New diesel and petrol vehicles to be banned from 2040 in the UK

     Britain will ban the sale of new petrol and diesel cars from 2040 in an attempt to reduce air pollution that could herald the end of over a century of reliance on the internal combustion engine and the start of the era for electric/solar-powered vehicles.

The decision was announced this week by the UK’s environment minister, Michael Gove, and it follows a similar action by the government of France and other European countries.

The mayors of Paris, Madrid, Mexico City and Athens have said they plan to ban diesel vehicles from city centers by 2025, while the French government also aims to end the sale of new gasoline and diesel vehicles by 2040.

The British government has been under pressure to take steps to reduce air pollution after losing legal cases brought by campaign groups. Prime Minister Theresa May's Conservatives had pledged to make "almost every car and van" zero-emission by 2050.

The future of auto-mobiles

      This major decision will be a hurdle to car manufacturing companies however some have already adapted and began construction of manufacturing facilities to boost the production of electric cars.

      German car manufacturer, BMW, has stated that their British manufacturing facility will be producing an electric mini as early as 2019. Additionally, Volvo will discontinue the production of petrol and diesel vehicles and release solely hybrid and electric cars from 2019. The Renault-Nissan alliance in 2009, announced plans to spend 4 billion euros on electric car development. Toyota, which pioneered hybrids but long resisted battery-only cars, changed tack last year and has since unveiled plans for a new range of pure-electric models.

    The future legislation governing transportation vehicles for European countries will encourage the use of the new Eco-friendly cars, with consumers benefiting from subsidies, tax breaks and other perks, while consumers using combustion engines face mounting penalties including driving and parking restrictions.

It will be interesting to see how this will impact the use and sales of auto-mobiles in Trinidad & Tobago.

Rail gun which fires ballistics at Mach 7

The US Navy is on the brink of completing their testing on rail gun technology which should be ready for combat deployment in 2018. The rail gun uses an electromagnetic current to fire a kinetic energy warhead at speeds greater than Mach 7 (7 times the speed of sound) or 5,000 miles an hour. The weapon works when electrical power charges up a pulse-forming network made up of capacitors which are able to release very large amounts of energy in a very short period of time. Approximately 1,200 volts is released in a ten millisecond time-frame which is enough to accelerate a mass of approximately 45 pounds from zero to five thousand miles per hour in one one-hundredth of a second. 

The 18 inch, 23 lb projectile used by the rail gun is non-explosive and is significantly smaller than cruise missiles making them easier to transport and store in large quantities. Additionally, the projectiles are much more economic, costing US$ 25,000 compared to cruise missiles such as the Tomahawk which costs US$1.5 million, whilst both possess similar destructive capabilities. 

  The projectile destroys everything it comes into contact with, successfully penetrating several reinforced steel walls which means it can destroy or severely damage enemy vehicles such as aircrafts or ships.

 The weapon’s range is more than 100 miles and can destroy targets in a matter of seconds which makes it suitable for cruise and ballistic missile defense as well as various kinds of surface warfare applications

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