The UK Will Now Ban New Petrol, Diesel And Hybrid Cars From 2035
The UK government has moved its target to ban all new petrol, diesel and hybrid car sales forward by five years, to 2035. The move means that the last date you’ll be able to buy a brand new ICE-powered car in this country is just 15 years away.
Prime Minister Boris Johnson will speak of the policy at an event scheduled to confirm a United Nations climate summit due in November. He will add that the date will be moved even further forward if it’s possible.
With model cycles lasting around half that time, and prices of BEVs still at crazy highs compared to ICE-powered siblings, it’s likely that consumers will now only see two more all-new versions of any given BEV before the proposed date. It’s therefore extremely unlikely that prices will have been brought down into a competitive line with combustion-fuelled cars.
In turn, that presents the likelihood of a severe new-car sales collapse as the public is forced to hang onto older, ICE-powered cars for longer due to being unable to afford a suitable BEV or FCV (hydrogen fuel cell vehicle).
The date has been moved in order to try to force the public’s hand by 2050, the assumption being that the overwhelming majority of ICE-driven cars bought in 2035 will have been scrapped and replaced with BEVs by the target date for the nation to be at net zero carbon emissions; 2050.
It presents the industry with a grave challenge: how to develop enough variety of BEVs quickly enough, with all the associated R&D spend, while knowing full well that in 15 years there will be a sales catastrophe, at least in the UK and any other nations that match the new target. As we have previously written, it’s almost certain to lead to a parts-sharing charisma whitewash.
At present there are no BEV or FCV estate cars in series production. There are only a few A-segment ones, too, and most of those cheapest BEVs are VW Group products based on the same parts. Elsewhere there are very limited options compared to the breadth of choice across ICE models.
New BEVs are predominantly emerging as SUVs or derivatives, which fit core market trends but may leave little room for those who want or need something different. We have 15 years to see what else car makers can come up with – and at what cost to the consumer.
Comments
The UKs idea of climate politics is so far fetched, it’s nothing but a radical restriction fiasco that will eat the poor
And all of this is rushed without even having a potent “green” solution about producing and recycling batteries from those EVs. I wonder who’s feeding the lobby behind that
It won’t. The ban from 2035 won’t affect already registered cars, and people who don’t earn lots of money are less likely to buy a car new.
You know, I’m happy that I don’t live in the UK for once
Will they ban diesel and steam trains too?
Steam is actually relatively clean (all the smoke you see pouring out of a steam train isn’t smoke, it’s… well… steam!) plus they’re only used for historical purposes and barely make a dent.
Diesel? They wont ban that because they don’t want to have to pay to electrify the railways.
As a huge EV head, this is not the way.
It doesn’t encourage manufacturers to improve EVs.
Banning ICE is the worst thing that can happen to EVs. In rivalry improvement is made.
I doubt they will ban ICE in 2040, let alone 2035. Everyone who ever worked on EVs and EV infrastructure agrees we need more time.
I agree, the worst thing that could ever happen to the car industry is there being no rivals. It’s like when I learned that Chevy might give the Camaro the axe in a few years I was like, the Camaro isn’t my favorite car, but damn this is sad, especially since it means that the mustang, one of my favorite cars, won’t have anything to rival and compete with, so it won’t take those technological and performance strides that it has been taking during it’s rivalry with the Camaro.
Ha, and I thought Germany was the biggest shithole on this planet…
I don’t agree with the statement that EV‘s wont drop significantly in price in the coming 2 generations. Especially considering the massive drop in price we have witnessed with Tesla’s Model 3. Since a significant part of pricing is amount of manufacturing. As soon as you produce more units it gets cheaper to produce and therefore cheaper to buy.
It isn’t just the cost of the EV’s either - the infrastructure just isn’t there.
We will need an order of magnitude greater charging places and I would imagine charging times will need to improve too.
Peak times at fuel stations are bad enough and they take minutes to user per driver.
Exactly this, not to mention the grid has nowhere near the capacity required to meet the demands of an all-electric car population.
Charging points are one thing, charging at home is another. I live in a f’king flat, where the hell am I supposed to charge my car? Run a 50m extension cable outside my car or something?
In the future I hope that there’s a type of license that you can get that allows you to drive fossil fuel cars while people who don’t care can just drive electric. I’m honestly not surprised that after brexit they did this though
I will just leave this here…
2035: the year everyone will want to have a gas guzzler. remember this post.