As to no more sales of new gas or diesel powered vehicles, I guess it is going to depend on the levels of technology that gets achieved by then. I have to say that 6 or 8 years ago, when Canada started banning most incandescent bulbs and were making us go to LED, I hated it, and stocked up somewhat on incandescent bulbs. Now I have actively sought to remove the incandescent and florescent lights from my house and workshop as they are inefficient and I get much stronger light from the LEDs, and don't burn my arm when using them in trouble lights. And they light up at -30, which the fluorescent lights don't do very well.
They have a long way to go on the electric vehicles before they will have an acceptable range here in the rural prairies. On top of longer distances to the next town, we have to use a portion of the energy towards heating the vehicle in the winter.
As to our vehicles, yes, it is going to get tough to operate them. They may well all be sitting in museums or as monuments by some point. But it won't be at the stroke of midnight on the first day of 2040. There will still be plenty of people driving their carbon sucking cars and trucks for a few years after that point. Who knows, maybe we will be installing electric conversion kits into our CMPs. Just the savings from the no longer leaking oil out of the chevs would likely save the planet.
As to the ethanol, there is no benefit to using the stuff now, in the past, nor in the future. It is renewable, but if we are going to wean off of petroleum, then there is still plenty of that to go around for a long long time yet. Then again, we could be brewing ethanol after 2040 to keep our vehicles going.
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