Today Boris Johnson announced that the ban on petrol and diesel cars would be brought forward by 5 years from 2040 to 2035. No big deal I here you say….its for the sale of new cars only and I drive a classic land Rover….and you would be right but there has been one very big change in the ban….not only has it been moved 5 years but is also included hybrid cars, so every new car sold after 2035 must be full electric or hydrogen.
But it won’t affect me in my 20 year old Land Rover that will surely still be going strong in another 15 years!
However hear me out with my take on things should the government and the greenies get their way.
Whats the average life span of a new family hatch…10-15 years? You look round the next time you are sat in traffic or walking through a car park….15+ year old cars are very thin on the ground with most much newer. So the ban comes into force 2035, just 15 short years away, and every year after that more and more petrol/diesel cars will be scrapped from the second hand market chain as new cars are replaced with electric. So in another 10-15 years when you take that walk through the car park and look around the cars the bulk will be electric/hydrogen with only the ones over 15 years old still having combustion engines.
…and this is where the problem will become our problem as well….the oil companies are not charities….they are there to make a profit! If the bulk of the cars on the road don’t need fuel they will stop selling it…..ok maybe not altogether but the availability won’t be what it is today with a petrol station on every other corner. What will happen to the stations themselves when they become unprofitable…maybe becoming charging stations with not a fuel pump in sight?
I have no doubt that enthusiasts such as me and you can keep our beloved Land Rovers going for ever and a day but there may become a day when its no longer a feasible option to use it as a daily, they will become purely collectors items sat in our garage only getting used on a Sunday afternoon!
We also have to think about the knock on affect to the classic car market in general…what will happen to car values…the supply chain of parts and the restoration sector….these are all questions we won’t have answers to until things start to change…so I do apologies that my post has more questions than answers.
So ok 30 years (15 to the ban and 15 to phase in electric) sounds like a life time away…and it is but add 30 years to your current age and ask yourself if you still think you will be driving and if so what you’d like to be driving.
Of course all this has to start with the ban taking effect….its not like governments are known for doing u-turns and at current rates it would leave the treasury with a £28 billion hole in their accounts….it might never happen at all but it might just be something to consider as we take for granted swinging into the petrol station and necking our trusty classic!
Long may we suck, squeeze, bang, blow
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