France is set to ban the sales of petrol and diesel powered vehicles by year 2040, a move that ecology minister Nicolas Hulot called a “revolution”, the BBC reports.
Hulot, an appointment of new French president Emmanuel Macron, announced the planned ban on fossil fuel vehicles as part of a renewed commitment to the Paris climate deal, which a Trump-led US has pulled out of. The minister added that France planned to become carbon neutral by 2050. Air pollution is a problem faced by French cities, including Paris.
That’s slightly over two decades to wean a country off engines that have been around for over a century. Currently, hybrid cars have around 3.5% share of the French auto market, with full electric vehicles accounting for just 1.2%. It’s not clear what will happen to existing petrol and diesel cars in 2040. Hulot said that poorer households would receive financial assistance to replace older vehicles with cleaner ones.
It’s a race against the clock for PSA Peugeot-Citroen and Renault, local brands that dominate the market. Although he acknowledged it would be difficult, Hulot believes they would meet the challenge. Earlier this week, Volvo announced that all of its cars would be hybrid and above from 2019, a point referenced by the minister.
In Europe, Norway is the leader in the use of electric cars, and the Scandinavian nation wants to phase out conventional vehicles by 2025, ditto the Netherlands. Similar measures and a 2030 target have been proposed by both Germany and more ambitiously, India.
We often think of Europe’s cold, crisp air as clean (relative to our own), but the European Environment Agency (EEA) has warned that air pollution is causing around 467,000 premature deaths in the continent every year.
Urban folks are at high risk, with around 85% exposed to fine particulate matter (PM 2.5) at levels deemed harmful by the WHO. These ultra fine particles (less than 0.0025 mm in diameter) are too small to be detected by our eyes or nose, but can cause or aggravate heart disease, asthma and lung cancer.
Nitrogen dioxide (NO2) can cause or exacerbate a number of health conditions, such as inflammation of the lungs (which can trigger asthma and bronchitis) and increased risk of heart attack and stroke. Diesel vehicles are the biggest contributor to high levels of NO2 in Europe.
Is this the start of a long au revoir to the car as we know it?
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When Malaysia to phase out conventional vehicles?
10 years? 20 years?
When Malaysia phase out conventional vehicles, U & I will be in “Holland” already. In case someone ask what is Holland, it means in Next life if there is one.
This is possible cause all car companies are moving forward with Hybrid, PHEV and EV. Infact, in EV, they are now chasing numbers ie how many KM can the car run. Most have achieved now 400KM
But in Malaysia, in 2017, both our national car companies have not even ventured into Hybrid even which is a 10 year old outdated technology.
Our NAP and MAI both sleeping. No vision. No plan for environment. No future. All go for expensive trips overseas for their Rombongan Sambil Belajar, fly Business Class, Stay 5 star hotels but don’t learn anything.
When the whole world moved to EV, Proton and Perodua will still be selling petrol engines.
Funny to see some clowns impersonate me. Anyway, on the positive side I have become more famous. This is a good move but it will definitely impact the second hand value of gasoline and diesel cars. Does EV vehicles provide the same thrill as turbocharged gasoline or diesel cars? I doubt it.
Meanwhile in Malaysia, still in discussion about the fuel price daily fix
C’mon man, be mature bit Malaysia G
What is Malaysia G?
Volvo : ok.
All pie in the sky dream. No alternative technology to petrol or diesel engine exist now that has similar cost of production or driving range. Electric cars are old technology recently revived due to mad environmentalist.
If conventional petrol or diesel cars are forcefully removed, be prepared to travel around in e-bikes or the hopeless public transportation systems we have here. A normal sized car will be far too expensive for most of us normal people unless heavily subsidized by the government.
Yeah this was exactly what Nokia/Blackberry laugh at iPhone announcements in 2006 saying that its battery will be the size of a fridge. Well guess what happened today.
That said, your smart phone still can’t last a week without charging.
Powerbanks were invented to keep your smartphone running.
Electric cars are in fact easier, cheaper and less complicated to build than conventional ones. Its the energy storage system that is the hold back.
We are all waiting for battery technology to catch up. Its either that or fast tracking Hydrogen infrastructure.
We already have the technology to build electric cars cheaper than conventional cars. The problem is how to power them cheaply.
Did all their power plant use none fossil fuel?
Is it conspiracy to reduce the gasoline price?
Hahahaha
Highly doubt France will last that Long…
This means oil companies like shell and caltex will start to find new products to replace engine oil as its main products.
France should ban the sales of their sui kwan vehicles (Peugeot, Citroen and Renault) immediately for a change.
French cars are the most unreliable cars in the world. Kimchis and Dim Sums are way better
perhaps if Tesla or any other electric car manufacturer come out with conversion kit to convert combustion engine to electric motor, maybe the cost of ownership can be cheaper and easier. This in turn will allow general public to accept migration from conventional engine to electric car faster and easier.
We expecting flying car back in 1985 and 30 years later still no flying cars above our head, so how possible meh to not use petroleum powered car in 20 years? Not gonna happened meh.