Petrol and diesel car sales ban brought forward to 2035

A ban on selling new petrol, diesel or hybrid cars in the UK will be brought forward from 2040 to 2035 at the latest, under government plans.

The change comes after experts said 2040 would be too late if the UK wants to achieve its target of emitting virtually zero carbon by 2050.

Boris Johnson unveiled the policy as part of a launch event for a United Nations climate summit in November.

He said 2020 would be a "defining year of climate action" for the planet.

The summit, known as COP26, is being hosted in Glasgow. It is an annual UN-led gathering set up to assess progress on tackling climate change.

Campaign group Extinction Rebellion held a protest outside London's Science Museum to coincide with the event. Reuters

Sir David Attenborough said at the launch event at London's Science Museum that he was looking forward to COP26 and found it "encouraging" that the UK government was launching a "year of climate action".

"The longer we leave it... the worse it is going to get," he said.

"So now is the moment. It is up to us to organise the nations of the world to do something about it."

In a statement made ahead of the launch, Mr Johnson said the ban on selling new petrol and diesel cars would come even earlier than 2035, if possible.

Hybrid vehicles are also now being included in the proposals, which were originally announced in July 2017.

People will only be able to buy electric or hydrogen cars and vans, once the ban comes into effect.

The change in plans, which will be subject to a consultation, comes after experts warned the previous target date of 2040 would still leave old conventional cars on the roads following the clean-up date of 2050.

The Scottish government does not have the power to ban new petrol and diesel cars but has already pledged to "phase out the need" for them by 2032 with measures such as an expansion of the charging network for electric cars.

Mr Johnson said the 2050 pledge was necessary because the UK's "historic emissions" meant "we have a responsibility to our planet to lead in this way".

The announcement comes as COP26's former president Claire O’Neill, who was sacked on Friday, wrote a bitter letter accusing Mr Johnson of failing to support her work.

The prime minister's official spokesperson said Downing Street had "no comment" to make on the letter, but thanked Mrs O'Neill for her work towards the conference.

He said her replacement would be a "ministerial post" with details set out "in due course."

Mr Johnson did not answer the BBC's David Shukman's questions about the row.

PM not answering awkward climate questions pic.twitter.com/FsrkoxhJYj

— David Shukman (@davidshukmanbbc) February 4, 2020

Mr Johnson said: “Hosting COP26 is an important opportunity for the UK and nations across the globe to step up in the fight against climate change.

“As we set out our plans to hit our ambitious 2050 net zero target across this year, so we shall urge others to join us in pledging net zero emissions.

“There can be no greater responsibility than protecting our planet, and no mission that a global Britain is prouder to serve."

At the Science Museum the prime minister added that a "catastrophic period of global addiction" to hydrocarbons had led to the planet being "swaddled in a tea cosy" of carbon dioxide.

But Green Party MP Caroline Lucas said on Twitter: "Carbon emissions are not 'swaddling the planet like a tea cosy'. They are behind wildfires in Australia, soaring temperature records and the broken lives of those least responsible. The PM needs to understand that - and act."

Friends of the Earth's Mike Childs said the government was "right" to bring forward the ban, but that 2030 would be better than 2035.

“A new 2035 target will still leave the UK in the slow-lane of the electric car revolution and meantime allow more greenhouse gases to spew into the atmosphere," he said.

He said the government could show "real leadership" ahead of COP26 by reversing plans to develop "climate-wrecking roads and runways".

AA president Edmund King said: "Drivers support measures to clean up air quality and reduce CO2 emissions but these stretched targets are incredibly challenging."

The chief executive of the society of motor manufacturers and traders (SMMT) accused the government of "moving the goalposts".

"With current demand for this still expensive technology still just a fraction of sales, it's clear that accelerating an already very challenging ambition will take more than industry investment," Mike Hawes said.

He said the government's plans must safeguard industry and jobs, as well as ensuring current sales of low emission vehicles were not undermined.

Meanwhile Mrs O’Neill accused Mr Johnson of promising money and people to support her work, but failing to deliver either.

