Petrol owners may have to travel ‘five miles to refuel’ with ‘special market’ for classics
Petrol and diesel owners may have to drive around to top-up their vehicles as fuel stations could stop stocking traditional compounds with classic car owners at risk.
Fuel stations across the UK may stop selling petrol and diesel as they start to transition to electric car charging bays, according to campaigners.
Matt Finch, UK Policy Manager at Transport&Environment warns that widespread changes could happen within the next 15 years.
To start with, motorists may notice they have to travel up to five miles to top-up their vehicles.
However, he predicts that road users will be forced to get “fuel delivered” by suppliers by the 2040s.
Classic car owners will also have to use a “specialised market” to continue using combustion vehicles when EV transition is fully embraced.
Speaking to Express.co.uk, Matt said: “I can see it turning into a specialised market.
“Petrol stations aren't going to suddenly vanish overnight, that's the thing to stress. They will just become fewer and fewer and fewer.
“It may be that your local supermarket where you always fill up because that's where you go doesn’t have petrol or diesel anymore but there is still one, three, four, five miles away.
"Hypothetically there is a point, probably in the 2040s where you would have to go a long way or more likely you will get your fuel delivered by a specialist supplier.
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“Which is exactly what happens to people who burn oil on their properties. It’s not a new thing we've been doing it for decades.
“But I suspect that’s what will happen in the future. You will have to call up and order a tank of petrol.”
Transport&Enviroment made the prediction after analysing data from the Department for Energy Security and Net Zero which suggested the takeup of diesel fuel had fallen.
This is compared to just a 20 percent drop off across the rest of the UK. T&E also suggested that fuel stations in London could stop selling diesel by the early 2030s.
This is because businesses would likely stop selling products that motorists were no longer buying. Some classic car owners have decided to upgrade their historic models to run on biofuels or electric power.
However, most still require traditional compounds to run their vehicles and could be massively affected by any changes. But, Matt stressed that only a “small number” of road users would feel the blow if changes were introduced.
He added: “There are only about 60,000 classic cars in the country now so we are talking about a really small number.
“There’s 35 millions cars so it's a very small percentage of those which already have to get specialist parts and specialist servicing.”
