The Motorcycle Action Group (MAG) has co-funded a report from The Centre for Economics and Business Research (CEBR) on the Government’s proposal to ban the sale of internal combustion engined vehicles (ICEVs) within a 2030 to 2040 timeframe. The report shows that the economic impact of the ban will be five times higher than any economic benefits. Using the Government’s own methodology for calculating costs this policy will cost the average household £14,700.
The CEBR study, “Economic impacts of the 2030 – 2040 bans on the sale of fossil fuel vehicles”, shows that the additional costs of the policy dwarf any environmental benefit, specifically:
- New vehicle purchase costs of £188 billion.
- Time wasted by drivers waiting for EVs to recharge £47 billion.
- Charging and distribution infrastructure £99 billion.
Any benefits BEVs offer will also be vastly lower due to the emissions involved in vehicle production, mining for battery minerals, shorter vehicle lifetimes (8.1 years for a BEV compared with 13.9 years for an ICEV.) The study also forecasts a significant loss of tax revenue which can only result in higher rates of Tax or VAT, or cuts to essential public services.
MAG Chair, Neil Liversidge, said:
“This report shows the Government’s proposal to ban internal combustion engined vehicles to be utterly misguided, even if you accept the assumptions which they themselves have made, and without even getting into the environmental arguments. Millions of motorcyclists stand to lose their freedom to buy and ride a practical petrol-powered machine. The costs of this ban are orders of magnitude greater than any possible benefits. This is economic madness, a blight on civil liberties, and a threat to the UK’s prosperity, our quality of life and national security. We call on Ministers to drop this disastrous policy immediately before it does any more damage.”
The full CEBR report is available here.