Podcast Special: The future of mobility – low-carbon transport for 2040

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🗓️ 27 November 2018

⏱️ 30 minutes

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Summary

What will transport look like in the year 3000? Busted thought we would live underwater, but perhaps we’ll have even figured out zero carbon travelling. This year the government made its own prediction in the form of the ‘Road to Zero’ strategy - new petrol and diesel cars are to be banned by 2040.

Is this another example of the government ‘helping’ unhelpfully? We posed the question to a panel of the leading voices of authority in the debate in a special podcast, sponsored by Shell. The resounding answer was in fact – no, government direction is helpful, in this at least.

Fraser Nelson spoke to Edmund King, the President of the AA and the voice of British motorists; Chris Stark, chief executive of the Climate Change Committee, an independent organisation that reviews government policies on the environment; and Sinead Lynch, Shell’s UK Country Chair. In a incisive half an hour chat, they talk about the big challenges facing low carbon transport today – the appalling lack of infrastructure for charging electric vehicles, the possibility of using hydrogen – yes, really – as an alternative to petrol, and the helpfulness of government targets.

Transcript

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0:00.0	Hello and welcome to a special edition of a Spectator podcast on the future of cars and how they are powered.
0:13.7	Petrol, we're told, is on the way out. The government's going to ban petrol engines by 2040.
0:19.5	So does that mean that Elon Musk's electric cars are the future?
0:23.2	Or might even they be leapfrogged by hydrogen-fueled cars or new technology as yet unconceived?
0:30.1	And what, if anything, should government do to speed up the revolution?
0:34.6	I'm Fraser Nelson, and with me to discuss this brave new world are Edmund
0:39.2	King, President of the AA, Chris Dark, Chief Executive of the Climate Change Committee, and
0:44.6	Chenade Lynch, Chair of Shell UK, which is kindly sponsoring this podcast. So, Edmund King,
0:51.3	can I start with you? The poor beleaguered British driver has heard plenty of
0:56.8	contradictory advice from the British government over the years. Diesel good, diesel bad, electric
1:02.1	to be subsidised, electric not. So where are we and why is the government unable to predict or even
1:08.7	see around the corner of a new superhighway?
1:12.4	Well, I think the general picture is one of confusion for motorists, because in the late 80s,
1:18.5	90s, we're all told it was about CO2, and the best for CO2 was diesel, because you get
1:24.4	more miles per gallon, so there was a dash for diesel there were fiscal
1:28.3	incentives in company car tax etc so many of our members many motorists went out and bought
1:35.2	diesels more recently the gold posts have changed somewhat from CO2 to air quality and that's where
1:42.9	diesel can cause problems so there's been almost a demonisation
1:46.9	of diesel. And if you look at the new car figures, you know, diesel sales are falling dramatically.
1:53.8	But the irony is for some drivers, if you do most of your driving out of town, you do long distances on motorways, a Euro6 diesel,
2:03.6	so the latest diesel engine is probably the best bet for you environmentally.
2:08.6	Whereas for other drivers in town and city centres, it won't be the best bet.
	...

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