Electric vehicles are no 'silver bullet' for cutting transport emissions - Royal Academy of Engineering report
Wed 26 May 2010
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A report written by the UK's leading engineers welcomes industry and government initiatives to introduce electric vehicles. However, it says that while most electricity is generated by burning coal and gas, the difference in emissions between an electric car and a small, low emission diesel or petrol car is neglible.
The Royal Academy of Engineering report - 'Electric Vehicles: charged with potential' - says that electric vehicles are only as 'green' as the electricity that charges their batteries. It focuses on the challenge of enabling the system to charge tens of millions of vehicles while still cutting carbon emissions from power generation.
The Academy identifies four major technical issues in its report:
* the availability of high energy-density batteries at a price and with a long enough cycle life for electric vehicles to be economically viable
* the practicalities of charging vehicles - particularly for users without off-street parking
* the electrical distribution infrastructure to provide power to millions of charging points and
* the need for a national energy system and 'smart grid' that can recharge millions of electric vehicles using low-carbon electricity without overwhelming local distribution circuits.
Professor Roger Kemp of Lancaster University, Chair of the Academy's Electric Vehicles working group, said:. " We welcome the fact that the motor manufacturers are so ready to take on the challenge of developing mass market electric vehicles. We also welcome the new Government's commitment to mandating charging sockets for electric vehicles and plug-in hybrids, but establishing these as the technology of choice for personal transport is only one aspect of what is needed to reduce transport emissions."
The report says that whatever happens, the introduction of electric vehicles will fundamentally change the way we use and relate to our cars in the future. Car ownership could be replaced by car clubs and shared ownership, it says. "We face an uphill task," said Professor Roger Kemp. "Cars are iconic and aspirational in a way that most other energy-consuming goods are not and are central to much of our contemporary culture. In Britain, you would not get 6.4 million people tuning in to TV programmes called Top Domestic Appliances or Top Condensing Boilers in the way they do for Top Gear."
Richard Parry-Jones, a member of the working group and former Group Vice President of the Ford Motor Company, said: "Electric vehicles could provide a major contribution to meeting the target of an 80 per cent reduction in greenhouse gas emissions by 2050. However, they will only be built in mass production numbers when there is a compelling sustainable social and business model for their use to allow manufacturers to plan for a long-term market and when the new vehicles have a real carbon efficiency benefit over the latest internal combustion engines."
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