Following France’s lead, the United Kingdom recently announced a proposal to ban the sale of new gasoline and diesel-powered vehicles by 2040. However, that doesn’t mean all new cars will emit zero emissions according to a new update on the plan.
Autocar reports that hybrids and plug-in hybrids will be exempt from the ban. This makes the ambitious plan a bit more realistic. This proposal also doesn’t mean you’ll never be able to buy a diesel or petrol car again in the UK. It’s actually a temporary measure meant to bring emissions levels down to legal limits to keep their air quality problem under control.
While we’ve heard some plans from the likes of India and Japan that sound a bit too ambitious and border on unrealistic, this UK plan is a bit refreshing. It doesn’t spell imminent doom for our beloved internal combustion engine, it’s more of a plan to improve public health with better air quality. By 2040, petrol engines are likely to have cleaner emissions than they have now and by then the plan could be revised again to keep them around. However, we won’t hold our breath for diesel passenger vehicles to be around much longer.