Michael Gove plans to BAN the sale of new petrol and diesel cars by 2040 in a bid to slash vehicle pollution
NO new petrol or diesel cars will be sold in the UK after 2040, the Government has announced today.
The move is part of a new plan to drastically cut air pollution.
Enviornment Secretary Michael Gove has revealled plans to BAN the sale of new "conventional" petrol and diesel cars as part of a dramatic plan to slash vehicle pollution across the UK.
Detailing the Government’s delayed Air Quality Plan, the Cabinet Secretary has announced the end of the road for traditional motors within a generation.
No new petrol or diesel car will be sold beyond 2040 with Brits expected to fork out for electric or hybrid vehicles.
The decision echoes a similar ban by the French earlier this month.
The car industry said the news was a "surprise" but investment and technology was already headed this way.
Mike Hawes, chief executive of the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders (SMMT) said: "In 20 years, conventional will be plug-in hybrids anyway."
And it follows a flurry of announcements by car giants such as Volvo – which recently announced all of its new motors will be electric or hybrid post 2019.
The first petrol car was built in Britain in 1892 – by a gasfitter Fred Bremer – and more than 170,000 traditional cars are sold each year.
Diesels now make up almost HALF of the market, 35 years after the first mass-manufactured models rolled off the production line.
But Mr Gove’s hugely symbolic move comes as the Government admits drastic action is needed to bring toxic pollution back within legal limits in towns and cities from London to Bolton and Glasgow.
Under today’s plans the government will tell councils they have to clean up air quality along 81 of the dirtiest roads in the UK.
A £255 million fund will be set aside so Town Halls can retrofit buses, change road layouts, and alter features such as roundabouts and speed bumps.
If these measures fail to bring nitrogen dioxide levels down, the government will allow councils to introduce charges or BAN polluting vehicles at certain times of the day.
And in a blow to two million drivers with the oldest diesels, the government is only launching consultation on a “possible” scrappage scheme this autumn.
A Department for the Environment spokesman last night insisted: “Our plan to deal with dirty diesels will help councils clean up emission hotspots – often a single road – through common sense measures which do not unfairly penalise ordinary working people.”
Motoring campaigners last night welcomed the fact Michael Gove had appeared to listen to their concerns – and insisted taxes should only be a last resort. Howard Cox, co-founder of Fair Fuel UK said: “With money to improve the most congested roads as the first line of improving air quality, there’s now no excuse to introduce Toxic Taxes.”
But the AA warned that many low-income families may struggle to switch to electric or hybrid cars to avoid new charges that are brought in.
AA public affairs spokesman Luke Bosdet told the Sun: “Let’s just hope that the less well-off car owners are able to find vehicles that meet the Government’s plans.”
Green campaigners ClientEarth have twice successfully sued the Government –forcing them to bring out revised plans to tackle air pollution.
Judges earlier this year set a deadline of the end of July for the latest strategy.
Greenpeace argue that air quality in Britain has broken legal limits for pollution every year since 2010.
Fuel campaigners have demanded compensation for millions of drivers with older diesel vehicles given the former Labour government encouraged motorists to switch to diesel over a decade ago.
At the time diesel was seen as a cleaner alternative in the fight to bring down emission of climate warming carbon dioxide.
But diesel cars have since been blamed for fuelling the problem because they produce as much as four times more nitrogen oxide than trucks and buses and 22 times more particulates.
NOx pollution is thought to kill 23,500 people a year in the UK alone.
Jack Cousens, a Roads Policy spokesman for the AA added: "The ambition to stop the sale of new petrol and diesel cars by 2040 is a step in the right direction. But there are plenty of factors that need to be addressed along the way.
"In driving motorists towards electric vehicles questions will now focus on if the National Grid could cope with a mass switch-on after the evening rush hour.
"There will also need to be a significant investment in order to install charging points across the country, especially fast-charge points so drivers can top up their vehicles within half an hour."
Power crisis looming for the plug-ins
ELECTRIC cars use battery- powered motors which need charging after so many miles instead of combustion engines.
Most have a range of around 100 miles on one charge but top brands such as the Tesla can do up to 315 miles.
Drivers can recharge at home with a normal 7kW wall socket, which takes four hours on average, or at 30-minute rapid charging points out on the roads.
But electric or hybrid vehicles, which use both petrol and electricity, still make up just five per cent of cars sold in Britain.
So dumping the internal combustion engine would cause a power crisis as millions more have to plug their cars in.
UK motorists travel around 250 billion miles a year and if every driver went electric it would add 16 per cent of demand to the electricity grid.
This would require 10,000 onshore and 5,000 offshore wind turbines to power, more than double the 7,613 already built, or seven nuclear power plants.
There are currently just 4,572 charging locations across the UK, compared with 8,500 petrol stations for traditional cars that have an average range of 350 miles from a full fuel tank.
There would be huge ramifications for the Middle East’s oil states if it becomes worthless.
Some experts fear it could destabilise the entire region and even spark more terrorism as powerful Western protectors, such as the US, no longer have an interest there.
It is claimed small nations there would seek new military protection from larger neighbours.