Ireland and Norway want to ban petrol cars by 2020

Norway may ban the sale of petrol powered cars by 2015 and every new car sold in Ireland could be electric by 2020.

Norway’s Socialist Left Party has proposed to outlaw all new sales of petrol only powered vehicles by 2015. The ban would not take existing fossil-fuel burners off the road, but would make it against the law to sell new cars that burn fossil fuels only. While at first it sounds like an off suggestion from the worlds sixth largest oil exporter, Norway doesn't have any special interest auto industry groups to oppose the ban and as the US EPA has finally officially listed CO2 a health hazard, the proposal could just be considered a socially responsible.

In similar news an Irish cross-party committee recommended that the countries target for 10pc of the car fleet to be electric by 2020 is not ambitious enough and are calling for every new car sold to be electric in 11 years time. The committee found the it only costs about one seventh to drive an electric car compared to a petrol car and the nobody in their right mind will want to buy a petrol or diesel car by 2020. They believe people will buy electric cars simply because they are cheaper to run -- not due to environmental considerations.