2030 is a little more than 9 years away, but news of the UK’s plan to ban sales of new gas/diesel cars in 2030 has reportedly led to a surge in interest in electric vehicles (EVs).
Practically speaking, there’s one decent reason for that, but the core reason is probably just increased awareness that electric vehicles are becoming mainstream and will eventually take over the market — something that is extremely old news to CleanTechnica readers but still largely unknown to the broader public. Helping the public to learn that the future (the medium-term future even) is electric leads to many more people thinking about their existence and viability right now.

Among other things, this just shows the power of strong country targets.

According to BuyaCar.co.uk, electric vehicle inquiries increased by 500% following the news of the stronger timeline. The website, which has more than 60,000 cars available for sale, saw searches for electric cars rise from about 300 a day to “1,679 in the 24 hours following Boris Johnson’s announcement.” They represented 6.5% of vehicle searches in the previous 30 days, and then 10.3% in the day following the announcement from UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson.

UK plugin vehicle sales rose above 12% in October (6.6% fully electric/BEV share), and was above 9% in the first 10 months of 2020 (5.5% BEV share). If a five-fold increase in EV interest translated to a five-fold increase in plugin vehicle sales, we’d see rocket grow to around 50% of the UK’s auto market! Of course, a search surge in 24 hours after a major national announcement does not mean sales will follow the same surge in interest. However, it’s a good sign — growth in consumer exploration of the superior technology should lead to an increase in sales.

Also noteworthy, being a used vehicle site, BuyaCar.co.uk does not see the interest in electric vehicles that the new car market sees. The company shares that not even 1% of its 2020 sales of used cars were full electrics.

Naturally, electric vehicles benefit from instant torque, a completely smooth & quiet powertrain, zero emissions, a simple powertrain that results in very low cost operation and much less maintenance, and the glamor of new tech.

One of the biggest advantages of a good electric car is that it holds its value well — something demonstrated over and over again, especially when it comes to Tesla models. As noted at the top, there is also a practical reason for a surge in interest following the 2030 ban announcement — gas and diesel cars could really see high depreciation as we get closer to 2030. If someone wanted to avoid being stuck with a used fossil fuel vehicle that had depreciated a great deal, resulting in a high total cost of ownership, it seems that it would be smart to go electric sooner rather than later.

BuyaCar.co.uk focused on the fact that the vast majority of buyers are still buying diesel and petrol cars, especially on the used market. While the crew there may think it’s for logical reasons, I would argue that it’s mostly due to cultural inertia, psychological inertia, and limited availability. All of those barriers can be overcome rather swiftly, especially considering the pace of change in the new-car market. The good news is that people seem to have an increasingly open mind about the new powertrain (which isn’t actually new, but that’s a story for another day). Even the BuyaCar.co.uk team seemed open minded about the transition, despite being probably less optimistic about the growth potential than you or I am.

Read more: Clean Technica

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Boris Johnson has set out plans for green investment over the coming decade, including a target to generate enough offshore wind to power every home in the UK and a ban on new petrol and diesel cars and vans from 2030.

The prime minister’s long-awaited 10-point plan for a “green industrial revolution” also promised the UK’s first hydrogen-powered town, four carbon capture “clusters” to suck 10 megatons of carbon dioxide out of the atmosphere and a new generation of advanced nuclear reactors.

But green campaigners warned that the £12bn in public funding promised by Mr Johnson fell well short of the scale of ambition needed, while there was dismay at his inclusion of “pie-in-the-sky” plans for zero-emission jet planes.

The decision to bring forward by five years the phase-out date for polluting cars and vans – with new hybrids granted a stay of execution until 2035 – is designed to kick-start the electric vehicle (EV) market, which despite recent growth still accounts for just 7 per cent of the sector in the UK.

It was backed by new investment of £1.3bn to instal charge points in homes, streets and motorways across England in a bid to overcome consumer reluctance to adopt the cleaner technology.

Environmentalists hailed the move as a breakthrough which Greenpeace said could “put the government back on track to meeting its climate commitment” of net-zero carbon emissions by 2050.

It puts pressure on other countries to follow suit ahead of the COP26 UN climate change summit hosted by the UK in Glasgow next year, and will send a signal to manufacturers to invest in production of greener models.

But the CBI warned the new target date was “undoubtedly challenging” and would require support for the automotive sector to adapt.

Coming as the PM attempts to “reset” his government following the fractious departure of aide Dominic Cummings, Mr Johnson’s plan aimed to target investment at former industrial heartlands in the Midlands, north of England, Scotland and Wales which he has promised to “level up” with the prosperous south.

The PM claimed the programme could create and support up to 250,000 high-skilled green jobs and leverage in more than £36bn in private sector investment over the next 10 years. He said: “Although this year has taken a very different path to the one we expected, I haven’t lost sight of our ambitious plans to level up across the country. My 10-point plan will create, support and protect hundreds of thousands of green jobs, whilst making strides towards net zero by 2050.

