Britain recently decided to outlaw the sale of new diesel and petrol cars and vans from 2040 in a bid to cut air pollution.
French government also made a similar proposal to ban petrol and diesel cars, including hybrid vehicles that have an electric motor and a petrol or diesel engine.
What are the challenges?
In the UK, demand for diesel cars dropped 10% in the second quarter of this year.
People like the idea of reducing their carbon footprint, as well as electric cars’ fast acceleration and noiselessness.
But there are several challenges.
No more than 10% of those who consider an electric vehicle actually buy one.
There are the longer-term questions of whether the charging infrastructure will keep up with the number of vehicles, and availability of electrical grids.
Financial incentives can help by bringing electric-car prices close to those of traditional vehicles but they’re not enough for a breakthrough.
Only countries such as Norway, where the incentives make electric vehicles appreciably cheaper to buy and own, have seen significant uptake.
Governments are rightly hesitant to force something on consumers that doesn’t really work for them.
