
Petrol and diesel car sales ban brought forward to 2035 - sohkamyung
https://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-51366123
======
trollied
I've no idea how they'd even begin to create the infrastructure to support a
large amount of electric cars. In a typical street of terraced houses in the
UK, there are no driveways - In fact, 32% of the population rely on on-street
parking. You park on the road. How are you supposed to charge your vehicle? Is
the plan to line streets with unsightly charging points?

~~~
matthewmacleod
On-street charging is already available though a fair number of ubitricity
charging points, who install 5kW sockets in lamp posts and bollards. They're
basically invisible – there are a bunch of them in my area in London that I
didn't even know about until I was specifically researching.

~~~
buro9
This depends on the borough.

My London borough (Haringey) does not do this and only use the Source network
for which my home is equidistant to several... being more than 1km from all of
them. No letters or pleas, or offers from myself to fund installation of lamp
post charges in line with govt grants have been successful.

I'm going to be purchasing another fossil fuel vehicle as it's clear that
electric won't work for me unless I can get the distance to a charger below
100m.

Oh... and charging from the property by running a cable over or across a path
is apparently against the law: "Highways Act 1980, it is illegal for any
person to place or run a cable or wire along or across any part of a public
highway. So running a charging cable across a footway is not permitted"
(excerpt from council reply to my enquiries).

------
VBprogrammer
If I had just one wish about this legislation it would be that a standards
body was created to limit the number of form factors that can be used for
batteries. Being able to buy a car and know that you'll be able to change the
battery in 10 years time with a compatible unit (possibly even with better
capacity) would take much of the anxiety out of the electric car transition.

------
adrianN
Excellent news. I wish the EU would follow suit. Does anyone know how it is in
the UK wrt heating with fossil fuels? Is there a ban on the horizon there too?

~~~
radicalbyte
For heating it makes the most sense to use gas and put subsidies into
insulation.

In The Netherlands we are - for some boneheaded reason - killing gas and
replacing it with burning wood. With the subsidy spent on that we could
insulate every building in the country to a high level and have a massive war
chest left over to further build out EV infrastructure.

~~~
Angostura
Meanwhile in the UK... about 10 years ago I bought a wood burning stove that
was built to meet UK clean air regulations. I have a friend with a wood, so I
thought I would do my bit for CO2 emissions Unfortunately, currently
particulate pollution is enemy number 1, so wood burning stoves get you tutted
at.

~~~
bogle
"More or Less" on BBC Radio 4 did an investigation of the supposed particulate
pollution from wood burners. Basically, although data is thin (and misused by
HM Gov), if you have a modern stove and properly dried wood you won't be a
particulate polluter.

------
kerrsclyde
Hopefully this commitment won't go the way of other long term targets, like
the 2020 budget surplus plan...

------
velox_io
There's no mention of one of the worst culprits, buses with diesel engines.
Plus, outside of rush-hour they're driving around virtually empty.

~~~
Steve44
I know this is London only but they are changing over. I think generally the
busses have a ten year life and more will be changing as time goes on.

"London’s electric bus fleet becomes the largest in Europe"
[https://tfl.gov.uk/info-for/media/press-
releases/2019/septem...](https://tfl.gov.uk/info-for/media/press-
releases/2019/september/london-s-electric-bus-fleet-becomes-the-largest-in-
europe)

------
tonyedgecombe
Investment in the UK car industry has plumetted since the referendum was
called.[1] When the current government came into power I imagined they would
do whatever they could to rescue that situation. Now I'm wondering if they
have come to the conclusion that it can't be saved. I couldn't imagine them
making decisions like this otherwise.

[1]
[https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-49170387](https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-49170387)

~~~
jajag
That's a highly cynical view. On the one hand, Nissan are reportedly
considering ramping up production in the UK [1]; on the other, the UK
government no doubt realises that there is considerable economical potential
in green energy.

[1] [https://www.theguardian.com/business/2020/feb/03/nissan-
eu-u...](https://www.theguardian.com/business/2020/feb/03/nissan-eu-uk-hard-
brexit)

~~~
ben_w
Makes sense that a few of the companies would do that — from what I’ve been
hearing, the problem with cars in particular is post-customs-union cross-
border manufacturing playing badly with rules of origin and just-in-time
manufacturing, so I am expecting spring like 75% shutting down U.K. factories
and 25% expanding U.K. factories at the same time and for the same reasons.

> That's a highly cynical view.

The current UK government is full of people who have repeatedly demonstrated
that they don’t know how the UK government functions. The cynicism is
deserved.

------
lucian1900
This is not necessarily good. There is not enough lithium on earth to replace
all UK cars with electric ones. Worse still, the lithium that does exist would
require violence to extract profitably, as we've recently seen with the US-
backed fascist coup in Bolivia.

We need to seriously consider biofuels instead. Biodiesel in modern engines in
particular is very efficient.

[https://medium.com/@Grossmanite/the-green-new-deal-is-
specie...](https://medium.com/@Grossmanite/the-green-new-deal-is-species-
suicide-only-a-hemp-based-industrial-revolution-can-save-earths-f9c3dc29c4e3)

~~~
ben_w
Worldwide mineral reserves of Lithium: 16 million tons

Worldwide lithium dissolved in seawater: 230 billion tons

80g lithium/kWh battery * 100kWh batteries/car * 32 million cars in the UK =
260 kT

80g lithium/kWh battery * 100kWh batteries/car * 1 billion cars in the world =
8 million tons

~~~
joosters
So? There's about $544 billion dollars worth of gold dissolved in seawater,
but it's completely impractical to extract it.

~~~
ben_w
Known land reserves alone are twice what we need for every car on the planet.

The ocean reserves are for illustration because the person I was replying to
claimed there wasn’t enough on the entire planet for the U.K. alone.

