Suggest someone reads "Thoroughbred & Classic Cars" and the like more often & stops reading Hotrod magazines to achieve an accurate perspective on just how classic cars are flourishing globally. Not restomods. The US has a whole industry supporting & dedicated to the buggering up of cars. Nowhere else in ROW. They even bugger up new Mercs & then wonder why their nice long warranty is null & void. Even the AMG's have to be fiddled with. It's part of US DNA & goes back a very long way to the old hotrod beach racing culture in the late 20's early 30's. This has it's positives because if you wish to accurately restore a '57 Chev all the bits are available generally off of the shelf.

While electrification will be slower in our market the Govt has already stated that classic car owners will still be able to enjoy their cars under specific conditions & authenticity. i.e. that it not be your daily driver, mileage limitation etc. Kit cars are now dead here.

"Cars in the Park" 2019 attracted over 2500 classic cars here until Covid messed things up. A nightmare for the judging panel.

 

The historic vehicle rules are slightly different from the radically altered rules:
https://www.gov.uk/historic-vehicles

Don't ask me why. They also have a get out clause big enough to drive a historic double decker bus through (or crash into) where they seem to allow changes that improve safety and environmental performance. That could be interpreted as replace your classic with a whole modern and register it as the classic? Certainly, a lot of well intentioned upgrades must be relying on it. Coil spring-multi link rear axles and steering racks come to mind.

 

Virtually every country will allow gasoline cars to be continued to be used, etc. That is realty as they are not going to be retroactive and ban gasoline cars. What that means is that overtime and rather quickly when it comes to the less affluent mass population, they will migrate to electric cars due to the cost of keeping up a gasoline car. The gasoline cars will then only be kept alive by car guys. That will keep car groups banded together but over time that group will get smaller and mainly the less affluent car guys. It will likely over time be the small group of car collectors that rarely drive their cars, maybe less than a few thousand miles a year to car shows, and the growing performance classic car owners whom want to drive their cars.

Sure you can take the purist view of stock and that is your view. There are a growing move of the younger people with money that they will restomod and upgrade classics to higher performance in various ways. Both will be keeping these gasoline cars on the road. It does seem that older Jaguar owners are the most condescending car group whom always but to each their own.

 

I'm sure the cost of running an EV is going to rocket. At least in Europe, the cost of running a gasoline or diesel car is pretty well dominated by tax. At present, EVs look cheap and are touted as cheap by journos who don't know any better, because EVs are avoiding a load of tax. As they become more popular, the governments will be hit in the pocket. There's already talk of a tax per mile of road use. Make it road use per tonne mile and the EVs will be very expensive.

I expect the future limitations on gasoline cars will come mainly from supply. If things go as the politicos plan, how long will oil companies consider it worth the effort of refining and delivering liquid fuel? I sincerely hope that more effort goes into devising a practical carbon neutral liquid fuel, not only for the benefit of i.c. engines in classics, but also because it's a way more convenient method of moving energy around than re-charging heavy batteries. To be honest, I don't understand the whole race to make all new cars EV. Cars represent only a fraction of our fossil fuel consumption and I don't see any sign that we're going to have enough generating capacity to support a hydrocarbon-free world, but I don't have the amazing numerical skills of a politician.

 

The truth of the matter is that politicians "don't have the amazing numerical skills" I watch the future with amusement.

EV's are going to be taxed to make up shortfalls over time. EV's post subsidisation will be expensive to run. In many countries that don't have large renewable energy sources to charge them from, like Norway with all it's hydro are going to merely be transferring the point of pollution from the city to the power generation point.

Then we have the Lithium pollution issue from cradle to grave to contend with which is awful.

Did someone mention bovine flatulence?

 

In California all new cars starting from 2035 will be required to be electric. CA has committed to be Zero Net so it is a natural to eliminate new gasoline cars. Most commercial facilities provide free EV charging for their employees, Tesla stations are all over and free for Tesla vehicles, and the EV stations that do charge are cheap. There are more and more companies creating all EV and virtually all the automakers are gearing up and switching their lineup to EV. Yes the batteries are an ugly fact they hide as they do not last and need to be replaced after they get too old which is why the Tesla cars drop a huge amount over time as the battery is $25K to replace, More and more states and countries will use this same tactic to get to Zero Net and be sustainable goals quickly as now there are low priced EV cars and when those general people cannot buy new gasoline cars they will buy electric. Remember those general population of people are NOT car guys like us they never keep their cars they trash them or sell them for what little value they have left.

This might sound scary but they will not eliminate gas as there are millions of us whom are car guys, be it numbers matching as Glyn, Cass, Peter whom are on the strong side of that camp and many whom are like me whom upgrade the performance to a classic. What will happen is cool gasoline cars will be left to people with a higher level of income and the brands/models with enough of a following will be easier to keep on the road and the ones without a following will slowly die off. There are still Model "T" Fords but you only see them at car shows in stock form and on occasion with a restomod. There are still cars that need lead additives to run but they too are mainly at shows as the cost of those become too expensive or difficult to restore to drive much. If you are on the side of stock, remember us restomod car guys whom drive them hundreds of thousands of miles do get a lot of others interested in a owning a classic they adored as they see that it can be more than a trailer queen and still be a daily driver.

