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Comment by josu | Hacker News Reader

There is a long list of countries that decided to ban fossil fuel burning cars in the upcoming years.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_banning_foss...

Personally, I don't think the ban will ever be enforced. It will create the right incentives and most car sales will be electric, but there will still be fossil fuel burning car sales.

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There is an easy way out too: "We believe mandating the purchase of a new car may be difficult for some families and may inadvertently discriminate against the poor". Add some buzzwords like "singe mother", "working through college", and "recently laid off" and it'll be one of the easiest regulations to walk out of, assuming anyone remembers in 2030

Enforcing it is going to be quite simple.

The "DMV" or equivalent will have a very hard time explaining why they are still giving out license plates for new vehicles that are not electric if the ban is made law.

Yeah, I was referring to the fact that the regulation won't come into force and will keep getting pushed back.

As I explained elsewhere - hybrids are exempt. And all current manufacturers can make all of their models into some extremely mild hybrids just to get around the ban. So expect to see a lot of models with 1bhp electric motors just to classify as hybrids coming out soon. And cars made before the ban will obviously be still allowed, so there's no issues there.

I doubt it. This is already a solved problem. We have emission standards that makes those designs more or less pointless.

Yes, by the time Euro 7 is out, no one will make highway-rated petrol engines that small.

People still need to buy the cars. Just like Dieselgate has killed diesel, people will vote with their wallets if manufacturers start trying to pull the wool over customers' eyes.

Also obviously a 1bhp hybrid would get awful fuel economy figures compared to a real hybrid. If you are a manufacturer and you go to all that bother to build a hybrid, why bother doing a 1bhp motor instead of a 30bhp motor? Whats the point? Just to "get around" the law? Why not just put a proper motor in and make a better, more competitive product? I doubt the cost of a 1bhp motor is much less than a 30bhp in the grand scheme of things needed to build a hybrid car (e.g. batteries)

floatrock previously pointed out that your statement about hybrids being exempt does not appear to be true:

"“In just 12 years, we will prohibit the sale of new diesel and petrol cars. And in 17 years, every new car in Denmark must be an electric car or other forms of zero-emissions car,” Rasmussen said, implying that hybrids will be phased out in 2035."

Uhmmmm....it does the exact opposite - it proves what I said. The law coming in 12 years will have an exemption for hybrids. The hybrid ban will come later(if ever)

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