Over the last 60 years, the compression ignition engine has provided me with a fair livelihood. It has changed almost beyond recognition in the last 35 years in terms of cleanliness (freedom from leakage) reliability, durability and emissions.
Yet, I have never owned one, mainly because of the capital cost vs life time cost ratio, for our family lifestyle.
Currently, we run two small Euro 6 compliant petrols which, with careful driving almost do 70 mpg.
Battery technology is advancing at an incredible rate. Friends who had a "first generation" electric car had a range of less than 30 miles. Now nearly 400 miles per charge is possible, but at a huge price.
If we all changed our cars to electric power, the UK national grid would probably fail if every one was put on charge at the same time, let alone powering all the other electrical devices across the country. So the infrastructure needs to be improved greatly (not just installing more charging points ).
Thinking about commercial vehicles, hauliers make money on ton miles per unit of energy ( used to be ton miles per gallon ) Batteries are heavy, even post lead acid, and take up a lot of space. So there is unlikely to be a lot of enthusiasm to exchange payload for a battery..
"Electric vehicles are emission free", if we are concerned about brake and tyre dust, they are are not going to be totally clean Regenerative braking will help, as will driving style, but there will still be some dust. And there will still be emissions from the power station, unless it is solar, wind, wave or tidal powered.
What emissions will be generated in producing the batteries; and in the replacement vehicles for our current "dirty" ones?
Beware of politicians, who do not understand the whole problem, and vested interests, making promises for others to keep! Think of the way in which Brussels set targets without ANY idea of what is involved in meeting them, like the 10 fold reduction in particulate emissions..
Sometimes the emissions that we most need to ban are those of politicians who lack knowledge and understanding.
Just let the Engineers solve the problem once it has been noted; don't but put arbitrary deadlines for finding a solution.
Howard.