​​​​​​​As I said in post #13 it is happening in the UK in London soon and in other UK cities in the not too distant future.

London's new 'ultra-low emission zone' that will force a million motorists to pay £12.50 a day or get off the road 'is expected to raise up to SIX times as much as the congestion charge'

 

Although more and more cars are hybrids or electric, this is not the end of your corner gas station. Even if sales of gasoline powered vehicles ended yesterday, we will be buying gas for many years.
Does anyone think that a company as large as ExxonMobil is going to just wither and die without a fight? No way. They alone will pump enough money into political campaigns to keep the gas flowing and do whatever else they need to survive.
Sure, there will be more and more electric and hybrid vehicles, but there will be enough gasoline powered vehicles and companies selling gasoline that this is not going to be an either/or issue in our lifetimes. I believe we will have many choices as consumers for a long time.
The electric vehicles have to overcome on huge problem...range. Until we can recharge a battery as fast as we can refuel, the electric market is limited by the distance the car can be driven in a day.
Also, refineries will continue to operate because they serve more than just cars. Aircraft will be using jet fuel and aviation gasoline for many years, so the oil industry isn't going away. I spent an entire career in commercial aviation and jet fuel is going to power commercial aircraft for many, many years.
Even as car manufacturers do the socially responsible thing in expanding alternative fuels, the death of gas stations is a long, long way off.

 

This is the same idiot who's solution to terrorist attacks is to ban people carrying knives. The UN quango needs money to finance their Climate Change agenda and this is how they've directed countries to get it. This money will be given to the UN bureaucrats and it will disappear with no accountability or approval from anyone but from within the UN. People in successful countries are waking up to the scam and revolting. Everyone wants to save the world until they realize they will be the only ones paying for it and reducing their standard of living to make it happen. Now they are demanding accountability and answers. France is just the beginning.

 

Is it coincidence that both Ford and GM have announced some very big "shifts" in what type of vehicles they will be producing, very soon, as well as JLR earlier?

I know the writing was on the wall but this soon?

What concerns me is that the consumer will be forced to carry the cost of the changeover in a very big way in many cities in the UK. They will end up owning a car that they can no longer afford to run because of government mandate and will be forced to buy a "zero emission" vehicle that they cannot afford.

 

Part of GM's "shift" is to stop producing the Volt EV and Ford's is to stop making passenger cars. It seems they both are concentrating on trucks and SUVs which are gas hogs and not exactly your EV types. SUVs for soccer moms are a good target for EVs though. Trucks not so much when you consider they are more at home in a rural setting far from the grids. But when you pair the torque of an electric motor with a truck you have a good workhorse if only you can keep them charged.

 

A little more than just trucks and SUVs:

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/10/02/b...tric-cars.html

 

I guess they changed their mind since that article of over a year ago............

 

I love my XF WAGON, But Ive driven pickups for almost 20 years when the kids were growing up.
When this lease is up, I'm going back to a truck.
In the U.S. the northeast roads are worse than third world countries, bending rims is a weekly event for most, Ive been lucky.
I tried driving my kids 1963 bug to work, 8 miles.....There was no mercy, NONE....cutting me off, flying by, and I was doing the speed limit.
Gas will fade faster then you think. , again, who drove their MODEL T to work today?
Its change that's all.......anyone have a spare can of LEAD for my 1969 oldsmobile?
Whats an oldsmobile

 

Quite the contrary. It has more energy per volume, is safe, relatively inexpensive, highly portable, stores easily, and already has an infrastructure. The world won't throw away several centuries of known oil and gas reserves and they are finding more all the time. And besides, what do you think is producing most of the electricity EVs are using today?

 

Seriously, we put far too little money and effort into maintaining our roads. I honestly wouldn't mind paying a little more at the pump if I could be assured the money was going to road resurfacing projects. I bent an aluminum wheel back in the late 80s and there was nowhere to get it fixed because it just didn't happen very often back when a low profile tire was a 60 series. But there's also a lot of roads that haven't been maintained at all in the 30 years since then either including the one I live on. Now I see literally every day one or more trucks and vans running around Fort Worth with signs or wraps advertising "aluminum wheel repair". Its big business. In fact, I'm having a Jaguar wheel repaired right now. I admit that I too have a 4wd crew cab truck for hauling and towing, plus I drive it mostly when the weather is foul. Its got 70 series tires that put the rims well above most curbs and insulate from all but the biggest potholes. There is a certain practicality to them.