“Our green industrial revolution will be powered by the wind turbines of Scotland and the northeast, propelled by the electric vehicles made in the Midlands and advanced by the latest technologies developed in Wales, so we can look ahead to a more prosperous, greener future.”
But shadow business secretary Ed Miliband warned that the funding announced “doesn’t remotely meet the scale of what is needed to tackle the unemployment emergency and climate emergency we are facing”, paling in comparison to the tens of billions committed by France and Germany or the £30bn of capital investment in low-carbon sectors demanded by Labour over the next 18 months.

“Only a fraction of the funding announced today is new,” said Mr Miliband. “We don’t need rebadged funding pots and reheated pledges, but an ambitious plan that meets the scale of the task we are facing and – crucially – creates jobs now.”

And Green Party co-leader Jonathan Bartley said Mr Johnson should be aiming for billions more investment and millions of green jobs.

“Any action to address climate change is welcome, but this is nowhere near the scale or speed of what is needed,” he said. “This 10-point plan is essentially business as usual, with a few half-hearted measures and some wishful thinking about pie-in-the-sky technologies such as Jet Zero which don’t even exist yet.”

Read more: Independent

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The plan also includes developing the first town heated entirely by hydrogen by the end of the decade.

New petrol and diesel cars will be banned from sale after 2030, the government has announced.
The ban had been planned for 2040 but has been brought forward under Boris Johnson’s 10-point plan to tackle climate change.

The plan also includes producing enough offshore wind to power every home, developing the first town heated entirely by hydrogen by the end of the decade, and developing the next generation of small and advanced nuclear reactors.

Currently fewer than 1% of cars on UK roads are powered entirely by electricity, so the prime minister’s plan to end the sale of new petrol and diesel cars will require an enormous investment in the infrastructure needed for electric vehicles.
Edmund King, president of the Automobile Association, told Sky News only about 6% of local authorities have installed on-street charging facilities in residential areas.
Without a commitment to developing the right infrastructure, the plan was “optimistic”, he said.

“Everyone wants to move to electric vehicles but you can’t just pick a date out of the air. We need better infrastructure particularly for the third of people who can’t charge at home.
“We also need a better supply of cars and they need to be affordable.”

The prime minister claims that his plan for a green industrial revolution will create and support up to 250,000 British jobs.
The government says it will spend £12bn on the plan but analysts have told Sky News only £4bn of that is new money.
It includes £1.3bn to accelerate the roll-out of charge points for electric vehicles in homes, streets and on motorways across England.

Some £582m will help people afford zero or ultra-low emission vehicles and nearly £500m is to be spent in the next four years on the development and mass production of electric vehicle batteries.
The prime minister said: “Our green industrial revolution will be powered by the wind turbines of Scotland and the North East, propelled by the electric vehicles made in the Midlands and advanced by the latest technologies developed in Wales, so we can look ahead to a more prosperous, greener future.”
And Business Secretary Alok Sharma told Sky News’ Kay Burley: “This is a package which is part of turbocharging the green industrial revolution, levelling up across our country.
“It is £12bn of public money which will then leverage in three times as much from the private sector and, of course, support and create high-value added jobs – around 250,000 jobs by 2030.
“If you look at the UK, we are a leader when it comes to green growth.
“Since 1990 we have managed to grow our economy by 75% and at the same time cut our emissions by 43%, so we are world-leading in this area.”

Labour said the announcement fell short of what is required, but the independent Committee on Climate Change, which advises the government how to get to net zero, has welcomed the plan.
Chris Stark, chief executive of the Committee on Climate Change, said the prime minister’s plan was “a bold statement of ambition” but added: “What’s missing is the road map to achieving it.”

Read more: Sky News

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Do you know your mild hybrid from your PHEV ahead of the accelerated ban on sale of new petrol and diesel motors from 2030?

Boris Johnson has confirmed a new deadline for the ban on sale of new petrol, diesel and hybrid cars in 2030
Some hybrids will be on sale longer, with a later ban on new models from 2035
We outline the differences between electric and hybrids cars and when they will likely disappear from showrooms

The ban on the sale of petrol, diesel and hybrid cars has been accelerated.

All new cars with internal combustion engines will be prohibited from sale in 2030, while new hybrid vehicles than can, in the words of Boris Johnson, ‘drive a significant distance without emitting carbon’ will be removed from showrooms five years later in 2035.

With many different types of hybrid cars and a swirling of acronyms being used across the sector, here’s an easy guide and jargon buster to help you through the minefield of electric vehicle terms and which motors will be banned and when…

Battery Electric Vehicle (BEV)
Also referred to as: Electric Vehicle (EV), pure electric, fully electric
Banned in: Never
Example models: Tesla Model 3, Volkswagen ID.3, Nissan Leaf, Jaguar I-Pace, Audi e-tron.
Battery Electric Vehicles are those that are entirely powered by a battery and electric motors 100 per cent of time.
The vehicle itself produces zero emissions, has no fuel tank, no exhaust pipe and no internal combustion engine whatsoever.

