Vienna plans to ban all petrol and gasoline vehicles

Last week, the news broke, also covered by Hungarian media (for example here) that Vienna is planning to ban petrol and diesel cars from the city from 2040. Not just older, more polluting cars, but everything that uses an internal combustion engine, including newer models and hybrids. The strangest thing about the news is that many people seem to have been surprised by this.

The trend is the disappearance of internal combustion engines, the process is cear by now and the need to replace combustion engine propelled cars arose about two decades ago. Just a few facts.

The European Union has already adopted a regulation that no car with an internal combustion engine can be sold on the market and put into service in Europe after 2035. Most automakers have already announced that they will not develop newer engine families, they will only refine their current engines for as long as they can. Some of the smaller manufacturers would switch completely to the production of electric cars by 2030, but the larger ones would also stop selling cars with internal combustion engines sometime between 2030-35. About half of the new car models introduced in Europe in 2021 were already fully electric, the rest employed a hybrid solution, and only one diesel propelled new car model was introduced in addition to 3-4 petrol driven models.

The shift, the disappearance of cars with internal combustion engines is no longer the distant or even the near future, it is happening right now. No matter how hard the grip some drivers want to have on the steering wheel of traditional cars, we have to let go of them simply because no new cars with an internal combustion engine will be produced anymore. Having a petrol or gasoline car in 10-15 years will be just as much of a hobby as keeping a Trabant today. And the ever-increasing number of electric cars require, and will increasingly require, the construction of infrastructure, more and more chargers.

In contrast to conventional cars, it is already clear that this cannot be solved with public chargers alone, replacing fuel stations with charging stations will not be enough. There are several reasons for this, for those who are interested, ample material is available, also in Hungarian, on the major automobile web portals. What is clear, however, that is the value of private parking spaces in the city or in parking garages where electric cars can be charged will increase. Making the change will not be easy at all, especially in older, already completed buildings and parking garages. It is not only about laying cables, but it is also a matter of providing the necessary capacity, which in most cases is a virtually unsolvable problem.

That is why we considered it important that in our residential parks, which will be handed over from next year, each of the car parking slots should have its dedicated car charger with sufficient capacity. We can see the significance of the ease of use, comfort and freedom for future residents and car owners, yet, we still can’t really comprehend it. Maybe it could be perceived as the difference between a car with and without air conditioning. The latter can also be used for transportation, in fact, they were just like that for decades, and even today such cars still run on the roads. However, as a new car, it would have been impossible to sell cars without air conditioning for many years now, and no one even tries to do that. Something similar can be expected with electric chargers. Sooner or later, every buyer and developer will realize that a dedicated car charger for parking spaces in garages is not an extra, but the minimum required. However, those who are willing to look up a little and look into the very near future, do not want to buy an apartment in a house where they, their children or their tenant will not be able to charge their cars in 5-10 years.

Buying property is a long term investment, even if we don’t want to keep it for a long time. It is only worth buying something that we know will meet the expectations and challenges of the future.