Hacker News Reader

Comment by ea016 | Hacker News Reader

The title is misleading: they announced a ban of the sales of new petrol vehicles by 2040 [0].

[0] (in french) http://www.lemonde.fr/planete/article/2017/07/06/nicolas-hul...

Raising the price of gas in the mid 70s made it possible to get very sober vehicles, so this might work as well. Of course, it's far enough in the future that it can be canceled and amended enough to become useless. I do appreciate the move (India has a more aggressive target - 2030 - but the landscape is totally different.)

That's at least 10 years too late for sales of new cars, unless they means hybrid. I don't think any new car should be gas-powered after 2030. And Volvo is already doing it 11 years earlier. I guess they may change that goal later, and it could be just a "signal" that these governments are taking banning of gas-powered cars seriously, but at the same time they don't want the car makers to freak out.

> it could be just a "signal" that these governments are taking banning of gas-powered cars seriously, but at the same time they don't want the car makers to freak out.

This is also a signal to consumers, as the government casts a definite vote of confidence towards electric vehicles, which may help drive EV sales up today, instead of making them freak out over a short deadline and reject EV out of it.

> Volvo is already doing it 11 years earlier

They're not getting rid of petrol/diesel engines completely, since they'll still be selling hybrids.

Hybrids, in my opinion, are the next logical step for the masses. A pure electric vehicle has range and charge time issues that keep many of us from considering them. Plug in hybrids make the transition even easier.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com