She also said he admitted to her that he "doesn't really get" climate change and claimed he had refused to give Scottish First Minister Nicola Sturgeon an official role at COP26.

Cabinet minister Michael Gove said Mrs O'Neill was a "close friend" but that he disagreed with her comments.

He told BBC Radio 5 Live Mr Johnson described his own political outlook as "that of a green Tory".

Mrs O'Neill said her "absolute desire for action has not been comfortable for some", adding that this was "not about me" or Mr Johnson - but about working towards "rapid decarbonisation".

She said at COP26 the UK must "absolutely double down on taking our great leadership and ambitions in this space, and really energising the world as to why this is a huge opportunity".

(Source: BBC)

400 electric car charging stations by 2022 in Qatar

Qatar General Electricity and Water Corporation (Kahramaa) is planning to set up 400 electric car charging stations by the end of 2022 to encourage the use of electric and hybrid vehicles in Qatar.  Kahramaa, represented by the National Program for Conservation and Energy Efficiency (Tarsheed), inaugurated 8th electric car charging station, yesterday at Qatar Scientific Club.

The inauguration is a continuation of the first phase of the launch of electric car charging stations in Qatar as part of the green vehicles initiative to provide a clean, healthy and safe environment for future generations.

An electric vehicle charging station was opened yesterday at Qatar Scientific Club in the
presence of Kahramaa officials. Pic: Abdul Basit / The Peninsula

On the occasion of the inauguration, the Conservation and Energy Efficiency Department Manager in Kahramaa, Eng. Abdulaziz Al Hammadi, said the station is a continuation of the efforts of Kahramaa, represented by Tarsheed, for the preparation of the necessary infrastructure for electric vehicles in the country, where 400 stations are planned to be established in cooperation with the private sector by the end of 2022 in the context of encouraging electric and hybrid vehicles in Qatar.

Managing Director of Qatar Scientific Club Fatima Al Mohannadi said that since the announcement of Kahramaa that it has started to install the electric vehicle charging stations in Qatar, the club worked on being one of the first to support of this positive initiative.

Siemens Qatar, the partner of this technology initiative, delivers electric charging stations that provide ease of use, safety and energy management.

Siemens Qatar will also provide training in operation and use as well as maintenance of vehicle chargers stations.

Kahramaa launched seven electric vehicle charging stations in 2018 in the areas of Kahramaa Main Building, Kahramaa Awareness Park Building, Al Fardan Towers, St. Regis Hotel, and Kempinski Pearl Resort. In addition, two electric car charging stations for buses have been inaugurated at the headquarters of Mowasalat, and two electric car charging stations will be inaugurated at Qatar Foundation.

(Source: The Peninsula)

Petrol prices may come down from Rs 70 to Rs 38 under GST. Will government do it?

While most of the taxable articles moved under the GST regime, petroleum products are still governed by VAT system.

Questions are being asked if Finance Minister Arun Jaitlely-headed GST Council will pay heed to Petroleum Minister Dharmendra Pradhan's suggestion on petroleum prices.

"The Petroleum products' inclusion in GST only way for rational fuel prices," tweeted Dharmendra Pradhan as the petroleum prices reached three-year high. Bringing petroleum products under the GST regime will make the fuels cheaper.

In Mumbai, petrol prices touched Rs 80 a litre while in Delhi, it is over Rs 70 per litre. If petrol is brought under GST, it may cost as little as Rs 38.10 in Delhi at 12 per cent GST rate.

It was August 2014, when petrol prices breached Rs 70 mark the last time. Back then the crude oil prices was around USD 98 per barrel. But, now the crude oil prices are hovering around USD 50 per barrel.

WHY ARE PETROL, DIESEL SO COSTLY
According to data released by the Indian Oil Corporation for the petrol price build up in Delhi, the fuel costs only Rs 26.65 at the refineries. Dealers get a litre of petrol at Rs 30.70. But, petrol is sold at Rs 70.39 a litre in Delhi. This means Rs 39.41 is charged as tax component and dealer's commission on every litre of petrol sold in the national capital.

