Ban ICE Cars As Soon As EVs Become Cheaper, Say Experts

A formal advisory committee has told the UK government to bring its 2040 ban on the sale of new internal combustion-powered cars forward by 10 years.

The Committee on Climate Change, an independent body formed in 2008 to help guide government policy on emissions, wants the ban to coincide with the 2030 date at which it predicts that EVs will be cheaper to buy than equivalent petrol- and diesel-engined cars.

In a report presented to the government this week, the CCC says that to meet targets to make all cars zero-emission by 2050, new car sales must be electric-only by no later than 2035, but preferably 2030.

The new recommendations implicitly include all types of hybrid in the proposed 2030 ban, as opposed to the existing 2040 ban, which excludes all hybrids classed as ‘ultra-low-emissions vehicles,’ which basically means plug-in hybrids only.

However, the CCC report also notes the UK’s woefully inadequate public charging infrastructure. It estimates than a tenfold increase in the current 21,000 chargers will be needed by 2030 to support the switch to EVs, plus 3500 of the very fastest types of chargers for motorway-based charging stations.

The government doesn’t have to base policy on the report but is likely to take it seriously. Other suggestions covered emissions reductions in home-heating, the aviation and farming industries, and domestic waste disposal.