If you had your sights set on a shiny new petrol or diesel car and intend to drive it in the United Kingdom…well, let’s just say you might not want to hang around too long. Farfetched as it may sound on the surface, the British government is apparently seeking to ban the sale of all new diesel and petrol cars nationwide, by the year 2040.
Which essentially means that in just over two decades from now, it could be fundamentally impossible to purchase new petrol or diesel cars in the United Kingdom.
Not that the British government is the first to have come up with such an idea. Not only did the French government recently publish a similar plan as part of its on-going air pollution reduction scheme, but India also plans to move comprehensively away from combustion engine vehicles even sooner.
It all comes down to the way in which growing levels of nitrogen oxide in the air are known to pose a serious risk to public health. Government ministers spoke of the way in which the growing problem with air pollution is already having a direct impact on the health of UK citizens. In fact, experts believe that poor air quality already costs the British economy more than £2.7 billion every year by way of lost productivity.
“Poor air quality is the biggest environmental risk to public health in the UK and this government is determined to take strong action in the shortest time possible,” a government spokesman said.
“That is why we are providing councils with new funding to accelerate development of local plans, as part of an ambitious £3bn programme to clean up dirty air around our roads.”
Unsurprisingly, the proposal certainly hasn’t gone down well with everyone. For one thing, the impact it could have on the British automotive industry could be enormous to say the least. But what’s even more controversial is the way in which the ban will also include hybrid vehicles, which feature both a traditional combustion engine and an electronic motor.
As it stands right now, government officials all over the world are aggressively pushing the benefits of hybrid vehicles, as a means by which to improve fuel economy and reduce air pollution. Benefits which are likely to be somewhat diluted in terms of appeal, should the government go ahead and make the move to ban the sale of such vehicles within the next couple of decades.
It’s a little like the situation with diesel cars – diesel engines having been not only highlighted as beneficial, but even incentivised to encourage greater sales less than two decades ago. Fast forward to 2017 and the government is looking to not only remove diesel cars from the roads entirely, but ‘punish’ those who continue to drive such cars by way of excessive taxes and levies.
Though the government has been repeatedly warned to avoid tactics that punish motorists rather than encouraging proactivity, it’s becoming increasingly clear that the former of the two will play a key part in whatever legislation is implemented.