While most of the taxable articles moved under the GST regime, petroleum products are still governed by VAT system. Different states have different rates of VAT applicable on petroleum products.

As per the data available with the Petroleum Planning and Analysis Cell (PPAC), Delhi charges a VAT of 27 per cent on petrol while it is 47.64 per cent in Mumbai, Thane and Navi Mumbai. This explains the difference of about Rs 9 in the petrol prices in the two cities.

CENTRE'S SHARE IN HIGH PETROL PRICES
Centre imposes excise duty on petrol and diesel. As per the PPAC data, excise duty on petrol has increased by 54 per cent since November 2014. An average increase of 46 per cent has been seen with regard to VAT on petrol while dealer's commission has been increased by as much as by 73 per cent.

Similarly, in the case of diesel, the excise duty has gone up by 154 per cent, VAT by 48 per cent and dealer's commission by 73 per cent. The excise duty on petrol and diesel has been increased on 12 occasions since 2014.

The combined effect of taxation on petroleum product by the Centre and the state governments is that the prices of petrol and diesel have gone back to 2014-level while the crude oil have become cheaper by little less than half.

It is not a surprise that during the same period revenue from petroleum products has increased from Rs 3.32 lakh crore in 2014-15 to Rs 5.24 lakh crore in 2016-17.

WHAT IF PETROLEUM COMES UNDER GST
Under GST, the petrol and diesel prices under the present circumstances will become substantially cheaper. The GST regime provides for taxation rates of 0, 5, 12, 18 and 28 per cent. Petrol and diesel can't be expected to be taxed below 12 per cent.

At 12 per cent GST, the petrol will be sold at Rs 38.1 in Delhi - almost Rs 32 cheaper than the current rate for one litre of the fuel. At 18 per cent, petrol will be 40.05 a litre in Delhi while at 28 per cent, it will cost Rs 43.44 per litre.

If the SUV compensation cess is imposed over and above 28 per cent GST on petrol, it will cost Rs 50.91 in Delhi - still about Rs 20 cheaper than the existing rate.

As for diesel, its current price in Delhi is Rs 58.72 per litre. At 12 per cent GST, diesel will sell at Rs 36.65 in the national capital. At 18 per cent GST, diesel will cost Rs 38.61.

At 28 per cent GST, diesel will cost Rs 48.88 in Delhi and if SUV cess is imposed, the customers will have to pay Rs 49.08 for a litre of the fuel - still Rs 9.64 cheaper than the existing rate.

But, bringing petroleum products under the GST involves politics. Under the GST Act, the decision to bring petroleum products under the new taxation regime can only be taken by the GST Council which has heavy representation from states, which are not ready to let go the hen laying golden eggs.

(Source: India Today)

Britain to ban sale of all diesel and petrol cars and vans from 2040

Plans follow French commitment to take polluting vehicles off the road owing to effect of poor air quality on people’s health

Britain is to ban all new petrol and diesel cars and vans from 2040 amid fears that rising levels of nitrogen oxide pose a major risk to public health.

The commitment, which follows a similar pledge in France, is part of the government’s much-anticipated clean air plan, which has been at the heart of a protracted high court legal battle.

The government warned that the move, which will also take in hybrid vehicles, was needed because of the unnecessary and avoidable impact that poor air quality was having on people’s health. Ministers believe it poses the largest environmental risk to public health in the UK, costing up to £2.7bn in lost productivity in one recent year.

Ministers have been urged to introduce charges for vehicles to enter a series of “clean air zones” (CAZ). However, the government only wants taxes to be considered as a last resort, fearing a backlash against any move that punishes motorists.

“Poor air quality is the biggest environmental risk to public health in the UK and this government is determined to take strong action in the shortest time possible,” a government spokesman said.

“That is why we are providing councils with new funding to accelerate development of local plans, as part of an ambitious £3bn programme to clean up dirty air around our roads.”

The final plan, which was due by the end of July, comes after a draft report that environmental lawyers described as “much weaker than hoped for”.

