20 http://www.4X4australia.com.autech torque
FRASER STRONACHTHE UK AND FRENCH GOVERNMENTS’ PLAN TO BAN FOSSIL-FUEL CARS BY 2040
IS NOTHING BUT A POLITICAL STUNT.
THE UK government recently
announced it intends to ban the sale
of all petrol and diesel cars by 2040.
This followed a similar but slightly
softer proclamation by the French
government, when it put its car
industry on notice towards a 2040
‘clean-car’ deadline.
Both announcements appear to be
more political grandstanding and
headline-grabbing than of any great
substance, though. No new laws have
been passed and neither government
may be in power after the next round of
elections, let alone 20-odd years down
the track. Plus, the UK ban doesn’t rule
out hybrids, which still essentially rely
on petrol or diesel power and would –
along with electric cars – seem to be
the big winner in all of this if such a
ban comes to fruition.
National Grid owns and operates the
‘poles and wires’ part of the electricity
grid in England and Wales, and it has
already questioned the prospect of a
predominately electric-vehicle fleet
in the UK. It said peak electricity
demands on an already stretched
system could rise by 50 per cent when
electric vehicles are in recharge mode
in the evening or overnight. The extra
electricity needed to run an electric-
vehicle fleet would also be nearly 10
times the output of a new nuclear
power station being built in Somerset
in southwest England.
According to current indicators, fossil
fuels such as coal and gas will still
contribute to electricity production in
the UK in 2040, which further calls into
question the idea of banning cars that
run directly on fossil fuels.
What must especially irk the auto
industry is that these decisions are
being made before the benefit of new,
tough and costly-to-comply-with vehicle
emission standards – especially for
diesel vehicles – has fully played out.
Air currently sampled next to roads
in the UK is deemed to be ‘dangerous’
to human health by European Union
(EU) standards, but UK roads arestill inhabited by mostly older diesels
(and older petrol cars) that don’t meet
current standards.
Euro 6, the latest standard primarily
targeting NOx from diesels, only came
into full effect two years ago in the
UK, so it’s not going to play a big part
yet, given the average age of cars in
the UK is eight years and the average
lifespan is 13.5 years. Even the earlier
Euro 5, which primarily targeted soot
from diesels, has only been fully in
play in the UK for six years, so it will
benefit less than half of the UK’s
current national diesel fleet. No doubt
roadside air-quality sampling when the
UK’s national fleet is at least Euro 6 or
better will tell a different story.
Of course, emissions standards are
ongoing and the automotive industry is
working hard to meet the even tougher
upcoming Euro 7 standard, as it did
with Euro 5 and Euro 6. Much of this
is about diesel cars, given diesels are
currently so popular in the UK and
Europe. Ironically, diesels only became