Cleaning up London’s toxic air

I agree. It feels like more of a TAX to do something like this rather than a real bid to change something.
City hall is always searching for ways to make another tax.
If you really want to improve health and air quality, you need to think bigger.
The Victorians planter thousands of trees in London in their day.
That was future planning as it still benefits us today, they didnt tax people. Because they really wanted to make a change

So this plan is also delivered by the Mayor of London. So if they do what their client tells them could the Mayor tell them to make the shift now?

Us Brits are famous for our grand designs.
Why not a grand design for London.
We would be a world leader if we converted London to all electric cars.
Would'nt that be great to smell fresh air in the parks and streets of London?

Also it promotes electric cars in general which is what the whole world needs in every city.

There are problems with electric buses yes, so you may need more bus stations for recharging, or even Hybrid buses that work on both diesel and electric to cut the exhausts by 60%.

As you know, the emissions by an electric, hybrid or hydrogen cell bus are a lot lower than that of the traditional diesel buses. Even with any heater for the batteries.

If the Mayor says to them change to a cleaner fuel type otherwise we will find someone who does they will find one and change?
It just takes political vision and a grand idea.

If the vision is there us Brits can make it happen, We have been so great at that in the past.
As I said before. I just dream about an all electric future for London.

Thank you very much for the detailed reply.
James.

I do agree that scrapping schemes shouldn't happen, and it is poor government policy that has lead to such a high number of diesel cars (the company I work for only has diesels and a couple of hybrids on its company car list).

What is wrong is the assumption most energy is used during construction. Quite an interesting article on https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2009/aug/17/car-scrap-energy-ef… covers this. They calculated that a Prius takes around 4 tons of CO2 to construct. Compared to around 7 tons emitted for around 50,000 miles. Obviously these aren't energy amounts they are emission levels... but it gives a good idea as to the ratio even for one of the lowest emitting cars around.

Paying people to scrap cars is a bad idea. People who own cars in London could sell those cars to people outside of London, and replace them with more suitable cars. Keep in mind we are talking about 3 years time, so there is time to plan ahead. But certainly we shouldn't have a scrapage scheme when we know those cars can be used elsewhere.

I'm sorry but to think electric vehicles are more polluting shows a lack of understanding of the whole system.

Conventional internal combustion engines are very inefficient, despite improvements over the years. Add on the energy used to refine the fuel, and you have even more energy use. What's worse is the car emissions are being emitted in the middle of the city, where lots of people breath it. Plus as the car ages emissions get worse.

Now think of an electric car, no emissions in the city. Thus improves the air quality around you. So the pain benefit is no emissions where a lot of people are affected. If you buy your electricity from a green energy supplier then you have zero emissions. Even if you buy the most Brown energy (coal fired) you can the emirate still significantly less than a conventional combustion engine (ICE). The most significant thing is that as the electricity grid uses more renewable energy the car indirect emissions drop!

As far as nasty stuff having to be disposed of. Lithium batteries can be reused for home energy storage. Then finally recycled for the valuable parts inside. The rest of the car has less in it than an ICE car, so less to worry about disposing of.

It's early days for electric cars. Secondhand prices are falling. You can pick up a used leaf for £5k that is a similar price to a comparable ICE. Ideal for getting around the city and you'll avoid the congestion charge and the fuel cost is significantly less. Think 2p/mile.

Cities are the ideal location for electric cars because of the stop start nature of london, it's where ICE cars sit there churning out nasty stuff but your electric car uses nothing.

I'm in agreement. The congestion charge and any low emissions zone shouldn't have any exemptions for taxis or minicabs. They contribute significantly to both. The reference to abuse by minicabs is that some people register as a way to avoid the congestion charge when they aren't carrying passengers.

I agree. I have a friend with some such historic vehicles who lives in London, and they only ever come out for shows and rallies and special occasions. Extremely low milage. There are also companies that hie old classics for weddings and so on. It would impact their businesses hard.