The environment secretary, Michael Gove, will be hoping for a better reception when he publishes the final document on Wednesday following months of legal wrangling.

A briefing on parts of the plan, seen by the Guardian, repeats the heavy focus on the steps that can be taken to help councils improve air quality in specific areas where emissions have breached EU thresholds.

Measures to be urgently brought in by local authorities that have repeatedly breached EU rules include retrofitting buses and other public transport, changing road layouts and altering features such as roundabouts and speed humps.

Reprogramming traffic lights will also be included in local plans, with councils being given £255m to accelerate their efforts. Local emissions hotspots will be required to layout their plans by March 2018 and finalise them by the end of the year. A targeted scrappage scheme is also expected to be included.

Some want the countrywide initiative to follow in the footsteps of London, which is introducing a £10 toxic “T-charge” that will be levied on up to 10,000 of the oldest, most polluting vehicles every weekday.

Sources insisted that while the idea of charges were on the table, there was no plan to force councils to introduce them, and that other measures would be exhausted first.

They hope the centrepiece of Wednesday’s strategywill be the plan to ban diesel and petrol sales completely by 2040, in line with Emmanuel Macron’s efforts across the Channel.

The French president took the steps to help his country meet its targets under the Paris climate accord, in an announcement that came a day after Volvo said it would only make fully electric or hybrid cars from 2019 onwards.

That decision was hailed as the beginning of the end for the internal combustion engine’s dominance of motor transport after more than a century.

Prof David Bailey, an automotive industry expert at Aston University, said: “The timescale involved here is sufficiently long-term to be taken seriously. If enacted it would send a very clear signal to manufacturers and consumers of the direction of travel and may accelerate a transition to electric cars.”

Britain’s air quality package also includes £1bn in ultra-low emissions vehicles including investing nearly £100m in the UK’s charging infrastructure and funding the ”plug-in car” and “plug-in grant” schemes.

There will also be £290m for the national productivity investment fund, which will go towards the retrofitting, and money towards low-emission taxis.

The report will also include an air quality grant for councils, a green bus fund for low carbon vehicles, £1.2bn for cycling and walking and £100m to help air quality on the roads.

The strategy comes amid warnings that the UK’s high level of air pollution could be be responsible for 40,000 premature deaths a year.

A judge had said the government’s original plans on tackling the issue, which included five clean air zones, were so poor as to be unlawful. The government was asked to present a new draft policy to tackle air pollution from diesel traffic before the election.

It was then called to court to explain why it had made a last-minute application to delay publication of its draft policy until after the election.

James Eadie QC, representing the government, said the policy was ready to be published but it would be controversial and should therefore be withheld until after the election.

“If you publish a draft plan, it drops all the issues of controversy into the election … like dropping a controversial bomb,” he said, adding that it could risk breaching rules about civil service neutrality and lead to the policy being labelled a Tory plan.

However, judges said the government did have to publish a draft plan with the final version needed by the end of July.

May’s draft contained few concrete proposals and did not specify the cities and towns where polluting vehicles might face charges, the level of any charges or the scope or value of any scrappage scheme.

Instead, the plan put the onus for action on local authorities: “Local authorities are already responsible for improving air quality in their area, but will now be expected to develop new and creative solutions to reduce emissions as quickly as possible, while avoiding undue impact on the motorist.”

Analysis in the documents showed increasing the number of CAZs from the current six planned to 27 would make by far the greatest impact in cutting pollution and provide cost benefits of over £1bn. The CAZ policy would cut more than 1,000 times more NO2 than a scrappage scheme, even if that scheme required old diesels to be replaced by electric cars.

But it required local authorities to exhaust all other options before introducing CAZ charging for diesel vehicles, such as removing speed bumps and retrofitting buses.

The coalition government had already set out a vision for almost every car and van to be ultra-low emission by 2050 – a move which the government acknowledged would require “almost all new cars and vans sold to be near-zero emission at the tailpipe by 2040”. So it is unclear to what extent the new pledge will further boost Britain’s ability to achieve air quality requirements.

