Just when you thought the Europeans couldn't be any more full of themselves and their "Green" ways...

Quote :

"Report: EU working to ban gas and diesel-powered cars by 2050 According to new reports, the European Union will announce plans to ban all fossil fuel-powered cars in Europe by 2050. The detailed plan will be outlined in the European Union's Roadmap on Transport, which will come out on Monday. By 2030, the EU plans to have reduced fossil fuel traffic by half, particularly in urban areas. The EU hopes to achieve its goal by ramping up focus on hybrid technology in the next couple decades to make a smooth transition to all-electric power by the middle of the century. A big part of the shift seems to be moving away from personal transportation and toward public conveyances wherever possible. The EU says the overall goal for the project is to reduce traffic-related C02 emissions by 60 percent in 2050. A big part of the reduction will come from the effort to achieve zero-C02 transportation in major urban areas, where people travel by car 75 percent of the time. For its part, Ford Motor Company has already come out with a response to the legislation, criticizing the EU's plan, and we wouldn't be surprised to see more statements from other automakers follow suit soon. You can read Ford's response in their official press release after the jump."

Article and Ford's response available at this link: http://www.autoblog.com/2011/03/28/report-eu-working-to-ban-gas-and-diesel-powered-cars-by-2050/

3/28/2011 12:55:33 PM

Well, I'm not going to complain. The more other countries reduce their consumption of oil, it will reduce the 'potential' complications of oil supply constraints as we transition from a less oil intensive economy. My motivations have nothing to do with the environment, but if their green motives further my desires, then so be it.


[Edited on March 28, 2011 at 1:22 PM. Reason : DOH!]

3/28/2011 1:20:45 PM

pretty far fetched, Im impressed its even being thrown around as a goal though

3/28/2011 1:31:24 PM

that will happen easily by 2050 even without regulations. it is 40 years ahead.

3/28/2011 2:40:11 PM

Yeah. And back in the '60s people thought we would have colonies on the moon by now.

[Edited on March 28, 2011 at 4:05 PM. Reason : give them a break, it was 40 years ahead right?]

3/28/2011 4:04:57 PM

^ your analogy would hold more weight had there already been A colony on the moon

we already have consumer-available, mass-produced cars that run without fossil fuels

40 years to develop an infrastructure to better support them (or a more efficient version of them, which is inevitable, as well) is reasonable

realize that they didn't mention commercial trucks and such (at least, i didn't see it), which are vehicles that (i feel, in my ignorance) are harder to produce as an electric vehicle while maintaining the features that make it heavy duty

*shrug*

3/28/2011 4:50:23 PM

If everyone's so confident of that fact than why would the EU see fit to regulate it (other than them being pompous asses in general?). If, without governments interfering, electric cars fully replace gasoline powered vehicles this is all a non-issue. But taking away a person's choice is just BS.

Also I'd assume this proposed "ban" would be on new production vehicles for sale and wouldn't apply to exisiting vehicles.

What amuses me is how does the EU plan on powering all the electric cars since they don't seem to be in favor of building any new conventional power plants.

3/28/2011 4:58:20 PM

You won't necessarily need to build a lot of power plants, if any... If the majority of vehicles charged during non-peak hours, the power plants would still be able to facilitate the majority of the load without the addition of new plants. I just read about this in an article the other day, and it has some logic to it...

3/28/2011 5:26:52 PM

^Yes but a lot of older plants (esp. nuclear) need to be shutdown and new ones built. Currently power outages just mean you can't turn on the lights at home or use the desktop computer. The power grid has to be even more reliable if we are all forced to use it as a means of powering all transportation, or you are really gonna be fucked when a storm blows through and knocks the power off overnight. Then your alarm doesn't go off and your ride to work is going to be out of commission.

BTW I know its easier to handle this in Europe, but what do you do if you want to go on a long distance trip? Stop and recharge every couple hours? Because it sounds like range extending vehicles like the Volt would be illegal in this scheme too.

3/28/2011 5:38:48 PM

Quote :

"Yeah. And back in the '60s people thought we would have colonies on the moon by now."

epic fail analogy.

3/29/2011 12:29:33 AM

I'm not going to be driving aroud a leaf or a volt that's for sure

3/29/2011 6:17:23 PM

so what about biodiesel or ethanol?

3/29/2011 10:41:17 PM

By 2050 the traffic will be so bad that no one will want to drive one.

3/29/2011 10:50:50 PM

If the technology develops to allow for algae to produce organic oil then internal combustion vehicles will be around for a long time.

A problem with the electrification of all the world's automobiles is scarcity of materials for batteries. I don't know if the technology will advance to the point where more common materials can be used, or maybe fuel cells take off...but if thats not the case there just aren't enough rare metals to go around.

3/30/2011 9:20:44 AM

This is the EU we're talking about here. A place where cars have never been as big a deal as they are here. Mass transportation is more feasible and much less stigmatized. Passenger rail is well-developed. In-country travel distances are necessarily shorter on average. Hell, even within the EU your distance is likely to be shorter on average. From Lisbon, Portugal to Tallinn, Estonia (from a quick estimate, the two most distant capitals of EU member states) is 2,500 miles. From Seattle to Miami (the two most distant major US cities I could think of) it's 3,300.

There's no point in looking at this from an American perspective. This may be practicable for them. Certainly I think we'll see a zero-gas Europe well before we see a zero-gas US. I don't think any of you need to be worried about being forced to drive a Volt any time soon.

Quote :

"If, without governments interfering, electric cars fully replace gasoline powered vehicles this is all a non-issue. But taking away a person's choice is just BS."

I doubt anybody thinks that gasoline-powered vehicles will be fully replaced either way. Even the strictest likely interpretation of this goal would probably still allow certain exceptions for antique or otherwise special cars. But to answer your question, they're probably doing this to accelerate what many see as an inevitable process. Possibly they think that we will inevitably just start buying non-gas cars, but not in time to stop some catastrophic environmental disaster. Which isn't to say that I think the same way -- merely that thinking that we will naturally move to electric/fuel cell/whatever cars and thinking government intervention is good are not mutually exclusive.

4/3/2011 3:12:13 AM