New cars bought in the UK must be zero emission by 2035

boem@lemmy.world to Technology@lemmy.world – 237 points –
New cars bought in the UK must be zero emission by 2035
theregister.com
36

This is being pushed back from 2030, so it's not good news. Just a delay on the law.

Climate scientists: “The climate is fucked now! We needed to intervene 20 years ago. We must take emergency intervention!”

Government/industry: “We’ll get right on that in 10-15 years.”

Thanks for the info. I guess by now we should just expect them to continually push it further.

Right up until 2030 when they push it back to 2045.

2030 would be an election year as were 2035 I don't think they'd want to push it back on an election year.

Anyway by the time 2035 rolls around a lot of cars will probably be electric already and it'll be less of an issue.

Depends on whether or not there is a snap election this year…

I'm fairly sure that even if there's a snap election this year the election after that will be in 2030. Doing it early will just hand the new government a few extra months of power, it doesn't calculate forward from the last election it's just every 5 years regardless of what else is going on.

New cars are ludicrously expensive, especially EVs.

The most I can afford to spend on a car is maybe £14K, and that's under the proviso that about £4K of that is my own money and the rest is a loan to be paid off over about 6 or 7 years.

So yeah, I'm going secondhand ICE with about 50K miles on the clock and praying it doesn't die before the loan is paid off (and preferably longer still so I can save a bit more towards the next one).

I'm all for EVs, but they've got to bring the price down, and they've got to get the batteries to last long enough for the secondhand market to be viable.

Most importantly. Where the fuck are renters supposed to charge these fucking things?

This is why mass EV adoption is not going to happen. Good luck convincing landlords to install chargers.

I’m not dicking around for 2 hours at a station every week waiting for a charge, let alone multiple times a week.

At home? If you drive less than 30mi a day on average, you can plug into a normal wall outlet.

How do you do that if you live on the 20th floor?

Depends where you park, are there wall outlets by the elevators in parking garages?

Not everyone can afford a place in a parking garage. For example, in my building they were only affordable for those who bought before the construction was complete, and expensive on secondary market.

So it is street or lot parking then? If lot parking, there might be a building nearby with an outdoor outlet that one could see about running power from. There are devices that can monitor the power draw to reimburse. I realize it isn't as easy for EVs for everyone, but electrical power is everywhere. Of course public transit is better, but if that's not an option, look into how to get power to a parking spot so we can stop using gas.

That only works if you have an outside outlet. If you don't don't good luck getting the landlord to fit one.

Would they rather let you put one in than you run an extension chord from inside?

You're not allowed to make modifications to the property without authorization, so yeah they would much prefer you to run an extension cord from inside. Of course it's unsafe and inconvenient, but they don't care.

And even if there are chargers installed around the building, not everyone can park directly next to their home anyway. Our building has several hundred flats yet only a couple dozen parking spots around it. Sure, far from everyone there has cars at all, and some can afford a place in the underground parking, but that still leaves a lot of people to park on the streets around.

Certainly something that needs to be addressed by them, or manufacturers will not be able to sell them. They will be punished unless they help with solutions.

I’ve seen several possibilities floated around here, so we have 12 years to build out one or more of them

  • landlords with off street parking can be incented or required to provide chargers, by zoning changes. Also at some point they won’t be able to find tenants unless they do
  • faster batteries will help reduce the wait time if you visit a supercharger once a week. It seems like we’re already down to half an hour to charge 5%—>80%
  • slow chargers at every destination (work, shops, restaurants) can keep you always topped off cheaply and without waiting
  • some street parking is conducive to charging, such as with pre-existing streetlight wiring

some street parking is conducive to charging, such as with pre-existing streetlight wiring

Some little old biddy is going to trip over the cable though.

With personal charges it's on your private property so there's less of an issue. The public street it becomes a problem

This is why mass EV adoption is not going to happen. Good luck convincing landlords to install chargers.

If you install a charger, you will get a 25% tax cut for the next 5 years, if not you will get a 25% tax increase for the next 5 years.

Seems pretty convincing to me ;-)

So I assume this is a Labour policy is it, because the zero chance of the Tories ever doing anything like that.

Having a positive effect on the world, that's not what they do.

I bought my 2yo BMW i3 EV in 2019 for £18k. Granted, they weren't as popular back then, but cheaper second hand EVs do exist. You just can't go for the big SUV types.

Just hit 60k miles with my only issue being a broken suspension mount. Damn potholes.

Murican potholes are the bane of BMWs everywhere (I speak from experience)

Except maybe the SUVs idk but sedans yeah I have an F30 and basically check alignment once or twice a year now lol

Battery prices per kWh dropped 87% from 2010 to 2020. It's likely to be around the same over the next decade--there's tons of money pouring into research, and we're far from theoretical limits. This is not going to be a problem by 2030.

This is one of the things a deadline like this should help with. Manufacturers know they need to sell a certain percentage of EVs, going to 100% on a specific date. They can’t just build them, they have to sell them. If EVs are still too expensive, they won’t be able to sell them, and the manufacturer is out of luck

Eighty percent of new cars and 70 percent of new vans sold in Great Britain must be zero emission by 2030, increasing to 100 percent by 2035

As usual the headline doesn't give the full story.

The Brits have a niche position on sports car manufacturing. It will be fun to see new models of Morgan's and TVRs.

Don't seems to be that big problem, even Lamborghini has now hydrid models and planning a full EV one. Same for Ferrari if IIRC.

Not great news there yet: "There was also a provision for manufacturers of fewer than 2,500 cars a year that exempts them from the rules until 2030. The British sports car makers Aston Martin Lagonda and McLaren both argued that they would be unable to meet the targets"

https://www.theguardian.com/business/2024/jan/03/big-carmakers-lobbied-uk-to-weaken-or-delay-electric-car-rules

Here is a good electric sports car from a small high-quality manufacturer like the ones you mention, but it is from the Netherlands: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4aTzuUrdyIc

Most people can't afford to buy electric cars, so.... Either they become cheaper with time (they should) or less people will be able to drive a car...

I'm in the market now looking for cars and I was shocked by how expensive the electric ones are in comparison to hybrids or fuel driven ones.

Most people can’t afford to buy new cars period.

This doesn’t stop people buying 10 year old ICEs. You can still buy a 10 year old one in 2045.

I’m pretty sure EV tech has improved enough by then to make cheap cars possible.

Guess we are just gonna have to pull a Cuba and maintain them for decades.

This is the best summary I could come up with:


All new cars and vans bought in the UK must be zero emission by 2035, according to the latest legal mandate updated this week.

The government says this is giving consumers more time to make the switch and deal with the UK's charging infrastructure.

While the government points to statistics indicating a 41 percent increase in zero-emission vehicles registered for the first time – note, the vast majority of newly registered vehicles still remain conventionally powered – charging infrastructure is an altogether different story.

According to research from RAC, a local roadside assistance business, the government has failed to meet its target of having six or more rapid or ultra-rapid electric vehicle chargers at every motorway service area in England.

EV owners are faced with a bewildering array of charging options, from using a UK three-pin plug through various types and speeds up to the latest and greatest from Tesla.

Finally, the government's plans also fail to tackle that other challenge faced by EV drivers: finding a public charge point that actually works.


The original article contains 394 words, the summary contains 173 words. Saved 56%. I'm a bot and I'm open source!

Whoops someone realised they'd likely still be in their position when 2030 comes rolling by and would have to make an effort