Tuesday 4 February 2020

Remember to stock up on cars to keep you going until 2050.

From the BBC:

A ban on selling new petrol, diesel or hybrid cars in the UK will be brought forward from 2040 to 2035 at the latest, under government plans. The change comes after experts said 2040 would be too late if the UK wants to achieve its target of emitting virtually zero carbon by 2050...

The change in plans, which will be subject to a consultation, comes after experts warned the previous target date of 2040 would still leave old conventional cars on the roads following the clean-up date of 2050.

I'm not sure if my three will last long enough to see my through until they take my licence off me. From the wording, it doesn't appear that they'll ban the sale of second hand cars in 2035, so they'll be a solid investment from about 2030 onwards. I hope I don't forget to buy another one or two in the early '30s.

26 comments:

Lola said...

This is bonkers grandstanding form the idiot government. What's particularly annoying is that modern petrol and diesel cars have lifecycle CO2 costs about the same as electric cars.

And are buses, trucks, vans, tanks,amoured cars, ships, aircraft, chainsaws, motor mowers, hedge trimmers, emergency pumps, emergency generators, rescue vehicles etc which use ICE going to be banned?
What. An. Idiot.

I bet the 'elite' keep all their ICE vehicles and those 'key workers'.

Lola said...

...and what about model aircraft?

Sigh

Mark Wadsworth said...

L, batshit insane. But let's hedge our bets by stocking up.

Bayard said...

Nice to know that the entire rail network will be electrified by 2050, or use wood fired steam locomotives.

L, all those things on your list will be electric, except the emergency generators, which will have to be powered by gravity
( www.gravitricity.com ), nuclear power or treadmills. The ships will use sails, of course.

Model aircraft will be banned unless they are powered by electricity or rubber bands.

Bayard said...

Mark, rents on barns are going to rise.

Bayard said...

and there's always this: https://i.ytimg.com/vi/cPzgCYpon48/hqdefault.jpg

Mark Wadsworth said...

B, but the barn can be anywhere. A bit of heating/ventilation, security cameras and insurance, job's a good un.

Lola said...

B. Electric tanks. That'll be fun. "Driver, advance". "Can't sir. Me batteries are flat". Riiight

Mark Wadsworth said...

L, that would be funny if it weren't true.

Curtis said...

The UK isn't going to be carbon neutral by 2050. The 2035 deadline will be pushed back.

Lola said...

MW. Exactly, and that is why the 'elite' and 'key workers' will continue to benefit from ICE vehicles when all us proles are forced into useless battery what are essentially upgraded milk floats.

Mark Wadsworth said...

C, let's hope so.

L, Zil lanes all over again.

Lola said...

MW. Yep. That's the plan.

Dinero said...

A few observations ,
Even if the technology did progress to enable it, and the car manufacturers did not go bust in the process.
Following that "Economics happens at the margin" having no replacement petrol buyers in a year would cause immediate problems and closures for the petrol distribution industry/network. There is no infrastructure to charge the cars, new car buyers would instead buy 2nd hand petrol cars , very old petrol cars will be also kept running when new petrol cars are less polluting.

Mark Wadsworth said...

D, like in Cuba.

Lola said...

D Correct.

ontheotherhand said...

The first excercise in strategic urban planning was done in London just after 1900 and they got most of it right in terms of population growth and housing, BUT even though there were some cars around, they planned London around horses, with needs for stables and muck collection dictating layout and road width.

Today there are a few self-driving cars around. Surely we should plan around a future where you don't need to own a car, but can request an Uber like service to speed you from home to work either alone or shared, joining a tight aerodynamic convoy barrelling down the motorway or ex-train line at 150mph. Once in an urban area there are no traffic lights as the computers weave the cars efficiently through. Just like low cost airlines reduced prices by maximising the hours of utilisation of their expensive planes, would it not be better if cars were shared and used for 8 hrs a day instead of 1?

What the heck are we building HS2 for? Most of the miles of existing tracks are empty most of the time to preserve safe stopping buffers. The future is driverless cars.

Lola said...

otoh. I agree in principle. It is a classic 'what is not seen' moment; keeping HS2 on the tracks. How much of those £ Billions would have gone into R&D on autonomous vehicles?

Physiocrat said...

The people who think that electric cars are green should take a trip around all the places where the ingredients are mined. How many nuclear power stations will be needed to charge them all?

The war on carbon dioxide is almost certainly missing the point

Physiocrat said...

Wood fired steam locomotives are not so silly. They got one going quite well on the Ravenglass and Eskdale Railway, using wood shavings. They just need a large grate area because of the low energy density. Thermal efficiency is up to about 13% these days, up from 8% which used to be considered good.

Mark Wadsworth said...

OTOH, there is a perfectly good solution for denser urban areas/large cities, it's buses, trains, trams etc.

And for the other two thirds of the population or ninety five per cent of the area, cars are ideal.

Lola said...

MW Exactly. Suffolk has a dispersed population. Public transport would be woefully inefficient.

Mark Wadsworth said...

L, agreed.

Ph, for Suffolk, even electric cars would be better than public transport. This not a car v public transport issue, it is a proper car v toy car issue.

Dinero said...

HS2 " Most of the miles of existing tracks are empty most of the time to preserve safe stopping buffers"

Also in off peak locomotives are hauling empty carriages. So how about tarmac and individual coaches with there own motive source.

Mark Wadsworth said...

Din, "how about tarmac and individual coaches with there own motive source"

So, cars then?

Anyway, this is not a train v car debate, it's a real car v toy car debate.

Bayard said...

"So how about tarmac and individual coaches with there own motive source?"

After reading about possible public resistance to self driving cars, I had an idea, combine them with the miles of disused railway lines. On the private land of the old lines, the cars could be self driving and when they got to a missing bridge or whatever, the driver could take over until they were back on private land again.