An electrifying idea...
A switch to electric-only vehicles in the future has been announced, but just how much of a threat is this to our scene?
Recently the government announced that by 2040 the sale of combustion engined vehicles will cease and there will be a switch to electric power only. This raised eyebrows within the classic vehicle industry, but what does it mean for our classic scooters? Should we be concerned by this ruling, and just how much of a threat is it to us? Only last month we reported on the electric Vespa, so how long before problems start to manifest?
There are a lot of things to take into consideration; it’s not just a case of ‘on that date we can’t use petrol powered engines any more’. To be honest, it’s a bold statement for the government to make in the first place. Whether they could actually even implement the changes by then is highly debatable. The technology to build electric vehicles already exists but is a long way from being perfect. The range of these vehicles is still limited to a certain degree, not forgetting the length of time required to charge them. There will need to be charging points/stations built, not just in cities but in rural areas too. It’s no good living in a remote village and not being able to use your vehicle because there is nowhere to charge it. The infrastructure required will take years, if not decades, to build.
Let’s face it, it takes our government an age to agree on building an extra runway in London, which pales into insignificance compared to electrifying the entire country. Then there is the cost, which will run into billions; so where will the money come from? There are many far-reaching issues which need addressing – more than you might think. Possibly the most telling point though, is the strain it will place on the national grid. Electric vehicles need electricity. The strain of taking all that resource from our already overstretched supply would be too much with things as they stand.
The solution is to create more electricity but that would mean building more power stations, again taking decades and huge funding to achieve. Probably the most worrying aspect though is road safety. You can hear a petrol engine vehicle coming down the street, even more so a scooter, but not an electrically powered vehicle. Surely that problem would need to be addressed, otherwise it would be a disaster for pedestrians.
There are thousands of classic vehicles on UK roads and in private ownership. Though not used for regular day to day travel, they play an important role in our society. It is estimated that the industry
Probably the most worrying aspect though is road safety. You can hear a petrol engine vehicle coming down the street, even more so a scooter, but not an electrically powered vehicle.
alone is worth five billion pounds to the UK economy each year. Combined with events and products to support it, that figure is even greater, not to mention the people employed within it.
What would happen to all those vehicles? Would they just become museum pieces because they were banned and there is no longer the fuel available to run them? Nearer the time that these plans are due to be implemented, it’s possible that market values (including those of the Lambretta and Vespa) may crash, as people attempt to cash in. Even so, petrol will need to be produced for years after any electric revolution happens. Not every country will be able to electrify its vehicles, some third world countries may never be in a position to do so. With fuel available there is bound to be a dispensation for classic vehicles to still run on petrol, it’s worth too much to any government to ignore it.
Whatever happens regarding this situation, don’t get too concerned. Even if our government got its act together and met the 2040 deadline (which I doubt) it would be at least another decade after that before a total ban (which could happen one day). That’s over 30 years away from now and even if any of us are around to see it, we would probably be going around on mobility scooters by then. That’s if there is enough electricity to go round of course.