When in a few years time everything is electric, there won’t be much in the way of petrol stations will there, I guess it will still be available in some form but at a stupendous cost!, £25+ a gallon, more?? Will older petrol vehicles still be allowed on the roads?, will it be restricted to Historic class vehicles only? If I’m as lucky as my father has been health wise (although there’s nothing to suggest I will be!) I could potentially still ride for another 25 years plus, so If the good lord allows me I’ll definitely be right in the middle of future regs/laws. Will we be doomed to having to fit electric power plants to our classics?, a fair few of the elite and gov types own classics which gives at least some hope of special rules, loopholes and caveats being formed to allow petrol power in a restricted way maybe? Anyway, nobody has a crystal ball, but what do you think will happen (PS the reference above to the good lord is non specific, at the last count there were approx 2000 deities, I’d welcome good health from any one of them!)
A key point there is 'in a few years'. I wouldn't put much money on how long that will be, exactly. There are something like 6 billion bikes and scooters in existance. That's a lot of machinery to replace. Petrol-powered bikes are still very much in development by the manufacturers, as well. While some are out of the gate early (e.g. H-D) I believe a lot are playing the long game. Plenty of time to let the technology and the infrastructure to mature to the point where selling electric bikes is successful enough to satisfy the dealers and the shareholders and give thema good ROI. The few electric-only manufacturers are early adopters in their own way. Some may survive, many will go to the wall or be bought out by the big groups if they're successful enough. I can't see a time when petrol engines won't be allowed on the road. Certainly not in my lifetime (and I'm not that old!) provided they're still basically considered safe. And why wouldn't they be? By the time we get that far down the electric/hydrogen road the emissions will be insignifiant as well. And then there's the non-fossil fuel potential that'll be developed in conjunction with F1 and MotoGP. There's no better lab for that as an alternative propellant to keep us roaring around on our Triumphs for the forseeable.
You make some very good points Octoberon, I should have stated that I am in the UK where it will be illegal for manufacturers to sell new petrol powered vehicles as of 2030 :-/ https://www.whatcar.com/news/new-petrol-and-diesel-cars-to-be-banned-from-2030/n15810
Just get the mucky cars, trucks and busses off the road I say then the air will be clean enough to run our petrol bikes. Oh and get rid of all those mucky aeroplanes and ships too.
The UK Government suggested back in around 2005 that all new houses would not have gas boilers installed from 2016. They are still installing them now…..
The thing that bothers me, is that if everything is going electric, cars, bikes, heating, cooking etc, no gas, no coal, no petrol. What happens when we have a storm, like we had just before Christmas, and all the power lines come down. I know people who were without power for 2 weeks. How are we going to cope with everything electric. You can’t even charge your bike to get help or ring for help on your flat mobile. Sounds like putting all your eggs in one basket, which is a disaster if you end up in a storm.
There's no gas where I live. Most people have oil-fired heating. One house has solar panels on the roof, so that's one option after a fashion. I know it won't power your whole property. As part of the work I'm doing on my house the existing heating is coming out and I'm probably going to put in a heat pump. Of course, that will need electricity...
Is there really a lot of difference to now? I know someone who has regular power cuts, their oil fired central heating can't work because it's controlled by electrics and the pump is electric. Gas cookers have fail safe controls that are governed by electrics. You currently can't charge your phone without electrics.. and so on. Who knows where their old land line phone is? The one that takes power from the phone line, not the hands free version that relies on electricity. In fact it may be better in the future because the cars/bikes we own will probably still have electricity stored and we could charge our phones or even run our houses from them for a few days if wired correctly? or use it to get somewhere we need to be that might have some electrics to charge up again? Call me a optimist or whatever you want, change doesn't have to be bad... Of course that doesn't mean it won't be... I assume it's all about the country having a plan..... Now that's where pessimism could creep in!
Just look at anything our governments try to implement. Useless and I don’t see the change to infrastructure starting anytime soon to move to fully electric. Look at HS2 and how long that’s been going on and has now been scaled back. Costing billions to basically get me to London 20 mins quicker. Do they really think 20 mins will make that much difference. Few leaves on the line and we’ll be back to square one. As always, ill thought out plan, poorly implemented, grossly under costed to only be drastically scaled back through pure incompetence. Ride your bike and don’t worry about it.
It will get very interesting to say the least , but you may want to start hoarding gasoline now.....lol
How appropriate that it is Mercedes based, the owners of the marque are after all kings of the roads.
We’re f@cked, basically. Aren’t we very close to maximum generating capacity at the moment? I believe that most of the nuclear power stations are due to be decommissioned in the next ten or twenty years with is it just ONE being built that won’t come on line until 2030? (Don’t quote me on the specifics, but it’s summat like that) We’re losing more than we’re building, put it that way. Maybe this will help
