REARVIEW:THERE HAS been much opposition among motorists over EU proposals to ban petrol and diesel- powered cars from cities by 2050. A typical response among a certain coterie of drivers is that Brussels will have to prise the keys to their V8s from their cold, dead hands.
But this is silly posturing. As anyone who regulalry fills their tank knows, fuel prices are only going in one direction. By 2050, oil will be so expensive that only oligarchs and sheikhs will be able to drive anywhere. So it’s a moot point.
The reality is that the oil age is in its dying days. Indeed, historians will probably look back on it in the centuries to come and wonder aghast at how anyone ever thought it was a good idea in the first place.
We owe it to future generations to concentrate less on hypotheticals and instead focus on solutions to the problems we will face in 40 years. Perhaps motoring will have been entirely electrified by 2050. The tide is certainly turning in that direction. When even Rolls Royce is exploring the battery route, it would seem the game is up for internal combustion.
It remains to be seen where all the extra electricity will come from and whether or not the problem of range can be satisfactorily addressed. That said, I have faith in humanity’s ability to find a solution. For all our faults and self-destructiveness, we are an ingenious species.
When you consider how far technology has brought us since 1970 – when the internet was still a twinkle in a geek’s eye and it was unthinkable that a car could do 60mpg – who knows what we’ll have devised by 2050? Indeed, I still harbour a childhood fantasy of some day flying off to the shops with a nitrogen-powered jetpack strapped to my back.