FairFuelUK urges government to “follow the EU” with petrol and diesel ban

News from the EU suggests the planned petrol and diesel ban on new vehicles is being pushed back from 2035 to 2040. It is a rare flash of common sense in a debate usually steered by targets, not reality. 

FairFuelUK immediately called on the UK to follow suit, scrap the 2030 deadline, and stop turning private transport into a financial punishment for normal people.

According to FairFuel founder Howard Cox, the Government is “sleepwalking into an economic Armageddon.” In simple terms: pushing drivers into expensive electric vehicles before the infrastructure is ready could wreck household budgets, cripple the industry that builds our machines, not to mention overload an already unprepared national grid. 

Cox argues that instead of forcing an arbitrary switch, the Government should incentivise manufacturers to innovate and bring cleaner combustion tech to market. That idea is hardly radical; it is exactly how major shifts in automotive design have always happened.

But while FairFuel’s campaign focuses on cars and vans, riders are facing their own cliff edge. Buried in the Government’s transport decarbonisation plan sits a line that hits motorcyclists squarely in the visor: For the moment, that remains as 2030 for mopeds and A1 motorcycles, and 2035 for bigger bikes. The petrol ban for cars was set by the then-PM Rishi Sunak for 2035. Labour flipped this in 2024 to a 2030 deadline on new petrol and diesel cars. It was then amended slightly to allow hybrids and some combustion engine sales until 2035.

Unlike the car deadline, this one has hardly been debated at all. Many riders won’t even know it’s coming.

Motorcycles: A tiny CO2 footprint, yet the same punishment

The policy lumps motorcycles in with larger, heavier vehicles that emit vastly more CO2. Two-wheelers contribute just 0.5 per cent of UK domestic transport emissions, yet we’re being given the same fossil-fuel sell-by date as the entire car industry. In reality, most bikes are already low-impact transport, and in congested cities, they can reduce emissions further simply by utilising smaller engines and by sitting at a standstill in traffic for less time.

Electric sales in the 50cc equivalent market have grown fast, helped by simple urban commuters like the Meaving RM1S and a range of bikes from Super Soco. But bigger machines remain the elephant in the garage. Range, cost, weight and charging infrastructure remain major barriers. While there are some electric sports tourers ready to cross continents, and middleweight adventure bikes you can take to the Pyrenees in one hit, the lack of charging infrastructure and cost of purchase still remain a major stumbling block.

Yet the Government insists there will be no loopholes for motorcycles. Petrol bikes, it says, must disappear from showroom floors just like everything else powered by liquid fuel.

The Motorcycle Industry Association has accepted the need for a transition but wants realistic timelines. Manufacturers can hit targets when they make sense, and when the technology is ready. The Government’s own consultation suggests the 2035 date could even be pushed forward if a “faster transition appears feasible.” For anyone who rides further than the local city centre, that statement looks wildly optimistic.

Meanwhile, FairFuelUK claims public pressure is mounting fast. More than 30,000 emails have been fired at ministers in the last 24 hours demanding that the 2030 car and van ban be abandoned. Many are from people already anxious about the spiralling cost of transport. Motorcyclists, left out of the conversation until now, have even more reason to be concerned. Nobody has meaningfully explained what happens to motorcycling once combustion engines disappear from new-bike showrooms.

The issue is not environmental progress. Riders are generally willing to embrace technology that actually works. But this is about forcing a timeline that bears no relationship to what’s practical, affordable or technically possible on two wheels. If Europe really is delaying its car ban to 2040, there is no logical reason for the UK to rush ahead with motorcycles caught in the crossfire.

Motorcyclists are already among the cleanest motorised road users. Penalising them with the same deadline designed for SUVs and delivery vans is a lazy policy dressed up as green leadership.

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