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Petrol stations' days may be numbered

29 Comments
By Jacques CLEMENT

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29 Comments
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@Desert Tortoise.

California is a whole state. Most may never drive out of it. In the UK they have low emission or zero emission zones for London and a small number of individual towns and cities. They are mainly used to generate revenue by the unpopular local council (all local councils are unpopular in the UK). Hardly anyone here has an EV and the charging infrastructure is years behind where it needs to be.

So most of the people who live around Oxford get banned or stiffed for cash to drive into the city centre to shop. To say it is unpopular is an understatement.

0 ( +0 / -0 )

Depends really.

NY has now join California in pushing for e-vehicles by a certain date, but what happens to all those older vehicles that run solely off Gasoline ? We're not there yet, moving forward, which is good, but clearly Gas Stations will be around for many years to come.

Now, if Nuclear War comes before then, the only things that may work, will be Gasoline based - assuming you can scrounge enough... and those transportation devices will be so ancient (lacking tech that gets fried during an EM blast) that Gasoline will be in big demand....

1 ( +1 / -0 )

Governments may bring forward bans on the sale of new ICE vehicles and create economy-killing low emission zones in town centres,

Automotive emissions regulations didn't hurt the economy of California. Far from it. They improved livability quite a bit but more needs to be done. At least in much of California you find people pushing for more, not less, regulation of pollution sources. If you live near some major freeways with heavy truck traffic, or if you live close to the big seaports in LA and Long Beach you live with constant black grit on everything outside from diesel soot, and greater risks of certain cancers, lung diseases and asthma. There are similar problems in neighborhoods near major oil refineries. People want their government to further restrict these emissions for the sake of their and their family's health.

0 ( +0 / -0 )

there is little doubt that the internal combustion engine’s days will likely soon be numbered.

Is that so? What’s this writers credentials? Is he even qualified to make such accusations? Well it is the AFP which is always a talking head organization.

Anyway, how does Jacques expect the combustion engine to go away when the modern governments these days are in so much debt, and modern governments are turning their nations and citizens into a poverty class. How will folks be able to buy those expensive EV’s? One of the dumbest articles I’ve seen on here in a while.

invalid CSRF

-1 ( +0 / -1 )

GBR48, banning the sale of new gasoline and diesel powered vehicles won't mean they all suddenly disappear. They will likely be on the roads for a couple of decades after but there will be fewer each year as old ones wear out and are replaced by electric or maybe hydrogen/ammonia powered cars and trucks.

0 ( +0 / -0 )

Unfortunately not.

Folk are buying cheap used ICE vehicles from under £500 rather than very expensive new EVs. The 2nd hand market in cars is the go-to place for many people buying their first car. For most, it is their only option. It will be decades before there are cheap 2nd hand EVs out there.

The cost benefit of running an EV is vanishing.

Electric car charging costs nearing petrol prices for some - RAC. https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-63029226

And as the global economy tanks, people are sticking with the cars they have. A new car is much less of an option now. Transitioning to green alternatives is expensive, and far fewer people can now afford it.

Governments may bring forward bans on the sale of new ICE vehicles and create economy-killing low emission zones in town centres, making it very difficult for the elderly to shop, but they may not wish to invite the backlash they will get, effectively banning a large chunk of the population from driving, by forbidding the use of existing ICE vehicles.

Governments are not exactly popular at the moment. Interfering yet further into peoples' lives will be electoral suicide.

-1 ( +0 / -1 )

Not without fossil fuels it won’t

Ammonia and hydrogen can be produced in plants using only solar, wind or hydro power. There will be occasions where there won't be enough power to manufacture these gases but overall such plants can produce enough ammonia and hydrogen when the sun is out and/or the wind blowing to make commercial quantities of the gases and do so profitably. Pilot plants exist. Northern European countries and the maritime industry are leading the way.

-1 ( +0 / -1 )

Whilst I agree with your sentiments, hydrogen is really difficult to replicate - economically - across national networks (and impossible on international networks) because it's such a small molecule it leaks very easily.

The European manufacturers, especially in the maritime industry are already there. Both hydrogen and ammonia can be produced in commercially relevant amounts in plants that use only solar, wind or hydropower. There will be times when they don't have wind and solar but not so often that the plants cannot operate at a profit and produce the quantities necessary. Pilot plants exist today. Ships are under construction that will run on hydrogen to power either fuel cells or internal combustion engines. Wartsila of Finland has a big test bed engine running on hydrogen and ammonia mixtures. Kawasaki has a ship hauling cryogenically cooled liquid hydrogen cargos from Australia to Japan testing the technologies necessary to haul liquid hydrogen across long distances. Yes the hydrogen in this case is refined from brown coal, but the point of the exercise is to develop the technology to transport these cargos safely. The ship has been in service for over nine months shuttling between Australia and Japan.

0 ( +0 / -0 )

Fossils-fueled power plants won't go away but gas stations will go. If ICE cars will go away by 2030, then Japanese automakers will be in a world of pain.

