[Casper]

Some threads have been driven off topic in the past discussing where racing is headed and I have been guilty of that so in the light of announcements in recent times I thought a thread devoted to the topic would be a good discussion.

The UK government overnight announced no new IC car sales after 2030.

California getting into the act as well with an end date of 2035.

VW going gang busters and converting two major production plants for EV production and spending serious amounts of money to do it and develop the vehicles to be produced.

The EU announced some time ago that crippling fines would be imposed on car manufacturers if they do not meet fleet emission targets.

The BTCC going hybrid.

Australia doing nothing.

Keep in mind to meet the targets set in each case the manufacturers will be forced to introduce the new EV vehicles well beforehand so by the time the target date arrives it is job done. Any manufacturer who wants to sell in Europe will have to meet the targets so it effectively means that every manufacturer will be forced to change. On the other hand there are a lot of IC cars that will continue to be driven well past these dates and I suppose a lot of people who will point blank refuse to change or won't be able to change due to personal circumstances.

Motor sport traditionally at least in this country has depended on production cars as a base to work from but the production car we know is about to change hugely so where does that leave motor sport? I like both but I think the EV will simplify things and actually make racing better because of the parity the drive train will offer and the simplicity it also offers but I don't think many share that view and most have never raced anyway. I also don't think that many here in Oz are even aware of how fast the changes are happening because our Government has not joined in.

People will trot out the usual reasons for not going electric and in the case of this country a lot of them are valid but only in the areas outside the major cities. Citing a trip between Mebourne and Sydney as a reason is not really valid as 99.9% of people have never done it anyway and never will.

Unfortunately the change will happen driven by governments so saying ot won't is just ignoring the inevitible. In the end synthetic fuels won't fly because most if not all require the same stuff as we eat and cause immense disruption to the food supplies in the world. The infrastructure for Hydrogen does not exist and the production on Hydrogen is oil based so it most probably will have a hard time gaining a foothold and seems doomed to a minor role at least for now.

So where does Motor sport go? Usng IC and ignoring the EV changes will require bespoke vehicles to be built but I can't help thinking that IC production simply can't be turned off because there are huge parts of the world where it is impracticale to use anything else.