Diesel / petrol banned by 2040 what do we do then

Will there be a lot of unsold and very cheap brand new diesel or petrol cars on the forecourts in 2039?

Just a rumour. 

Wiring is designed to power only light bulbs and could not take the extra load.  Maybe if one turned off twenty lights there could be enough to add one charging point, but then there would be dozens of electric cars needing headlights as it was dark!

No, they'll be really expensive and in huge demand

I think this using street lighting hints very strongly at the "quality" of the minds involved; one is left in despair at the knowledge void the UK has.

The horse is here to stay but the automobile is only a novelty - a fad.

Michigan Bank advising against investment in the Ford Motor Company 1903

History is littered with similar statements about electricity, flight, computing, you name it, someone says it won't happen but it just might. 

Most technology inventions are driven by necessity. War produces technical innovation as does scarcity. If the retail price of fuel suddenly increased tenfold you can bet that there would be any number of solutions.

Some say that there will not be enough electricity capacity but that is based on present batteries, chargers and networks. They will evolve along with electric vehicles. 

One of many such developments will be wireless charging through coils embedded in the ground. Park your car and it will automatically start charging whilst you do the shopping.

The worlds oil companies will not roll over and let this happen, 23 years is an awful long time to develop ultra clean burning of fossil fuels

Indeed so, NigelAsh. The price of oil would plummet and we've seen the effect of that already, especially the effect on pension funds which are heavily invested in oil. Oligarchs in the OPEC countries would sell their expensive property portfolios bringing prices crashing.

Billions (which we won't have) would have be spent constructing numerous nuclear power stations or covering our CLs with solar panels.

Like so many poorly thought out political brainwaves the whole saga about 2040 will gradually degenerate into being 'a target', then 'an ambition', then it'll be phased, then it'll fade away for another 10 or 20 years and we'll be told that the politicians (mindful of their political careers) 'misspoke', giving 'alternative facts'.

Perhaps electric cars will tow a dynamo behind to charge the battery, or have a windmill on the roof to harvest wind power and of course the body will be one big solar panel. 

That's interesting hitchglitch, this is the first major change for a generation, I'm sorry I won't be around to see what develops. My Dad worked on pulse codes, it took years to improve but it happened, much more ahead in new developments. 

NigelAsh.  I am also forced to agree with your timings. Lets just look at what has been achieved so far.  And in this I am NOT being party political because both the Blue, Red and Yellow teams have had fingers in this pie.

Firstly a Govt decides that there are too many cars on the road so the answer is to hike up the cost of fuel to make it the dearest in Europe. AND at the same time they propose an annual price increase above inflation.

Then they discover that the price of fuel is adversely affecting the cost of living index and there's an election looming, so reduce the price of petrol quickly!  THEN they discover that diesel is cheaper and produces less Greenhouse gasses so lets encourage everyone to buy diesels !

Then they start to worry about diesel particulate emissions, so to stop everyone worrying they announce a new age of Electrification of the railways. The flagship of the new electrification program is to be the complete electrification of the main Paddington to Swansea route using new cleaner Japanese bullet style trains taking their power from overhead lines.   A second main line will follow a similar route as the Swansea line but then branch off through Bath and Bristol Templemeads to the West Country finishing in Plymouth.

But oh dear, the new fantastic electrification program is so far behind now that we cannot finish either route in time so we will have to fit all those lovely new electric trains with Diesel engines instead!

So we will take everyones mind of that failure and start talking about HS2 long before HS1 is finished!

And we will ban the diesels that we encouraged everyone to buy!  But SCHHH don't tell anyone that we are busy fitting diesel engines to all the new electric trains!

TF