The movement to electric family cars is now really beginning to ramp up with models coming in from all manufacturers. This is an international government campaign and you can be sure that there will increasingly be both incentive for electric and penalties for petrol. It won't be long before petrol stations start to close and it becomes more difficult to get fuel for an ICE. Difficult but not impossible.

I can see HMG making special arrangements for classics but that won't cover cars made between 80/85 and now which they see as simply old cars. And this is likely to trash the value of such cars.

How do you plan to approach this scenario. Or are you confident it won't happen in you driving lifetime.

My goodness Howard. Did you just find out that your new Ferrari won't arrive in time for Christmas and by the time it gets here it will be subject to 2020 prices, increased road tax, the new luxury car tax, import duty, customs clearance, and on top of that someone has reliably informed you that the excise on petrol will be raised in 2020?

Must be something like that to depress you so much

Cheers up old chap, surely life can't be all that bad

If the charges/penalties/taxes etc are significantly pushed up and there is a lowering of electric car prices and insurance for these reduced and the range of the electric cars is increased then we might get one , ......... Not selling the petrol car yet !

Not depressed at all! It seems to me to be a reasonable guess of the likely future. The big question is timescale and if the almost panic about global warming is any indication it will be sooner rather than later

Why should the got make special exemptions for ICE cars made in 2000 forcexample

Not depressed and not bothered as it is unlikely to affect me in my lifetime and probably not in my kid’s lifetime. There are far more pressing issues to fix before we get to “no more petrol”.
How about this as an idea. By the time we exclusively switch to electric vehicles, personal transport systems will have been abolished and we will travel in self driven pods hired for each journey on a grid system that does not need roads. in the same way that nations no longer build landline telecoms systems we will no longer build roads, the need to travel will have been much reduced and even restricted by legislation.
Phew

The cost of new electric cars, and a significant number of IC engined new cars puts them way outside what the majority can afford.

To imagine a big take up of electric in the short term is to totally misunderstand the economics of the poorer areas in this country.

And there is nowhere near enough charging infrastructure.

It will come but I don't expect to see it.

I have to admit to thinking along similar lines to Howard, I suspect those who utilised man maths on the basis of investment potential to buy into classic car ownership/collecting might be wise to re-evaluate...? As for what measures might be taken by any govt to reduce car ownership/use, I suspect there will be plenty of legislative options available. Don`t fancy my 80`s +8`s chances much, but it just may outlast my ability to drive it..!!!

When I was young the working class did not generally expect to own cars and few did. It seems that today even those not in employment expect to own and run cars...? In future I suspect the clock may need to turn back to some degree...?

My grandfather took to the road in a horse and cart between the wars, and ever complained of the number of vehicles on the road in the mid fifties, today, it seems I think as my grandfather did back then..

It is not going to happen overnight. There will be a gradual demonising of ICE with emissions managed cities, fuel duty ( it is needed to fund other costs) slow infrastructure development, the looming battery life time limit, continued high purchase cost for private ownership.
Next year will have Brexit issues to occupy the politicians ( mind you they could slip in some ICE cash cow changes) and during the transition period there will be plenty of things to occupy them.
The large majority from the election would help push through changes but which ones and when?
A taffmogger knows a major car dealership boss who is pulling his hair out over used EV prices. The battery life issue is causing high depreciation. Who wants to buy an EV when the battery warranty is about to stop? Renault are offering a battery rental option on cars but at what cost (£80/month I think). I don’t know the cost of a replacement and who bears it though.
Me? Happy to keep ICE but might be tempted by hybrid if the maths was OK.

I was trying to use Man Maths to buy a Morgan last year, maybe I should thank my change in finances because it leaves my finances in the car market reasonably low, while I own 3 cars they only make up maybe 5% of my total wealth where adding a Morgan would have put that much higher. My son on the other hand only owns maybe 1/4 of his car and very few other assets so you could say cars make up 400% of his total revenue. Not sure what % of your wealth should be in cars but I think it is best to not have it too high with the future of cars changing rapidly at the moment.

I see three possibilities for me.

1, Batteries get cheap or some new form of battery turns up and converting classic cars becomes a decent option. While the electric E-type is reasonably nice (hate the dash) and so is the RBW Classic Electric Cars MGB (also hate the dash) both are much too expensive even if I had the money - for the price currently I would rather a Frontline MGB. But if batteries could come down in price and get lighter so easier to not upset the handling of a car then converting a car myself could be an option for me that would be fun to do.

2, Morgan or someone else makes an electric car I like at a price that makes sense to buy.

3, Most of the world turn towards electric leaving a glut of nice petrol cars at cheap prices and the petrol companies drop the price of petrol to try keep some market, so I buy Howard's Ferrari dirt cheap and import it to Australia where we still have petrol stations because we are 20 years behind the rest of the world and enjoy driving it on cheaper petrol for along time.