At some point more will restomod classics to EV but to me that is not something I can NOT get passionate about at least now as they never give you the feel of the road and experience a real engine can provide. Also right now the only ones I have seen with decent power (comparable to my Jag) can only go a very short range of 90-100 miles.

 

"Tesla stations are all over and free for Tesla vehicles,"
This is not true. Tesla owners have to pay for their electricity but as I understand it they are not charged at the pump so to speak they are billed at the end of the month. The on board computer works out the amount of electricity you have drawn and tesla sends out a bill each month. There are some models, the X and S that allow free supercharging but I think you still pay for the electricity but the use of the supercharger is free.
My biggest concern with an electric vehicle is battery life. Ten years max. Who would want to buy a secondhand Tesla with 100k miles on the clock which is 7 years old knowing they are going to have a 25k bill to replace the batteries in the next couple of years.
There have always been rumours for as long as I can remember of inventors coming up with ways to run cars on fresh air or something just as weird but the invention has then been bought out by the oil companies and stored away so that they can still sell and make money out of petrol. Myth or Fact? Lets wait until 2035 and see if these inventions start popping their heads up but if they do the oil companies need to be taken to task over hiding them for so long whilst our planet implodes on itself.
Anyway 2035 I will be 77 if I make it that far so driving will not be that high on my priorities.

 

The present EV batteries are similar to those in mobile phones: decline after a few hundred charges and toast after a thousand or so. Of course, you might do a little better if you never discharge below 40%, don't charge over 85% and avoid rapid charging ... or leave the thing by your house for the neighbors to admire and take bus.

 

Because of the rate of depreciation of a tesla, over £100k buy new to less than £50k in five years it would be cheaper to have a taxi company on speed dial but that could be said about buying most prestigious cars these days. £10,000 a year to spend on taxis and the money you save on service costs, Tyres insurance, tax and fuel would pay for several decent holidays a year.

Why exactly do we buy new cars?

 

Tesla still offers free charging for many previous and some current models. The cost is still cheaper than gas by a huge margin as it will cost in CA right now about $55-$65 to fill your tank of gas, the Tesla "With a 100 kWh battery on the Model S at .14 per kWh, plus the 15% additional energy required due to inefficiency, it will cost approximately $16.47 to fully charge your Model S from 0-100%, Realistically, it should be less than that depending on your starting battery life? Also as I said here in the US most private companies are all supporting sustainability so they offer free EV charging to employees. I know many people that own an EV whom are not car guys but are on the more middle or lower middle class and it is way cheaper to own an EV as their are subsidies in CA, you can fuel for free from your employer, you do not pay tolls on roads as EV's get to go on the computer lanes for free, so it is cheaper than a Taxi but Taxi's are things of the past as everyone uses Uber or Lyft and the EV is still cheaper than those ride share options. Thus for the general mass population that are NOT car guys you can see that EV's will become the more majority.

You guys while on the side of stock, we are all car guys so we think of keeping our cars forever or passing them down. Most of the population and the new era of people think of cars as disposable so when they depreciate to nothing, they do not care, they just drive it until it dies, then junk it and buy another and repeat this cycle.

BUT, I would say there are enough of us car guys that will keep gasoline alive but we will pay the higher prices for fuel, parts, services, etc. Like I said it will become they luxury symbol for people more affluent so if you are a younger middle class person in the future, the chances of them becoming car guys is not as high as it once was and if they do become a car guy it will be limited to one car and likely they will side more on the restomod as you have to be much wealthier to own a car you cannot use in a practical way. In the long run all car guys need to band together as technology will make EV's more dominant like it or not.

We buy cars because we love them and we have the money to do so, that is why we are car guys You can be stock numbers matching or crazy high performance restomods or anything in between but we do not buy them for anyone else we buy them to enjoy them. An EV does not give you the feel of a real car, the ability to feel the road and enjoyment of driving. An EV is sterile and boring, which is why they are looking at self driving EV. A car guy wants to feel the road, the performance, the senses that are opened up and enjoys driving period, we do not want some computer driving us around, at least I do NOT!

The project Utah and other restomods do bridge old with new and that has more of a chance of appealing to the younger generation as they want new technology not old. Gas cars will get to become more of a rich man's toy but while there will always be OG stock people and that is good to preserve originality, more younger people would rather own a restomod classic and as the years go by for gas cars to continue you cannot be stuck up about how they remain on the road, otherwise they will be gone..

 

While we are on a philosophical line, there's a book, 'Why we drive' by Matthew Crawford, that might be interesting to all sides of the argument.
Peter

 

These are truly amazing. Though I might put a few lines & proportions a little differently. I do like the coupe better (always do), and it's grill very much suits the nose of a very early GT design.
Would be interesting to see something similar done to a Mk IX or earlier. REALLY strange to see this as I've been picturing an S-Type with XK-120 coupe proportions.
After seeing this, a big Mk 9 is what I'm designing in my head. Again, with XK-120 Fixed Head proportions.
As a body man and a big coach builder fan, a huge "what if" fan, and someone who's done a couple what ifs, it would be amazing to create one.