UK set to confirm early petrol and diesel car ban this week

UK prime minister Boris Johnson will this week confirm a new date for the country's ban on new fossil fuel vehicles, bringing it forward to within a decade.

Originally set for 2040, but then moved forward by five years in plans revealed in February 2020, it will be expedited again to 2030, according to the Financial Times.

This is to "jump-start the market for electric cars in the UK", the paper claims. It will also help the country achieve a target of net zero emissions by 2050.

The movement of the date is likely to be greeted warmly by environmental groups, but with dismay from a car industry that's already struggling, not only hit by the disruption of the virus, but now potentially facing a narrowing window for existing products.

"While we applaud the ambition, such a challenging timescale would be insufficient for the industry to transition, threatening the viability of thousands of businesses and undermining sales of today's low emission technologies," said SMMT chief executive, Mike Hawes, earlier this year.

Electric car sales have been increasing through 2020, the range and variety of products has also been increasing as the industry moves beyond expensive halo electric car models and begins to offer EVs in different sizes and at different price points.

But new technology is expensive and while prices are dropping, there's still a big gap between the most affordable petrol cars and the most affordable electric cars. Sometimes that's as much as £10,000 more for the electric model.

At the same time, the situation around charging is improving. The infrastructure is maturing, with additional rapid charging sites appearing and an increasing number of homes being built with a charging socket included.

We'll await the official announcement to get clarification of what the road ahead will look like for the UK, but recently-published research from the SMMT suggests that the public thought a switch to electric by 2035 was too soon, let alone 2030.

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