Engineering news
The Government is expected to announce the move today as part of a strategy to tackle dangerous air pollution. The ban will start concurrently with a recently-announced French policy but 15 years after a similar Norwegian move. Ministers will also unveil more than £250 million for local authority preventative measures like retrofitting buses with greener technology and introducing low emission zones.
Levels of toxic nitrogen dioxide from diesel pollution frequently reach illegal levels in busy cities like London. The gas causes 6,000 early deaths a year in the capital, and pollution from busy roads is linked with diseases like Alzheimer’s.
However, Mike Hawes from the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders (SMMT) said an outright ban risks “undermining the current market for new cars and our sector which supports over 800,000 jobs across the UK, so the industry instead wants a positive approach which gives consumers incentives to purchase these cars. We could undermine the UK’s successful automotive sector if we don’t allow enough time for the industry to adjust.”
Industry is working with the Government to ensure incentives, policies and infrastructure are in place to drive growth in the market, the chief executive said, but he claimed demand for fossil fuel alternatives is currently too low. “Much depends on the cost of these new technologies and how willing consumers are to adopt battery, plug-in hybrid and hydrogen cars. Currently demand for alternatively fuelled vehicles is growing but still at a very low level as consumers have concern over affordability, range and charging points.”
Public incentives could seem attractive for an industry facing a major overhaul in motor manufacture, but they would quickly become defunct as prices for fully-electric vehicles drop rapidly with technological advances and it becomes socially unacceptable to drive a polluting vehicle, said Carbon Commentary’s Chris Goodall to Professional Engineering.
“I can’t see any reason for 90% of car-buyers by 2020 to even consider buying an internal combustion vehicle,” he said. Maintenance and insurance are cheaper, ranges are increasing and the rate of sale of fully-electric cars is increasing by 40% a year, he said. “That by any standard is a rapidly growing market, and for anybody to say that there is consumer reluctance or whatever is, I think, underestimating that this is a product which is rapidly gaining in acceptability.”
Cars such as the new fully-electric Nissan Leaf are being built entirely in the UK already but the automotive sector may be resistant to change because of rising R&D costs, Goodall claimed. “The industry has to adjust,” he added. “I cannot conceive of a responsive manufacturing industry which can’t change this within 23 years… this is an expensive transition but they have no choice.”
The ban and local authority funding shows the UK is taking a “position of global leadership on shaping the new technology,” said environment secretary Michael Gove on the BBC Radio 4 Today programme this morning. He added that “the chancellor has already made available significant sums in order to help companies move and make the transition towards what are called ultra-low emission vehicles.”
Green Party co-leader Caroline Lucas called the policy a “step forward”, but said it does not go far or fast enough. Expanded “clear air” zones and a fully-funded diesel vehicle scrappage scheme should also be introduced, she said.
“It’s crucial that scrapping diesel doesn’t simply shift people into other types of car – instead we should use this opportunity to revamp our towns and cities with investment in walking and cycling, and by ensuring that public transport is affordable and reliable,” she added.