The actual ban on buying new petrol powered cars in the UK had been delayed, but there will be increased costs for driving petrol vehicles in certain zones. I can forsee a large drop in the price of scrap metal and gas stations turning to charging stations. Personally I think it should be left to the consumer and it seems the ban has been put back due to the price of electric cars. Will the US follow suit (I hope it will allow consumers to choose).
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surprise, surprise.
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Always the same in the UK.
A lot of unrealistic goals.
People point out it is unrealistic. They are shouted down.
A few years later. The plans are delayed.
Not against this. Just saying how politicians are full of shit.
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I’m against forcing people into electric , but also agree they are full of sh.t.
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One can only surmise that “Conservative” nowadays (not just in the UK but broadly speaking) means “conserving destructive habits.” 
Guy
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If electric cars get more competitively priced then there is no need to force anyone. They are delaying it because they cost too much even with slave minors.
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To be clear: I am no advocate of electric cars as a way out.
It’s the continued support of petro vehicles which I oppose.
And it’s the conservation of this kind of bad habit which I am referring to.
Guy
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Statement from the PM
twitter.com/SamCoatesSky/status/1704219783950926268
AFAICT he is deploring issue dodging short termism, in advance of an issue dodging short termist policy shift announcement.
So thats all right, then.
It’ll make no practical difference at all, though its not a good look. Car manufacturers aren’t going to plan production changes specifically for a five year shift in the wee UK market alleged end date, and this just brings the UK in line with Europe.
From a personal perspective, it won’t make any difference either.
I wouldnt want a new IC car anyway, even if I could afford one, since as far as I can tell they are un-maintainable profoundly irritating disposable junk.
I get enough of that jive from my iPhone
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The leader of Columbia (Gustavo Francisco Petro)
Oh ok got your point. And the government is disrupting all right now with its indecisive nature.
I think the EU seem to have their finger on the pulse here. They are certainly taking into account financial costs and incetivising purchase of EVs too.
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This is a bit like suggesting breathing is a bad habit. Your entire existence depends upon this “bad habit”, regardless of your choice of personal transport, and there is no viable alternative to it at the moment. If you don’t think electric vehicles are going to solve the problem (assuming there is a problem), then what will? What’s your proposal?
The UK government’s idiotic “Net Zero” goals remain, AFAIK. Sunak will be voted out at the next election, but he’ll most likely be replaced by another wild-eyed WEF useful idiot who will continue with The Plan.
I can’t help wondering, though, if the whole point of Net Zero is simply to terrify normal people, keeping them cowed, confused, and preoccupied, while the government carry on with whatever the actual F they’re intending to do to the UK.
It’s obvious that they have no intention of actually doing anything about “climate change”, environmental pollution, etc. Everything they have done to date with the “it’s because of climate change” label on it has no purpose except to inconvenience people, take their money, or make them anxious. Sunak’s little reprieve could be just a way of playing the fish on the line, in the same manner as on-again, off-again lockdowns.
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Keeping the populace in a constant state of anxiety seems to be popular on both the left and right. Unless a person was in a situation which they could work from home then it would be very difficult to hold employment without a car. I remember a time when you could do everything pretty much locally , shop, work…
Now that’s pretty rare.
Electric vehicles are generally very expensive. I don’t think we want to end up in a system where only wealthy people can drive. There are areas of the UK with no public transport.
(I’m not talking London but outside major metropolitan areas).
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It’s all a bit dumb cos by 2030 practically nobody will be buying new petrol or diesel cars (already the price is decreasing rapidly) . Electric cars will be cheaper AND have massively higher resale values. You’ll have a glut of second hand petrol cars worldwide in developed countries but won’t be good value to drive or maintain anyway.
Net zero goal is good as it aligns policies and gives assurance that investments wont be wasted.
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I don’t see any reason to conclude this. The batteries are good for perhaps 10,000 hours of operation, the electronics are good for about 20,000, and I wonder what will happen when they start failing. Will the manufacturers support them? Or will it be a case of “sorry, we don’t have a spare part for that, but we can offer you a discount on a new model”? They’ve been running that business model for a while now - as @Ducked hinted above - and I don’t see any reason why they’d want to change it if it works.
“Net Zero”, in aggregate, is going to bring the West to its knees, while China overtakes us because they’re not religious zealots committed to The Current Thing.
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Price of the batteries are plummeting faster than predicted.
They also provide warranties.
Electric cars are simpler and cheaper to produce and maintain and run.
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There are fundamental physical reasons why lightweight batteries will always be outrageously expensive. EVs are going to be one of the biggest environmental disasters this planet has ever seen, and IMO that’s deliberate. When it happens, it’ll be proof that we haven’t Net Zeroed hard enough.
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I predict you will be utterly wrong on this. In fact reality is the battery prices are plummeting year by year.
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Right, just like I was utterly wrong about COVID. 
FFS, this is what I do for a living. I’ve been quite closely involved in EV technology and have a lot of experience with power systems and large batteries. In the big picture, there is no way at all that EVs can be anything other than a disaster for everyone. As things scale up - as they approach the limit stops imposed by resource supply, energy, etc - prices will go up again.
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Oil is a much bigger disaster. Besides renewable power is also going to benefit tremendously from lower battery costs. It also makes fossil fuel power supply uneconomical.
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Oil is what it is, and it’s going to “run out” very soon (that is, it’s going to become impossibly expensive to extract). How exactly do you think we’re going to make all these EVs without oil? An EV is, essentially, embodied oil. So are solar panels, batteries, etc etc. That doesn’t mean these things are “bad”, it just means they’re being deployed in completely inappropriate ways. And as I said, I suspect that’s deliberate, so that when the disaster becomes apparent it will provide a ready excuse for more draconian interventions.
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