UK government plans to ban the sale of diesel and gasoline cars by 2035
The U.K. government wants to end the sale of new diesel and petrol (gasoline) cars by the year 2035.
The plans, which were announced Tuesday and are subject to consultation, also include hybrid vehicles. U.K. authorities had previously said the sale of new petrol and diesel vans and cars would end in 2040.
Grant Shapps, the U.K.’s transport secretary, said that the government’s £1.5 billion ($1.95 billion) strategy to “make owning an electric vehicle as easy as possible” was working, claiming that in 2019 a “fully electric car was sold every 15 minutes.”
“We want to go further than ever before,” Shapps added. “That’s why we are bringing forward our already ambitious target to end the sale of new petrol and diesel cars to tackle climate change and reduce emissions.”
In practice, ending the sale of petrol, diesel or hybrid cars or vans would leave consumers with a choice between electric and hydrogen vehicles.
“Drivers support measures to clean up air quality and reduce CO2 emissions but these stretched targets are incredibly challenging,” Edmund King, the president of driving association the AA, said in a statement issued in response to the government’s new target.
“We must question whether we will have a sufficient supply of a full cross section of zero emissions vehicles in less than fifteen years,” King added.
https://www.cnbc.com/2020/02/04/uk-government-plans-to-ban-sale-of-diesel-and-gasoline-cars-by-2035.html
