U.K. To Ban Sale of Diesel, Gasoline Vehicles By 2040

The U.K. said it would ban the sale of cars powered by traditional internal-combustion engines by 2040, joining other European regulators in a bold push toward populating roads with electric cars that remain unpopular in the mass market.

The initiative, announced Wednesday, follows a similar move by France and efforts by several European cities from Munich to Madrid to ban or restrict diesel engines. These moves could play a role in the global tug of war over how people will get from Point A to B in the future.

Efforts to shift the way cars are powered aren’t new. Regulators set to work in the 1990s on standards intended to drastically reduce the amount of conventional automobiles rolling out of factories. Fuel cell vehicles and electric cars were expected to be dominant by now, but they still face infrastructure hurdles, high costs and concerns about driving range.

Today, with gasoline or diesel powertrains still powering nearly every one of the 90 million vehicles sold annually across the globe, auto makers are spending heavily to make those engines more efficient even as they slowly introduce electric cars. Rule makers want them to shift focus.

“We can’t carry on with diesel and petrol cars, not just because of the health problems, but also because the emissions they cause will accelerate climate change,” said U.K. Environmental Secretary Michael Gove in an interview with the British Broadcasting Corp. The U.K. is planning a package of more than £200 million ($260.5 million) that will enable local authorities to draw up plans—including placing restrictions on drivers—to target roads and areas with high pollution levels, Mr. Gove said.

The U.K. and France account for about a third of new cars sold in the European Union, but pale in comparison to the U.S. and China—which together sell nearly half of the world’s light vehicles.

U.S. regulators, prompted by the Trump administration to revisit strict emissions regulations set for 2025, indicated this week they are considering a rollback of those rules. China envisions millions of EVs on its roads in coming years and is working to both dissuade purchases of conventional cars while funding the emergence of a domestic supply chain to provide alternative technology both at home and abroad.

Electric-vehicle mandates face stiff headwinds, including pressure that will likely emerge from oil companies and auto makers that play big roles in the U.K. economy and employment picture. Regulators in several countries, including the U.S., have tried to impose aggressive emissions-elimination policies on car companies, only to roll back the standards amid relatively cheap fuel prices and a lack of consumer acceptance of electric cars.

Auto makers have warmed to electric-car technology following the initial success of Tesla Inc.’s pricey Model S and stiffening rules in China, California and the European Union. Volkswagen AG , Honda Motor Co. and Daimler AG are among major car companies signaling big commitments to replace a sizable portion of their internal combustion engines with batteries or fuel cells in coming decades.

Toyota Motor Corp. has said it envisions an emissions-free fleet by 2050, a decade behind the U.K.’s timetable. Detroit auto makers, once fiercely committed to selling hydrogen fuel-cell vehicles by 2020, have focused on making gasoline engines more efficient while slowly expanding electric offerings.

Volkswagen’s 2015 diesel-emissions scandal, which centered on a multiyear effort to dupe regulators with software that misrepresented the harmful pollutants its cars emitted, kicked off a new round of concern about diesel engines in Europe and all but killed the technology in the U.S. Gasoline engines are being made more efficient via turbochargers and other innovations, but are still considered dirtier than electric vehicles that juice up via the grid.

General Motors Co. is ditching the European market, partially because of the mismatch in regional emissions mandates. The auto maker, having long struggled to assimilate to the unique regulatory or labor contours of individual markets, has also left, is leaving or is considering reducing exposure to several smaller markets.

The internal combustion engine has dominated the car business for more than 120 years, and governments have struggled to rein in the pollutants that result from them. The move to ban them outright is a new trend that will need costly infrastructure investments to ensure there is a charging network, and major battery investments so that the capability of EVs can increase while costs decrease.

Tesla, for instance, has been in business nearly 15 years and has yet to report an annual profit. The cost of vehicle development and installing plugs in dozens of countries on several continents far outpaces what people are willing to pay for the company’s sedans and SUVs, even though most markets offer hefty tax subsidies to buyers.

Volvo Car Corp., owned by China’s Zhejiang Geely Holding Group, said earlier in July it will begin transitioning its lineup to being exclusively electric or hybrid-electric starting in 2019. The Swedish car maker, however, has a very small presence in all of the major markets and can’t afford to make several technology bets.

Source: Wall Street Journal