UK bipartisan committee recommends banning gas and hybrid electric cars by 2035

Car enthusiasts in the UK are concerned about a report from a bipartisan select committee of Parliament that effectively calls for eliminating private automobiles and trucks by the year 2050—battery electrics and fuel cell vehicles included—to achieve the goal of making Britain carbon-neutral. The Science and Technology Select Committee report also says that the ban on combustion-powered cars and hybrids should be accelerated to 2035 from 2040.

Though EVs themselves do not emit carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases, the same can’t be said about the factories that make electric vehicles and their components. As the report puts it, “Although ultra-low emissions vehicles generate very little emissions during use, their manufacture generates substantial emissions.” Eliminating those emissions will likely necessitate eliminating the manufacture, sales, and ownership of private cars if the UK is serious about meeting its carbon-neutral target.

It should be noted that the report from the committee is only a recommendation, as there isn’t even any proposed legislation yet. However, the report has pricked up the ears of motoring fans as well as the general press.

Though the committee’s recommendation doesn’t call for an outright ban on private vehicles (at least not yet), that would be the inevitable result of such legislation. We don’t want to sound like hyperbolic scare-mongers, but these are the committee’s own words: “In the long-term, widespread personal vehicle ownership therefore does not appear to be compatible with significant decarbonisation. The Government should not aim to achieve emissions reductions simply by replacing existing vehicles with lower-emissions versions.”