Kids, this is where the petrol used to go
What does bringing forward the sales ban on combustion engines mean for classics?
Setting out on a journey by classic car is increasingly a game of ‘dodge the legislation’, but Boris Johnson’s announcement of a UK ban on the sale of new petrol, diesel and hybrid cars from 2035, possibly earlier, adds new confusion. And that’s not good for owners or the industry, which already senses that the war on the classic motorist, far from ending, is only just beginning.
The issue isn’t the ban itself, which won’t directly affect classics, but the uncertainty it creates, combined with waves of legislation coming from authorities now openly hostile to cars. Paris won’t admit classics between 8am and 8pm; London tolerates them (just) if they’re pre-1980; Oxford wants to issue permits; and whole départements of France could force them off the road on the say-so of local officials.
So, with politicians now taking such extreme measures to ‘discourage’ car use, will people start up classic businesses, develop products, offer apprenticeships, or invest their time in the future of clubs and events, when they could end up as collateral damage from legislation?
It’s not as if the classic scene is trivial to the UK economy – it’s worth £5.5bn. Sir Greg Knight MP of The All-Parliamentary Historic Vehicles Group said: ‘Historic vehicles form part of a multi-billion pound industry employing thousands of people.’ More than 8m people in Britain have an interest in historic vehicles, and nearly 35,000 work directly within the industry.
That matters little to government consultants, who refer to cars as ‘stranded assets’. Robert Spencer, head of sustainable development at AECOM, explained: ‘Internal-combustionengine cars are one of the first “stranded assets” that people will become familiar with as decarbonisation of the economy progresses. It is already – 15 years ahead of the ban – difficult to sell on certain types of diesel vehicle.’
In an era with this much flux and lobbyist-led policy, it’s hard to know whether classics will be singled-out as figureheads of ‘car dependency’, or whether the hobby is too small in the grand scheme of things to warrant attack. The irony is that classics are pretty environmentally sound.
The UK accounts for less than 1% of global CO2 emissions. All road transport makes up less than half of all NOx emitted – and most of that is down to large-calibre diesels. Classics account for an almost infinitesimal amount of pollution, yet are increasingly caught in the legislative net intended for modern vehicles. London’s ULEZ tax, for example, doesn’t differentiate between youngtimer classics and bangers. And still noone in power acknowledges the environmental upside of classics – that they are at the vanguard of repairing, reusing and recycling – when a vehicle’s biggest environmental impact comes from building and scrapping it, not driving it.
Dominic Taylor-Lane from the Association of Heritage Engineers does recognise this. He said: ‘We’ve been restoring, recycling and repairing for years. Now we need to set our stall out about how we become part of the future. And there are plenty of young people who will be at the forefront of a sustainable future for classics.’
So what does that future look like? The electric classics market is embryonic, but it’s growing fast. Dominic added: ‘To restore the engine on my Alvis drophead would be at least £10k – why can’t I just convert it to electric and kill two birds with one stone? And why shouldn’t anyone do likewise, assuming they’re not destroying something irreplaceable?’
The Federation of British Historic Vehicle Clubs remains optimistic. Spokesman Wayne Scott told Octane: ‘Historic vehicles account for less than a quarter of one per cent of all the miles travelled on UK roads and so, as part of our heritage, should be considered apart from the challenges and impacts on the environment that may face more frequently used transport.
‘In the short term, there is little evidence to suggest that the proposed ban on the sale of new ICE/hybrid vehicles will have any immediate effect on historic vehicles. Longer term, we will continue to explain the need for exemptions and a rolling threshold for historic vehicle status.’
Even so, as long as the bureaucrats’ answer is one – or more – of ban it, tax it or charge to issue a permit for it, it’s the classic world’s duty to take a leaf out of the cyclists’ book and make the case that classic cars form a vital industry that more than pays its way – and are an environmental answer rather than an environmental problem.
However, Wayne Scott warned that legislation might not be the biggest issue facing classics: ‘We also need to monitor closely the effect that this latest move will have on fuel supply. Naturally, as demand changes, it will be the fuel supply that needs our attention in the long term.’
‘classics are increasingly caught in the legislative net intended for moderns’