ClientEarth, the campaign group that has successfully pursued the government through the courts over the UK’s air pollution crisis, gave a cautious welcome to the announcement but said ministers must take immediate action to tackle the UK’s air pollution crisis.

“The government has trumpeted some promising measures with its air quality plans, but we need to see the detail,” said CEO James Thornton. “A clear policy to move people towards cleaner vehicles by banning the sale of petrol and diesel cars and vans after 2040 is welcome, as is more funding for local authorities.

“However, the law says ministers must bring down illegal levels of air pollution as soon as possible, so any measures announced in this plan must be focused on doing that.”

The mayor of London, Sadiq Khan, has been calling for tougher measures to tackle air pollution, which kills 9,000 people a year in the capital.

A City Hall source was sceptical about the government’s announcement. “We need to look at the full details but what Londoners suffering from the terrible health impacts of air pollution desperately need is a fully-funded diesel scrappage fund – and they need it right now.”

Areeba Hamid, clean air campaigner at Greenpeace, said: “The high court was clear that the government must bring down toxic air pollution in the UK in the shortest possible time. This plan is still miles away from that.
“The government cannot shy away any longer from the issue of diesel cars clogging up and polluting our cities, and must now provide real solutions, not just gimmicks. That means proper clean air zones and funding to support local authorities to tackle illegal and unsafe pollution.”

(Source: The Guardian)

Petrol cars will vanish in 8 years, says US report from Stanford economist

No more petrol or diesel cars, buses, or trucks will be sold anywhere in the world within eight years. The entire market for land transport will switch to electrification, leading to a collapse of oil prices and the demise of the petroleum industry as we have known it for a century.

This is the futuristic forecast by Stanford University economist Tony Seba. The professor's report, with the deceptively bland title Rethinking Transportation 2020-2030, has gone viral in green circles and is causing spasms of anxiety in the established industries.

Mr Seba's premise is that people will stop driving altogether. They will switch en masse to self-drive electric vehicles (EVs) that are 10 times cheaper to run than fossil-based cars, with a near-zero marginal cost of fuel and an expected lifespan of 1 million miles (1.6 million kilometres).

Only nostalgics will cling to the old habit of car ownership. The rest will adapt to vehicles on demand. It will become harder to find a petrol station, spares, or anybody to fix the 2000 moving parts that bedevil the internal combustion engine. Dealers will disappear by 2024.

Cities will ban human drivers once the data confirms how dangerous they can be behind a wheel. This will spread to suburbs, and then beyond. There will be a "mass stranding of existing vehicles". The value of second-hard cars will plunge. You will have to pay to dispose of your old vehicle.

It is a twin "death spiral" for big oil and big autos, with ugly implications for some big companies on the London Stock Exchange unless they adapt in time.

The long-term price of crude will fall to $US25 a barrel. Most forms of shale and deep-water drilling will no longer be viable. Assets will be stranded. Scotland will forfeit any North Sea bonanza. Russia, Saudi Arabia, Nigeria, and Venezuela will be in trouble.

It is an existential threat to Ford, General Motors, and the German car industry. They will face a choice between manufacturing EVs in a brutal low-profit market, or reinventing themselves a self-drive service companies, variants of Uber and Lyft.

They are in the wrong business. The next generation of cars will be "computers on wheels". Google, Apple, and Foxconn have the disruptive edge, and are going in for the kill. Silicon Valley is where the auto action is, not Detroit, Wolfsburg, or Toyota City.

The shift, according to Mr Seba, is driven by technology, not climate policies. Market forces are bringing it about with a speed and ferocity that governments could never hope to achieve.

"We are on the cusp of one of the fastest, deepest, most consequential disruptions of transportation in history," Mr Seba said. "Internal combustion engine vehicles will enter a vicious cycle of increasing costs."

The "tipping point" will arrive over the next two to three years as EV battery ranges surpass 200 miles and electric car prices in the US drop to $US30,000 ($40,600). By 2022, the low-end models will be down to $US20,000. After that, the avalanche will sweep all before it.

