Should diesel and petrol cars be banned?

IF THE Government bans all petrol and diesel vehicles from 2040 (Mail), how far will a lorry or bus travel before needing to be recharged for hours? Will a tractor be able to plough only two furrows at a time? And will vanity projects such as HS2 ever be finished as the electric diggers will be on charge longer than they are working? It’s another knee-jerk reaction thought up by bureaucrats to punish motorists.

LARRY GEORGE, Alton, Hants. IF ONLY electric cars will be produced after 2040, has anyone calculated how many new power stations we will need and what it will cost to install charging points in every home? Who will pay for all this infrastructure? The same people who are paying for solar panels, wind farms and smart meters — the taxpayer. And it will all have to be in place within the next 20 years. Some hope!

A. WRIGHT, address supplied. IT’S planning to ban petrol and diesel cars from 2040, yet the Government has just announced it is scrapping plans for rail electrification and retaining electric/ diesel for major rail routes in the Midlands and the North.

JIM TRICKETT, Pontefract, W. Yorks. I AM fed up with the vilification of diesel car owners. Banning the current fuel and replacing it with ultra-low-sulphur diesel would be a cheap and quick way to cut pollution. After all, was not that the reason for banning leaded petrol? But no, let’s just blame the drivers for buying diesel vehicles when they were encouraged to do so by Gordon Brown.