-1 ( +0 / -1 )

I didn't know they allowed the village idiots to write articles with global outreach.. but yeah... it happened... The author demonstrates a pittiful lack of understanding about the current world's problems - Gasoline might dissapear as fuel in the next 50 years, perhaps, but that won't cause the petrol stations, as they are, to do so. Diesel trucks won't go anywhere soon, and if yes they'll probably be replaced by ammonia ones. Electric vehicles will need recharging. Small cars will need either diesel or hydrogen. The world doesn't have enough storage space to deal with the garbage EVs and their unrecyclable batteries will generate, if they world would run solely On batteries.

0 ( +1 / -1 )

Developing countries are markets for so many used internal combustion engine vehicles that until their current supply dries up gas stations will be around.

Big, open developed countries the same. Smaller affluent car producing markets shifting to electric are still not the main markets.

0 ( +0 / -0 )

They try to push green, yet threaten blackouts due to power shortages. How am I going to charge my tesla?

3 ( +4 / -1 )

Burning fossil fuels is for cavemen...

Tell Germany that, and tell the renewable energy people that need fossil fuels in order to make….renewable energy.

Green energies are the future, whether you like it or not...

Not without fossil fuels it won’t.

6 ( +8 / -2 )

Excellent !!!..

Burning fossil fuels is for cavemen...

Green energies are the future, whether you like it or not...

-7 ( +1 / -8 )

Yes, in a few industrialized countries who obviously prefer to strangle their economies and themselves to death by green or other woke ideologies. The whole rest on the globe will have plenty of petrol stations as before or even rising.

I totally agree.

3 ( +6 / -3 )

Yes, in a few industrialized countries who obviously prefer to strangle their economies and themselves to death by green or other woke ideologies. The whole rest on the globe will have plenty of petrol stations as before or even rising.

5 ( +7 / -2 )

They are called gas stands in Japan and many have closed.

-3 ( +0 / -3 )

Silly article but in line with global messaging. winter is coming.

9 ( +9 / -0 )

The 'affordable' electric-car market in Australia is set for a major expansion next year, with the arrival of a range of five new contenders in the next 12 months expected to cost in the region of $45,000.

Five new electric cars – four from China, and one from Europe – are due in Australia between this month and the middle of next year, with expected price tags between $35,000 and $50,000.

Maybe in other countries but EV are still bloody expensive down under here so petrol stations' days definitely are not numbered.

9 ( +9 / -0 )

In larger countries like America, there will always be a place for let's call it refuelling station. As it is in Norway at the moment, they're building charging stations with dozenz of bays so I can see larger gas station converted into charging stations for EVs.

https://insideevs.com/news/602176/norway-plugin-electric-car-sales-july2022/

https://calmatters.org/commentary/2022/08/californias-ban-on-gas-powered-cars-wont-be-easy/

Keep digging that hole.

1 ( +5 / -4 )

Not in Japan.

Unless charging times are in single digits as for fossil fuels are now then it won’t happen.

Where are the chargers on Japanese sidewalks?

There aren’t road parking permits here as there are in other countries.

It is not possible to park on roads here let alone charge a car.

Fossil

fuels are still the way to go in Japan now and in the future

-2 ( +7 / -9 )

In larger countries like America, there will always be a place for let's call it refuelling station. As it is in Norway at the moment, they're building charging stations with dozenz of bays so I can see larger gas station converted into charging stations for EVs.

4 ( +5 / -1 )

@Desert Tortoise

Whilst I agree with your sentiments, hydrogen is really difficult to replicate - economically - across national networks (and impossible on international networks) because it's such a small molecule it leaks very easily.

I am invested in fossil (ENEOS etc.) and am actively looking at hydrogen investments, and my readings are saying we still have a way to go. Toyota and Honda had hopes of transition to hydrogen, but even they are finding it very difficult. Converting hydrogen gas to liquid is also prohibitively expensive even if you use renewables. So all good if we can solve the technical issues, but unless you have a massive fortune that you want to convert into a small fortune, hydrogen is not 'investment' grade at the moment.

6 ( +6 / -0 )

While carbon based fuels may eventually go away there will be vehicles powered by hydrogen, ammonia or mixtures of these or perhaps methanol that need a place to refuel. Battery electric is not going to power big trucks across big countries like the US, Canada, Australia, Russia or China for example. Nor will battery electric power trains. When these new fuels that are being developed now come on line service stations will be modified to accommodate these new fuels.

12 ( +12 / -0 )

Eliminated petrocarbons is the path to hell for the western world

5 ( +9 / -4 )

Maybe in California and New York that could be to their detriment.

https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/opinion/california-is-preparing-to-make-its-dire-energy-problems-much-much-worse

-1 ( +6 / -7 )

Another globalist propaganda piece.

Filling stations and gasoline are so “outdated”.

Freezing to death in Winter is so 19th century...

13 ( +16 / -3 )

Yes, the days may be numbered, with at least 5 digits.

8 ( +11 / -3 )

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