France will ban sale of petrol/diesel vehicles by 2040

[Sparhafoc]

http://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-40518293

France is set to ban the sale of any car that uses petrol or diesel fuel by 2040, in what the ecology minister called a "revolution".

Nicolas Hulot announced the planned ban on fossil fuel vehicles as part of a renewed commitment to the Paris climate deal.

He said France planned to become carbon neutral by 2050.

Hybrid cars make up about 3.5% of the French market, with pure electric vehicles accounting for just 1.2%.

It is not yet clear what will happen to existing fossil fuel vehicles still in use in 2040.

Wow! I really didn't expect to see this in my lifetime.

 

[he_who_is_nobody]

I will believe it when I see it.

 

[Visaki]

I will believe it when I see it.

I agree. These kinds of goals are all nice and good since they give something to strive for. Kinda like the Kennedy space program; make ambitious goals because the real tragedy is not to set high goal and fail, but to set low goals and succeed. But they do expect that the technology for non fossil fuel cars that are as good as the cars now will be there in time and there's no guarantee of that.

Then again I can't really blame the French since the youth leader of our Finnish Green party has said he want's the same by 2025.

 

[Sparhafoc]

I think they acknowledged the role of the commercial challenge.

If they set this bar and car manufacturers rise to the challenge, not only will France and the European manufacturers benefit, but it will have a knock on effect where these cars will be made available elsewhere.

In such a case, I am not sure they need to compete 1 to 1 with petrol cars - they could be range restricted and the like, but still would offer a genuine alternative to a market dominated by essentially a single product.

Next up, wondering about the rare earth used in these wondrous future technical feats.

 

[ldmitruk]

Volvo will stop making cars with only internal combustion engines by 2019. So it is not totally out of reach for France to reach its goal. However I don't think they will be able to get all of the gas and diesel vehicles off the roads for a much longer time.

 

[Sparhafoc]

Volvo will stop making cars with only internal combustion engines by 2019. So it is not totally out of reach for France to reach its goal. However I don't think they will be able to get all of the gas and diesel vehicles off the roads for a much longer time.

France might get Singaporean on their arses.

 

[ldmitruk]

Volvo will stop making cars with only internal combustion engines by 2019. So it is not totally out of reach for France to reach its goal. However I don't think they will be able to get all of the gas and diesel vehicles off the roads for a much longer time.

France might get Singaporean on their arses.

I can just imagine, get pulled over for driving an infernal combustion vehicle and getting 100 lashes with a cane :lol:

 

[Sparhafoc]

:lol:

I can imagine: vous etes un garcon tres mechant, WHACK!

There's also this...

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Driving_in_Singapore#Measures_to_reduce_vehicle_usage

Measures to reduce vehicle usage

Several steps have to be completed before a car-owner can drive a vehicle in Singapore. A Certificate of Entitlement (COE) is required, costing more than S$80,000 to successful bidders. This permits ownership of the vehicle for a period of 10 years after which the vehicle must be scrapped or another COE paid for allowing an additional 5 or 10 years of usage. COE is technically a lease at an inflated cost. Only ten-year COEs may be further renewed to another 7-10 years and no extension of the car is given.

Driving is a real cost in Singapore. First, all the prices of cars are astronomical thanks to import costs. Then, you've got to pay around 58,000 US dollars just to get a COE which allows you to drive that specific car for just 10 years. Once that's over, you have to buy a new car and new COE and the old one literally gets scrapped.

I can only imagine this would quickly result in a dramatic decrease in car usage! :lol:

 

[WarK]

2040 seems reasonable to me. If you look at the progress in electric car technology in the previous 20 years.

Though I'm not sure what they mean by banning internal combustion. Volvo won't stop producing internal combustion engines, they'll just couple them with electric engines and batteries to create hybrids. It's what Toyota* have been doing for over a decade now.

Testla model 3 is bout to be launched. From what I've read it has the potential to make or break the company. Regardless of Tesla success or failure, it looks like the electric car is where the car industry is going.

Banning petrol/diesel cars by 2040 is nice but I'd rather they banned diesel lorries. Better yet, ban the bloody coal!

*You can get a lot of Toyota models in hybrid version now. Yaris, Auris and Prius of course. Also, Toyota's other brand, Lexus, have also been using hybrids in many of their models.

 

[ldmitruk]

I wish we could get more diesel options here in Canada. However, VW really screwed that up for us. I'd also like to see hybrid pick up trucks. Interesting you can now get a Hydrogen fuel cell Toyota in California

 

[ldmitruk]

2040 seems reasonable to me. If you look at the progress in electric car technology in the previous 20 years.

Though I'm not sure what they mean by banning internal combustion. Volvo won't stop producing internal combustion engines, they'll just couple them with electric engines and batteries to create hybrids. It's what Toyota* have been doing for over a decade now.

Testla model 3 is bout to be launched. From what I've read it has the potential to make or break the company. Regardless of Tesla success or failure, it looks like the electric car is where the car industry is going.

Banning petrol/diesel cars by 2040 is nice but I'd rather they banned diesel lorries. Better yet, ban the bloody coal!

*You can get a lot of Toyota models in hybrid version now. Yaris, Auris and Prius of course. Also, Toyota's other brand, Lexus, have also been using hybrids in many of their models.

I believe the ban applies to the sale of new vehicles.

 

[WarK]

I wish we could get more diesel options here in Canada. However, VW really screwed that up for us. I'd also like to see hybrid pick up trucks. Interesting you can now get a Hydrogen fuel cell Toyota in California

Be careful what you wish for. Modern diesel engines are shite. Speaking from experience. Reliability is very poor. Failing turbochargers, injectors, dual-mass flywheels, EGRs, diesel particle filters. They are nice to drive, though.
Volvo are planning to drop diesel all together. They used to have 4,5,6 and 8 cylinder engines. Now they essentially have one 4 cylinder petrol engine in different power output variants.

I believe the ban applies to the sale of new vehicles.

Yeah that makes sense. But it also means that, if more countries pass similar laws, car makers won't be making pure diesel/petrol cars any longer.
I have a suspicion that the car world will change faster than anyone's expecting.

In a day by day usage I wouldn't mind an electric car. Where it'd fail me is longer trips. Things like visiting family 150km away would be an issue. Not to mention that now I can travel over 1000km in one day, especially when there are two drivers on board. With an electric car a lot of time would be wasted recharging, not to mention the additional headache of planning the route so there are charging stations on the way.
I suppose a hybrid will keep making a lot of sense for some time. I wouldn't mind a BMW 330e