Boris Johnson has announced that the British government will ban the sale of new petrol and diesel cars from the year 2035 rather than the original 2040.
While it is true that the UK was the first major G7 country to announce that they were banning fossil fuel powered cars and gave a date, there were many problems with the initial target.
One of the main ones was a simple fact that it was indeed too far away. The generally accepted length of time it takes from the initial design stage to releasing the car is 7 years. Due to rapid changes in the car market this may indeed shrink, but for now taking it is accurate even a 2035 date suggest that car companies have two full cycles before they need to stop selling fossil fuel cars.
My suggestion would be a rapidly increasing extra tax on fossil fuel cars that start around 2030 and increase fast. These taxes should be so high that consumers demand more choice on the electric car market. Given the number of electric cars due to come to market between now and 2023 it is likely that by 2030 the choice will be high anyway. Many people believe they will eventually get an electric car, it is not necessary for this upgrade requirement to be in 2 full car cycles. With the right taxes and benefits people will be saying that if they buy a new car it will always be electric – is it going to take at least another decade or two for the second hand market in cars to make the same change. I would love to upgrade to an electrical car now but at this point that is not financially possible.
I would like to see the government in the UK making laws that will lead change not changing laws to follow the lead that other people are creating. There is an increasing acceptance of the extreme danger the Climate Change makes us face particular on an island such as the UK, while there is a significant number of people who don’t care about the environment and don’t believe in climate change we should not be making laws because of these people. The government should listen more closely to where the majority of the country is and make laws that will help drive this change forwards.
