Cars unable to travel 50 miles on battery power would be banned from sale from 2040 under plans being considered by the Government to improve Britain’s air quality.

The move is one of the proposals in an internal government review aimed at making transport in the UK more environmentally friendly by driving motorists into electric vehicles.

However, the idea has been met with fury by the car industry, which called it “unrealistic” and based “on neither fact nor substance”.

If enacted, virtually all cars currently on sale would be outlawed – including hybrids such as the bestselling Toyota Prius which has a combined petrol engine and battery drive train.

Even “plug-in” hybrids which have an engine and a separate battery charged from the mains allowing a small amount of zero-emission driving are likely to be caught up by the measure, as most of them have a range of about 30 miles.