Ban on new Petrol/diesel cars?

[cee-dee]

The ban on the sales of new Petrol, Diesel or hybrid cars is to be brought forward to 2035 from 2040.

What's your take on that?

How long do the batteries for electric cars last, how much is a replacement and how are they produced and what with? Doesn't the constituents, manufacture and disposal of them have an evironmental impact? Are they expecting all the electricity to be generated from wind/water/nuclear sources by then?

[**bustysinclaire**]

As we have bills and banking linked to our mobile devices now perhaps everyone with an electric car could register it to be linked to home usage some how and we be billed for travel electrcity alongside our residential usage.

[cee-dee]

Lots of people don't use smart phones?

Also, more opportunities for charges to be screwed up. Lots of people now have smart meters but a few have had idiotic bills. If they pay their bill by DD the charges are taken before the customer realises they've been overcharged and it takes ages before things are put right.

Automatic payments are great until things go wrong and then you're in for a harrassing time before it's eventually corrected. Initially it'll be claimed that things "can't" be wrong......

Only this morning I was reading about some poor chap who'd been billed incorrectly for a Mersey crossing. He was threatened with bailiffs & etc before they admitted the mistake on their part.

[suzieseaside]

In another 15 years I expect all mobile phones will be smart phones. For the minority who don't want one no doubt there could be another option at a charging point. A money slot or if we are a cashless society by then, perhaps tokens.

[upthecreekyetagain]

The real problem is that there are just too many cars and we use them too much - there are over 32 million cars on the road in the UK and 33 million drivers.  

When my daughter lived at home we had three cars!  Ridiculous really.  

We are using close to 50 billion litres of petrol and diesel in the UK, 1,500 litres per car.  At around 2.5 kg of carbon dioxide that's more than 3.5 tonnes per car each year.

There has to be a better answer to personal transport.

[suzieseaside]

Obviously, hence the move away from fossil fuels.

But people have had little choice in some areas, lousy public transport hasn't helped.
Still, some people are very lazy and drive very short distances to shops etc. I walk everywhere in and around my town not least because it's good to keep moving as we get older.

[cee-dee]

Why is public transport lousy? Is it because people just don't use it because it doesn't take them where they want to go? Or is it because it's so infrequent? Perhaps the riff-raff element put people off?

As to walking and you mentioned getting older, some amongst us can only walk a short way and some routes are nearly impossible to walk anyway.

Lots of questions there but notta lotta mention of Hydrogen cars?

[upthecreekyetagain]

Never struck me as a good idea to mix hydrogen and electricity together - especially at the very high voltages produced by fuel cels, (350v).

[suzieseaside]

Of course people who can't walk far are not included in my lazy category, but I know plenty of people in their 40s and younger who use a car rather than walk just 5-10 minutes. There are lazy people who almost block my narrow street with double yellows every night because they can't be bothered to walk 5-10 minutes from a legitimate parking spot and who know that the Council wardens are only about between 8am and 5pm.

Public transport seems little used because it is expensive (self -perpetuating - the more it costs the more people drive and the less it is used means the price goes up) and infrequent in many places, plus people want door to door convenience as far as possible I suppose. Can't comment on your riff-raff question, not something I have noticed on public transport.

Hydrogen cars - well yes I suppose they will be around as well as electric. Probably hugely expensive and out of reach for the average person - currently over 50K?

[theelench]

At some pumps in the filling station I see people paying by card (chip & pin ?), it's quicker than queuing to pay.  How are they paying at the charging points??, the same chip and pin or perhaps they're linked to the tills in-store, I don't know for sure.

However they are doing it, they are doing it today.  In fifteen years it will be normal.

[**bustysbargains**]

I eeckon we should all go back to shanksy's pony.😂

[cee-dee]

It's interesting to see the origins of some sayings and Shanks's Pony is pretty old:-

https://wordhistories.net/2016/07/05/shanks-pony/

I suppose some will be on about Shanks' or Shanks's et al?

[cee-dee]

The number of electric car charging points is a bit debateable. One google search says there are 9,300, another says there are "more than 25,000", that's a big difference?

Regarding the number of petrol stations... you can't compare the number of stations directly to the number of charging points because some stations have many pumps. The one I go to has 24 and each of those dispenses unleaded, super unleaded and diesel.

Although you could charge your electric car from a normal socket, that might overheat after time so a "properly" installed dedicated charging point is desirable?