All BEVs need to be plugged in to have the batteries replenished, which in most modern examples are packs built into the car’s floor.
Recharging takes considerably longer than refuelling a conventional vehicle, though improvements to infrastructure means you can get up to 80 per cent charge in around half an hour in the best-performing models.
There are considered the greenest type of car, though many question the environmental impact of battery sourcing and manufacturing as well as the production of electricity.
MPs want to encourage drivers to use BEVs, which is why it has scheduled a ban on sale of other car types to speed up the transition to electric vehicles.

Plug-in Hybrid Electric Vehicle (PHEV)
Also referred to as: Plug-in hybrids
Banned in: 2035
Example models: Ford Kuga PHEV, Mitsubishi Outlander PHEV, Volkswagen Golf GTE, BMW 330e, Peugeot 508 PHEV.

Plug-in Hybrids are seen as the stepping stone between petrol and diesel cars we’ve always known and battery electric vehicles.
They use an internal combustion engine – usually petrol – and an onboard battery and electric motor(s).
The battery can be charged to full capacity by plugging the vehicle into the mains or a charging device, though these cars also have energy regenerating brakes and systems that help to trickle a little extra capacity to the battery on the move.
The battery pack is not as large as that in a BEV, though when fully charged can provide anywhere between 25 and 55 miles of range using just electric power and the petrol or diesel engine not having to be used.
When the Prime Minister says ‘hybrid vehicles than can drive a significant distance without emitting carbon’ will be on sale until 2035, these are the models he is most likely referring to.
Charging times are shorter than BEVs, too.

Read more: This Is Money

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The Green New Deal has received a lot of attention since it was introduced in the U.S. House of Representatives in early 2019. But how many people have actually read it and know what’s in it?

The bill isn’t long, as bills go, but it’s dense. I’ve tried to pull out the main points below. You can read the complete text of the bill here.

President-elect Joe Biden has a lengthy description of his ambitious climate plan on his website. It’s based on the Green New Deal and contains many specific proposals. I walk you through it below.

In the interests of space and clarity, I am using an outline format with bullet points in some parts of this post.

The Green New Deal
The Green New Deal, H.RES.109, is not a law—It’s a framework for dealing with the climate crisis while also boosting job creation and addressing systemic racism and discrimination. It was named in the spirit of President Roosevelt’s New Deal, which helped pull America out of the Great Depression in the 1930s. It also is meant to reflect the efforts and sacrifices that the United States made during World War II.

On February 7, 2019, Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, the bill’s sponsor, introduced the Green New Deal in the U.S. House of Representatives of the 116th Congress, 1st Session, along with 68 other cosigners.

To back up its climate change proposals, the bill references the October 2018 Special Report on Global Warming of 1.5 degrees by the UN’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change and the November 2018 Fourth National Climate Assessment Report.

The reasons given for presenting the bill were:

Human activity is the dominant cause of climate change.
Climate change leads to many catastrophic results, including sea level rise, wildfires, storms, droughts.
Global warming more than two degrees Celsius will create even greater issues, such as mass migrations, lost economic output, destruction of coral reefs and damage to infrastructure.
The stated climate goal is to keep global temperature rise below 1.5 degrees C. This means reducing greenhouse gases by 40 to 60 percent by 2030 with the longer-term goal of net zero global emissions by 2050. These numbers reflect the latest scientific consensus and commitments now being made by large corporations and other nations, as built into the Paris Climate Accord of 2015. The United States is officially out of the Paris Agreement as of November 4, 2020, but will presumably re-enter it next year under a Biden presidency.

The actions described in the Green New Deal would commit the United States, a major emitter, to taking a leading role in fighting climate change. It lays out a 10-year plan to achieve net-zero greenhouse gas emissions through a “fair and just” transition, creating millions of good new jobs building a sustainable infrastructure and industries, as well as securing clean air and water, climate resiliency, healthy food, access to nature and a sustainable environment.

The Green New Deal also promotes justice and equity for people of colour, indigenous communities, migrant communities, deindustrialize communities, depopulated rural communities, the poor, low-income communities, women, the elderly, the unhoused, disabled and youth.

Climate action goals
The bill contains a long menu of goals and tasks, but the main ones for climate action include:

Building climate change resiliency against disasters
Repairing U.S infrastructure
Moving to 100 percent clean, renewable, zero-emission power, including smart power grids
Upgrading existing buildings
Growing clean manufacturing
Working with farmers and ranchers to remove pollution and greenhouse gases
Overhauling transportation systems to remove pollution and greenhouse gases
Mitigating and managing the effects of climate change
Removing greenhouse gases from the atmosphere and restoring natural ecosystems
Cleaning up hazardous waste
Sharing technology, products, and services with other countries
Protecting public lands, water and oceans

Read more: The Next Web

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