"What the cost curve says is that by 2025 all new vehicles will be electric, all new buses, all new cars, all new tractors, all new vans, anything that moves on wheels will be electric, globally," Mr Seba said.

"Global oil demand will peak at 100 million barrels per day by 2020, dropping to 70 million by 2030." There will be oil demand for use in the chemical industries, and for aviation, though Nasa and Boeing are working on hybrid-electric aircraft for short-haul passenger flights.

Mr Seba said the residual stock of fossil-based vehicles will take time to clear, but 95 per cent of the miles driven by 2030 in the US will be in autonomous EVs for reasons of costs, convenience, and efficiency. Oil use for road transport will crash from 8 million barrels a day to 1 million.

A Tesla Model S, which has 18 moving parts, one hundred times fewer than a combustion engine car. "Maintenance is essentially zero," says Stanford University economist Tony Seba. "That is why Tesla is offering infinite-mile warranties. You can drive it to the moon and back and they will still warranty it."

 

Insurance costs to fall by 90 per cent
The cost per mile for EVs will be 6.8 cents, rendering petrol cars obsolete. Insurance costs will fall by 90 per cent. The average American household will save $US5600 per year by making the switch. The US government will lose $50 billion a year in fuel taxes. Britain's exchequer will be hit at the same rate.

"Our research and modelling indicate that the $10 trillion annual revenues in the existing vehicle and oil supply chains will shrink dramatically," Mr Seba said.

"Certain high-cost countries, companies, and fields will see their oil production entirely wiped out. Exxon-Mobil, Shell and BP could see 40 per cent to 50 per cent of their assets become stranded," the report said.

These are all large claims, though familiar those on the cutting edge of energy technology. While the professor's timing may be off by a few years, there is little doubt about the general direction.

India is drawing up plans to phase out all petrol and diesel cars by 2032, leap-frogging China in an electrification race across Asia. The brains trust of Prime Minister Narendra Modi has called for a mix of subsidies, car-pooling, and caps on fossil-based cars. The goal is to cut pollution and break reliance on imported oil, but markets will pick up the baton quickly once the process starts.

China is moving in parallel, pushing for 7 million electric vehicles by 2025, enforced by a minimum quota for "new energy" vehicles that shifts the burden for the switch onto manufacturers. "The trend is irreversible," said Wang Chuanfu, head of the Chinese electric car producer BYD, backed by Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway.

At the same time, global shipping rules are clamping down on dirty high-sulphur oil used in the cargo trade, a move that may lead to widespread use of liquefied natural gas for ship fuel.

This is all happening much faster than Saudi Arabia and Opec had assumed. The cartel's World Oil Outlook last year dismissed electric vehicles as a fringe curiosity that would make little difference to ever-rising global demand for oil.

It predicted a jump in crude consumption by a further 16.4 million barrels a day to 109 million by 2040, with India increasingly taking over from China as growing market. The cartel said fossils will still make up 77 per cent of global energy use, much like today. It implicitly treated the Paris agreement on climate targets as empty rhetoric.

Whether Opec believes its own claims is doubtful. Saudi Arabia's actions suggest otherwise. The kingdom is hedging its bets by selling off chunks of the state oil giant Saudi Aramco to fund diversification away from oil.

Opec, Russia, and the oil-exporting states are now caught in a squeeze and will probably be forced to extend output caps into 2018 to stop prices falling. Shale fracking in the US is now so efficient, and rebounding so fast, that it may cap oil prices in a range of $US45 to $US55 until the end of the decade. By then the historic window will be closing.

Experts will argue over Mr Seba's claims. His broad point is that multiple technological trends are combining in a perfect storm. The simplicity of the EV model is breath-taking. The Tesla S has 18 moving parts, one hundred times fewer than a combustion engine car. "Maintenance is essentially zero. That is why Tesla is offering infinite-mile warranties. You can drive it to the moon and back and they will still warranty it," Mr Seba said.

Self-drive "vehicles on demand" will be running at much higher levels of daily use than today's cars and will last for 500,000 to 1 million miles each.

