Today’s ‘Marketplace’, 4 minutes:
Britain has moved up its ban on fuel-burning vehicles. A motorhead with a 1933 Frazier Nash approves.
Not that surprising. A ban on new gasoline powered vehicles doesn’t affect an owner or collector of vintage models. Wait til they come for his Nash.
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Wait until they tell Brian Johnson of AC/DC that he can’t drive his blower Bentley any more. Anything over 40yrs old is exempt from road tax in the UK.
This reminds me of the so called “ban” on new incandescent light bulbs when some folk were panic buying the old stock.
Nobody “came after” my 150 watt floodlights but it did create an increased demand which greatly reduced the cost of the more efficient CFL and LED bulbs. Although the initial cost of the LED bulbs are still a little more expensive, my savings in energy cost (150 watts vs 15 watts), longer life and fewer ladder climbs make them a “no brainer”.
With cars I see the same thing happening. A similar push away from the current 100 year old gasoline technology will increase demand, reducing costs and increasing the investment in technology and infrastructure to the point where buying an “alternatively fueled” new car will also be a “no brainer”.
And I suspect that by 2040 my grandchildren will be looking at my then 90 year old MG and asking, “Where’s the power plug?”, “Why is it making so much noise?” and “What’s that pipe coming out of the tail?”
Of course here in the USA we heard ‘someone’ promise to bring back coal, but I am still seeing diesel-electric locomotives pulling freight trains.
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There was an amusing episode of Star Trek Voyager where they found an old Model T farm truck and had similar reactions. 
They’re not going to come for your classic cars. They won’t have to. As demand for gasoline drops, eventually it’s going to go away, at least at anything resembling an affordable price point. You won’t be running your old gas classic because you won’t be able to buy gas anymore, and that will be pure market forces dictating it.
Most of us who have old cars aren’t fortunate enough to have some 6-figure numbers-matching trailer queen, and so we won’t have a problem swapping in an electric drivetrain. I’d do it right now on my old MR2 if it were affordable. Same for the CRX.
I’ve never been one who was enamored by the “vroom vroom” aspect of the car scene. Loud does not equal fast, which is why my quiet old-man-mobile Lexus stomps the kids driving Civics with fart-tip exhaust pipes when I don’t even realize we’re supposed to be racing. So if I can make that MR2 faster and quieter with one mod? Sign me up!
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Gasoline is going to still be around and available for probably all of our lifetimes, maybe gone by the time our kids/grandkids are old.
Simply put, there are just too many gasoline powered vehicles out there in use today for the “spigot” to just suddenly shut off one day.
I do have hope that the electric transition has begun, though. When I was a kid, battery powered anything was a joke. Now I have an battery/electric push lawnmower that I’d put up against any Briggs and Stratton mower. Honestly, if I had to buy a car tomorrow, I’d seriously consider an electric car, based on my own needs in a vehicle.
The change is coming and has already begun.
As demand for gas drops, it will go away. That’s what I was thinking.
A friend of mine bought an incredible quantity of incandescent bulbs about 8 years ago because he didn’t want to have to buy “new-fangled” energy-efficient bulbs. However, this is a guy who lives in semi-darkness because “electricity is too expensive”. The result is that he has used only a few of his stock-piled bulbs, and one of his closets is so filled with incandescent bulbs that he can’t put any clothing in there. 
A few months ago, when I asked him if he still thinks that he did a wise thing by stockpiling hundreds of old 60-watt bulbs, his answer was, “Well, I could sell them”.
At last report, his total sales were…
ZERO.
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I completely agree with you.
I think that by 2040 gasoline will still be available but eventually only for marine and farm use.
Electric conversions are already underway, the vintage Jag XKE that the Prince and Megan Markel drove away was an electric conversion and as it continue it’ll certainly become cheaper.
And as far as the Zoom Zoom noise goes, well for a few bucks I’m sure someone will make a bundle duplicating it as an add on.
But the things that can’t be duplicated will still exist. The freedom of your own personal escape machine, the style of something unique and joy of “modding” (Overclocking) will still survive.
I suspect that one day our children or grandchildren will pull up to Checkers boasting about their MR with a 1,200 Kwatt drive next to a Chankhai Sport…
Just hoping that they were smarter than we were.
He doesn’t care what they do. He lives in Florida.
There are already laws requring they make some kind of noise for the safety of the deaf. Harley trademarked the sound of its engines; I think they add it as an effect on their electrics.
Someone already made something along those lines, you could make your tesla sound like a V8 among other options.
Interesting. I bought a gas powered leaf blower precisely because of the reviews that said the rechargeable alternative wouldn’t run more than 5 minutes on a charge.
More like 130 years…
Compares to the 125 year old electric car technology which has as much in common with a 2020 Tesla as a 2020 Mustang has with Karl Benz’s first car in 1885.
120 years ago, gas cars competed with EVs and steamers. The earliest speed records were held by EVs.
I have a battery powered trimmer with a blower attachment and I can do my entire yard on one battery .
You were not looking a good ones .
Or it was long enough ago that batteries really didn’t last long. I have a battery operated string trimmer that did a swath at the back of my yard about 100’ long and 5 ‘ wide on a single charge. Tall grass and weeds too. It’s the transition to the forest.
That might be true for the cheapo leaf blowers, but my Ryobi leaf blower–with a 40 watt battery pack–easily runs for 20-25 minutes. It is as powerful as most gas-powered blowers and it is a LOT quieter, in addition to not producing any noxious fumes.
Because I also have a 40-watt Ryobi weed whacker, I have two battery packs, so one battery pack is always recharged and ready to go. If I need to blow leaves for more than 20-25 minutes, I just swap battery packs and recharge the depleted one for a couple of hours.
Saw this while skimming through a variety of news sites.
Another value of this is that you don’t have to buy the full tool (with battery) when you expand your tool set. I use the Ryobi ONE+ system and bought the electric impact tool with the battery and charger. Next I bought the string trimmer with battery, it had a cheap charger. About a moth abo I bought a Ryobi battery sewer snake and save a lot by buying the tool only, no battery or charger.