But you still can't put the cart before the horse. Tax people who don't switch to a viable, cleaner alternative from dinosaur-burning vehicles, but not before you've made that alternative viable in the first place. Much (most?) of the UK is not ready for full switchover yet.
2032 is still 14 years away which is a long time. And according to the article it’s even then just about banning the sale of new vehicles. This should be completely doable if the UK puts half a mind to it.
Unfortunately the UK does not have half a mind to spare, and won't for a few years at least. One of the less noticable side-effects of Brexit is that it totally dominates the entire political landscape, to the exclusion of other issues.
In a news magazine I read[1], they had an infographic where they measured the average number of comments below articles on a number of unrelated topics it took for Brexit to be mentioned. The figures were mostly below 10 (and look at me, bringing up Brexit in this unrelated issue!)
I agree that the government shouldn't be meddling with this, I just don't agree that the prospect of ever switching to an electric car is "unimaginable".