Great Britain: Boris Johnson wants to ban gasoline or diesel cars by 2030

The end of gasoline and diesel cars is drawing near.

British Prime Minister Boris Johnson wants to ban this type of vehicle from 2030.

Boris Johnson discovers a green vocation.

Currently in political difficulty, he has lost a lot of support in the conservative camp.

The British Prime Minister wants to regain control.

He will announce this week a series of green initiatives, one of which is particularly important: the ban on the sale of new gasoline or diesel vehicles from 2030. History is accelerating.

Last year, the United Kingdom set this target at 2040. In February, London reduced the date to 2035. Henceforth, it is therefore 2030. Who says better?

Apart from Norway, which wants to get there by 2025, no major country has set itself such a close target.

It will put pressure on others.

Yes, but what is surprising in the British case, unlike a small country like Norway, is that they have a significant automobile industry.

And what is more is already very destabilized by Brexit, since many manufacturers have stopped investing in their British factories to concentrate on the rest of the European continent.

This ban on thermal vehicles on such a short horizon will therefore not help their business.

In his green impetus, Boris Johnson also plans to ban hybrid vehicles barely later, in 2035. Which makes one wonder if the voluntarism of the British Prime Minister risks clashing with industrial reality.

We do not transform an entire industry in a snap.

And the electric is very far from being able to replace thermal vehicles.

Toyota and Honda, which produce hybrids in the UK, have already signaled that the timetable put forward by London is unrealistic.

This does not prevent the British government from betting more than ever on electricity.

Yes, because this shift towards the electric car is part of a larger plan.

The UK, which will host COP26 in Glasgow next year, wants to achieve carbon neutrality by 2050. And it is well placed to do so.

Thanks to massive investments in two directions: wind power and nuclear power.

Because the two are complementary: nuclear is the only carbon-free energy source that can overcome the intermittences of wind and sun.

In this perspective, Boris Johnson should announce funding for small nuclear reactors in addition to EPRs under construction.

The United Kingdom's strategy has the merit of being coherent and more ambitious than that of the rest of Europe.

At the risk, and this is a major problem all the same, of sacrificing a good part of the local automobile industry in the process.

The energy transition is not a quiet river.