Target to go all-electric focuses the mind but combustion engine has not died yet
Defra’s ‘ban’ on new diesel and petrol cars from 2040 seemed to sound death knell for traditional motors but the devil is in the detail
The headlines were striking: “New petrol and diesel cars banned from Britain’s roads by 2040.” On the face of it, the Government’s plan to tackle pollution means cars with internal combustion engines will be driven off the roads in a generation.
But, as ever, the devil is in the detail. Documents released yesterday by the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) reveal it’s not exactly the death knell for cars with conventional engines.
Defra says it wants to “end the sale of all new conventional petrol and diesel cars by 2040”. What conventional means wasn’t said, but when pressed, the Government admitted the definition “does not include hybrids” – cars with small engines that work with a battery.
“We want all cars to be zero emission by 2050,” a government spokesman added.
So while the UK won’t necessarily enjoy a total green revolution with cars going all-electric in 23 – or even 33 – years, the Government has put down a marker on what it wants from the automotive industry.
While, as we report today, the timing of the announcement may have come as a surprise to Britain’s car industry, the fact that it’s happening doesn’t. Nigel Stein, chief executive of GKN, the FTSE 100 engineer whose components are estimated to be in one of every two new cars globally, put it succinctly: “This is not new news. The Committee on Climate Change has had it as a target for years and we’ve been pushing into electrification for years. What it does is focus the mind – 2040 seems miles off but having a date brings things into focus.”
Jaguar Land Rover, Britain’s biggest car manufacturer with 544,000 vehicles rolling off its UK lines last year, could be considered to be one of the companies in Defra’s sights. Approximately 80pc of JLR cars sold in the UK rely on powerful diesel engines, and Jeremy Hicks, the UK boss, recently delivered a keynote speech at an industry summit in diesel’s defence.
However, JLR – like others in the sector – has also been working on electrification. The company’s first fully electric car – the I-pace – goes on
‘What the target date does is focus the mind – 2040 seems miles off but having a date brings things into focus’
sale next year. By 2020, every model in JLR’S range will have an electric option of some sort and its engineers are working on a variety of powertrains, including fully electric systems and hybrids.
Nissan, Britain’s second-largest car maker, uses its Sunderland plant to build the Leaf – the world’s best-selling all-electric car, with 280,000 of them on the roads.
BMW committed on Tuesday to build its electric Minis at its Oxford plant and the company – like all the other major manufacturers – is investing heavily in electric cars.
While the firm said it would build Minis at Oxford, the electric power systems for them will be produced in the company’s plants in Bavaria, with the batteries being made by Korea’s Samsung, and fitted into place at the Cowley plant.
As more cars are built with electric systems, factories in Britain – such as the JLR and BMW plants in the Midlands, and Ford’s in Wales and Essex – which churn out 2.5m internal combustion engines a year between them will come under pressure.
“Electric is an entirely different technology, it’s not so easy to change production lines to electric,” said Mike Hawes, chief executive of the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders. “We need to make sure that there’s encouragement that technology for those plants is developed in the UK.” It
‘Electric is an entirely different technology, it’s not so easy to change production lines to electric’
is a similar case for batteries. Attracting a manufacturer to the UK would be a boon for the industry.
Earlier this week, the Government announced it would invest £246m setting up a “battery institute” to develop new technology in the UK, but in a global industry where the top 20 manufacturers have combined sales of almost $2trillion a year this is unlikely to move the dial much in Britain’s favour.
What sort of deal the UK agrees with the EU as it leaves the trading bloc will certainly have an impact on companies looking to make such investments in Britain. The drive for electric makes the industry’s demands for a Brexit transition deal ever more urgent.