s a ban on new petrol/diesel car sales from that date, which means that in practice we have a lot more time than 10 years to get our ducks in a row (to use a very Mumsnetty expression!)

Three things

1. The price of the cars needs to reduce dramatically. I’ve bought a car for myself and a car for DDs in the last two years. Mine new and needed to be fairly large as a family car, DDs small second hand car as they’re learning to drive. Setting aside the fact that for DDs it had to be petrol/diesel manual as that’s what the test will be in, neither time could I have anywhere near have afforded an electric car, I would have loved one for myself.

1. I can easily have charging points for two or more cars on my drive (there’s four of us living here) but the majority of households in just a small radius of here won’t be able to. I have zero confidence that this, or subsequent governments, will have the required infrastructure in place in anywhere near that timeframe.

1. I also have zero confidence that enough of the energy required will be truly green within that timeframe either.

@Greeneyedminx I asked this question as I work in district nursing rurally so cover a lot of miles. Even getting electric pool cars wouldn’t work as they wouldn’t provide one for every member of staff. You’re lucky if you get one at each base!

Just a word on this thread, I have adopted electric for several reasons

I have a driveway and therefore easy home charging
I don't (generally) travel more than 170 miles in one go
Many of my daily journeys are short and local
I worked out the numbers and it's much cheaper than owning a petrol car
DH loves his cars and they are very fast

I suspect there are many many people like me around who it suits. I still think it doesn't suit the following:
People without a parking space
People who travel more than 200 miles regularly in one go

The charging infrastructure is poor, but it's coming.

You really do have to avoid the fake news - the petrol companies are being very very naughty with their propaganda - and much of it is just not true. The Top Gear "running out of electric" stories are also false... I have owned various electric cars for 5 years and never run out of electric. Like I've never run out of petrol - there is a gauge that tells you how much you have left.

The battery life issues are also a myth. There are 2011 Nissan Leafs still going strong. Batteries are very much outlasting the cars. They are now looking at using the batteries as electric storage for the grid.

Even with recycling the batteries they are 1/5 of the pollution in total of petrol cars. That figure includes making the batteries and generating the electricity.

Really difficult where we live. There's no infrastructure here...no public transport, long distances to everywhere, low salaries ( so people cannot afford electric cars and a car is essential) and not a single public charging point in 50 miles.
There's going to have to be a massive amount of thought and effort put into rural areas.

On the radio this morning I heard a pundit saying " well if you can't afford an electric car, you can go green by using electric public transport". I despair of this city- centric attitude.

@Judashascomeintosomemoney just prices that Kia mentioned up thread as I need a biggish family car either boot room for my nursing stuff. Starts at £36,000!! No way could I afford that