http://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-40518293
France is set to ban the sale of any car that uses petrol or diesel fuel by 2040, in what the ecology minister called a "revolution".
Nicolas Hulot announced the planned ban on fossil fuel vehicles as part of a renewed commitment to the Paris climate deal.
He said France planned to become carbon neutral by 2050.
Hybrid cars make up about 3.5% of the French market, with pure electric vehicles accounting for just 1.2%.
It is not yet clear what will happen to existing fossil fuel vehicles still in use in 2040.
(Score: 1) by khallow on Saturday July 08 2017, @06:23AM (2 children)
Let us note that if we were to devote a similar portion of the mass of the compact car to gasoline storage as is used for electricity storage on a Tesla, we would have a range of several thousand miles (an 85 kWh battery with the 250 mile range weighs over 500 kg - that's a lot of gasoline).
(Score: 2) by Grishnakh on Saturday July 08 2017, @07:01PM (1 child)
That's a bad comparison. The gasoline engine in a gas car also has a huge mass on that same order, and EVs don't have such things, only electric motors which are much smaller and lighter. A Tesla isn't significantly heavier than a similar luxury car in that class.
(Score: 1) by khallow on Saturday July 08 2017, @10:21PM
Try comparing vehicles of the same frame and design. For example, the Nissan Leaf [wikipedia.org] is based on the gasoline-powered Nissan Tiida/Versa [wikipedia.org]. The curb weight of the former is 1500 kg while the weight of the latter is 1100 kg. That's almost a 40% increase in weight of the electric vehicle despite Nissan going to great lengths to reduce the weight of the vehicle. You will find that the mass of the electric storage system is heavier than the mass of the added components of a gasoline-powered vehicle.