In November last year the government pledged to ban the sale of diesel and petrol cars by 2030. The move came as part of a wider plan to reduce carbon dioxide emissions across the UK as climate change continues to become a more pressing issue.
The move has been welcomed by many as a big step forward in the fight against the use of fossil fuels. Lewis Black, owner of E-Cars Trading, an electric car dealership, supports the new move and feels it represents a new era in motor transport. He said: “The government’s promise to ban the sale of diesel and petrol cars by 2030 is a huge moment for the car industry. The plans are very ambitious and it won’t be a straightforward process to ensure the promise is kept but it’s entirely possible if the government and the car industry work closely together.”
The new plans mean that electric cars appear to be the future for motorists but there have been some criticisms in the past about electric vehicles and the problems that come with them. Many electric cars have a fairly limited mile range before they need to be charged again which can be a problem for long journeys.
Five year old models of vehicles such as the Nissan Leaf and Renault Zoe can have less than a one hundred mile range from a full battery before they require recharging again and any extra weight carried in the car will reduce the battery range even further.
Driver’s will also often have to wait between half an hour to an hour for their car to charge unless a rapid charge port is available, this is far longer than the five minutes it takes to fill a car with petrol.
Affordability is also a key issue. Due to the complicated technology required to make electric cars they usually cost more than their fossil fuel counterparts. Currently, a new Nissan Leaf costs a minimum of £26,845 while prices for a new Nissan Micra start at just £14,500, making them a much more affordable prospect.
Barclay Hoare owns a flooring company in Bournemouth. He feels that the cost of electric cars and the fact that carrying extra weight reduces battery range mean that they aren’t suitable for business people that need to transport heavy materials. He said: “The price of electric cars and the fact that heavy weight reduces their battery life means that they aren’t feasible if I’m transporting heavy flooring.”
Lewis Black believes that the issues of battery range and cost soon won’t be an issue as technology evolves. He said: It’s definitely true that in the past there have been problems with battery range being too short and the cost being quite high in comparison to fossil fuel cars but the technology has advanced a lot in the last five years and will do so again in the next decade. By the time 2030 arrives these issues won’t be nearly as big and people will save a lot of money in the long run by charging their cars instead of filling up with petrol or diesel.”
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