It has long been known that EVs are four times more efficient than petrol or diesel cars, which lose 80 per cent of their power in heat. What changes the equation is the advent of EV models with the acceleration and performance of a Lamborghini costing five or 10 times less to buy, and at least 10 times less to run.

"The electric drive-train is so much more powerful. The gasoline and diesel cars cannot possibly compete," Mr Seba said. The parallel is what happened to film cameras - and to Kodak - once digital rivals hit the market. It was swift and brutal. "You can't compete with zero marginal costs," he said.

The effect is not confined to cars. Trucks will switch in tandem. Over 70 per cent of US haulage routes are already within battery range, and batteries are getting better each year.

EVs will increase US electricity demand by 18 per cent, but that does not imply the need for more capacity. They will draw power at times of peak supply and release it during peak demand. They are themselves a storage reservoir, helping to smooth the effects of intermittent solar and wind, and to absorb excess base-load from power plants.

Mark Carney, the Governor of the Bank England and chairman of Basel's Financial Stability Board, has repeatedly warned that fossil energy companies are booking assets that can never be burnt under the Paris agreement.

He pointed out last year that it took only a small shift in global demand for coal to bankrupt three of the four largest coal-mining companies in short order. Other seemingly entrenched sectors could be just as vulnerable. He warned of a "Minsky moment", if we do not prepare in time, where the energy revolution moves so fast that it precipitates a global financial crisis.

The crunch may be coming even sooner than he thought. The Basel Board may have to add the car industry to the mix. There will be losers. Whole countries will spin into crisis. The world's geopolitical order will be reshaped almost overnight. But humanity as a whole should enjoy an enormous welfare gain.

(Source: AFR)

He paid a heavy price when diesel was accidentally filled instead of petrol

The Karnataka MLA had purchased the Rs 1.65 crore-Volvo on Saturday. He He paid a heavy price when diesel was accidentally filled instead of petrol, says an article published on TNM: 

If you're looking for ultra-modern luxury, you could do little better than the Volvo XC90 T9 Excellence -- with its 410 BHP engine, its ultra-luxe interiors complete with personal massagers and more. Too bad, as Mangaluru City North MLA Mohiudeen Bava found out, cutting-edge technology can go all too wrong when confronted with an old-fashioned goof-up.

Daiji World reported that Bava, who became the first Indian to buy the newly launched Volvo XC 90 T9 Excellence for Rs 1. 65 crore on Saturday has to send his car back to the service centre.

When Bava’s son went to the fuel station, the attendant erroneously put diesel into the petrol hybrid vehicle, Daiji World reported.

Reacting to the incident, the Congress MLA was quoted as saying, “As I was in Bengaluru for the Assembly session, my son had taken the new car to the fuel station. Though my son had instructed him (the attendant) clearly to fill petrol, when my son went to pay, he found that the staff had filled diesel.”

Most SUV cars in India run on diesel which may have been the reason for the attendant’s blunder.

However, Bava handled the situation rather maturely saying, “As the saying goes 'to err is human', it is common to make mistakes and we respect humans more than machines." He added that the attendant apologised for his mistake and the dealer was contacted to repair the car.

Bava is the chairman and Managing Director of Bava group of companies, a group that is largely into mining in Mangaluru. In 2013, he had declared in his election affidavit that he had assets worth Rs 15 crores. In 2008 however, he had assets worth Rs 1 crore.

Media reports suggest that putting wrong fuel in a car is not that uncommon as it might seem. As many as 150, 000 people in the UK accidentally filled the wrong fuel in their car every year. The damage and repair cost varies on a case to case basis.

Experts suggest the damage can be nominal if the mistake can be spotted at the fuelling station itself, then it can be rectified by drawing out the wrong fuel from the car.

But if one turns on the ignition, the repair costs can be very expensive and the car should be stopped as soon as possible if the engine is turned on.

A petrol engine running on diesel can break the injection pump and the overheating caused by the unburnt diesel can also result in overheating of the catalyst.  An earlier report by Daiji World said that the hybrid luxury car was bought from a Bengaluru showroom and the MLA was looking for a fancy number for the car.