The UK government has formally announced it will ban the sale of combustion-engine vehicles by the year 2030 as part of its “Green Industrial Revolution.”
The announcement of the UK plan came just hours after Tesla, Rivian and Uber put together their own plan to make only electric vehicles as its goal.
UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson said there will be exceptions under the plan.
“We’ll invest more than £2.8bn in electric vehicles, lacing the land with charging points and creating long-lasting batteries in UK giga-factories,” Johnson said in a Financial Times report. “This will allow us to end the sale of new petrol and diesel cars and vans in 2030. However, we will allow the sale of hybrid cars and vans that can drive a significant distance with no carbon coming out of the tailpipe until 2035”.
The Driven website reported on the push against fossil fuels on both sides of the pond:
Though the broader policy focuses on jobs, technology, investment and industry, the transport component is substantial, and brings forward a ban set less than a year ago for 2040 to the year 2030, making this policy a stark and imminent reality for UK companies and consumers alike.
The announcement comes only hours afer a new alliance between Tesla, Rivian and Uber was announced in Washington, named “Zeta 2030“, targeting 100% electric vehicle sales as market share by 2030. The move has been spurred by the breaking of the alliance between US utilities and fossil fuel companies, with the former turning to electric vehicles in response to that falling out, writes The Atlantic’s Robinson Meyer.
In the scenario of a 2030 ban, the UK’s vehicle stock continues to gradually change as all cars are replaced with zero emissions alternatives, in the modelling. Thus, while in 2030 new combustion engine vehicles cannot be purchased, fossil fuel cars still comprise half of all cars in the UK.
The Driven report said the UK will host the United Nation’s COP26 in Glasgow in November 2021, “which is serving as a target point for a flurry of new climate ambitions and policies currently being announced, and likely to be announced over the coming months before the significant global meeting.”
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