APPG 2030 Ban

Fair Fuel APPG for UK Motorists and UK Hauliers August 2021 Page | 51 Superminis remain the UK’s most common type of car, with the three most prevalent models on the road being the Ford Fiesta, Ford Focus and Vauxhall Corsa. The most common car colour in this country is black and, although manual gearboxes remain on top, the number of automatics has risen by half a million since 2019. Mike Hawes, chief executive of the SMMT, said: “With the pandemic putting the brakes on new vehicle uptake in 2020, the average car on our roads is now the oldest since records began some 20 years ago, as drivers held on to their existing vehicles for longer.” He added: “Encouraging drivers to upgrade to the newest, cleanest, lowest emission cars - regardless of fuel source - is essential for the UK to meet its ambitious climate change targets. Smart Governments must follow the facts, say Motor-Bikers. Lembit Öpik, a former MP and now the Director of Communications and Public Affairs for the Motorcycle Action Group , argues there are remarkable inconsistencies in the Government’s stated aim of banning the sale of new petrol-powered vehicles by 2030. “The biggest threat to ‘traditional’ private transport is the proposal to ban sales of new petrol, diesel and hybrid vehicles by 2030. Ministers don’t include motorcycles in statements about the ban; but bikers are extremely unsettled about the prospect that if all other petrol machines are banned, despite all logic, petrol motorcycles could be in the firing line too. It is obvious the infrastructure won’t exist for electric vehicles by 2030. Even if 1,000 charging points were installed every single day between 1st January 2021 and the 31 st of December 2030, that would still deliver under 10% as many charging points as vehicles needing to use them. Unless affordable, rapid charging technology magically gets rolled out across the market, there simply will not be the infrastructure to support the electric vehicle fleet. On top of that, the absence of any standardisation means that a motorcycle, a van and a car may all need different charging connections. At time of writing this text (June 2021), none of this has been addressed by the Government. I predict that, even by the end of 2024, it will still be unresolved. If so, there will be insufficient time to create a credible infrastructure to support the Government’s bold ambition, and the plan is almost certain to then fail. It’s also obvious the British electricity system will be nowhere near ‘green’ by that time. Even though the demand that everyone goes electric with their private vehicles, there’s no hint from the Government about how they’ll provide the many gigawatts of extra power required to stop blackouts when demand exceeds supply. The extra load is estimated as being the output equivalent of at least three nuclear power stations. Again, we have yet to see any sign of a strategy to ensure a solid, steady supply to back up the political target. If reducing emissions and fuel use really are the target, why is there absolutely no discussion about ‘modal shift’ to less energy-using alternatives, like motorcycles and the promotion of more efficient fossil fuels, all of which is available now? Why do we hear nothing about their concerns that, like for like, electric vehicles are heavier than their petrol equivalents - so they use more, not less, energy? It seems the Government has developed tunnel vision. However, in 2021 plug-in cars still only represent 1.3 per cent of the cars on the road, with petrol and diesel registrations only down 0.2 per cent and 2.3 per cent respectively. “What really confuses motorcyclists more than anything else is the apparent absence of any joined-up thinking about what we can do now to achieve the Ministers’ claimed goals.” Lembit Opik, MAG

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