How significant are electric cars for the

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How significant are electric cars for the future of climate change mitigation in the UK?

Nik (Lower Sixth)

Ever wondered how much CO2 is emitted by cars or whether electric vehicles really are a cleaner alternative?

Transport is responsible for nearly 30% of the EU’s total CO2 emissions, of which 72% comes from road transportation. As part of efforts to reduce CO2 emissions, the EU has set a goal of reducing emissions from transport by 60% by 2050 compared to 1990 levels. However, over the years these figures have reduced significantly, although it is still damaging for the environment and action needs to be taken quickly.

Electric cars are increasingly becoming a popular solution to help reduce the extremely damaging situation with transport

Carbon footprint of Polestar 2 and the XC40 ICE

emissions. The UK government, in November 2020, took a historic step in trying to reach the goal of being net zero by 2050 as they announced that they would stop selling new petrol and diesel cars by 2030. With this initiative it would mean that the UK would be on track to become the fastest G7 country to decarbonise cars and vans. This would mean that in the UK all new cars and vans will be fully zero emission by 2035. The government are hoping to achieve this by investing £1.8 billion to support more zero emission vehicles being produced and more charge points around cities. This expenditure will not only reduce carbon emissions and improve air quality but will also provide extra jobs in the industry. The transport secretary Grant Shapps said, “bringing forward the phase- out date could create 40000 extra jobs by 2030, particularly in our manufacturing heartlands of the Northeast and across the Midlands and will see emissions reductions equivalent to taking more than four million cars off the road”.

However, a current issue which is making people reluctant to purchase a new electric car is that they are still relatively expensive compared to petrol vehicles due to the new nature of the technology involved.

Therefore, the government pledged £582 million in grants for those buying zero or ultralow emission vehicles to make them cheaper and encourage people to switch to electric.

By making the new vehicles more affordable the government expects to see an increase in them being produced and purchased.

Currently, there are different types of electric cars, one which is the plug in electric where the car runs purely on electricity and doesn’t require petrol or diesel to run so doesn’t produce any emissions. Another type is a plug-in hybrid which mainly runs on electricity but also have a fuel engine too. An electric vehicle’s battery is made up thousands of battery cells. It can be charged using a home charger or fast charger where those cells power through electrical chemistry and then deliver power to a single or set of electric motors. The Government is increasing its’ commitment to help the sector transition towards zero emissions vehicles by boosting the development of clean, green technologies for zero emission vehicles in the UK including battery packs and recycling infrastructure and super lightweight components.

Polestar, a new electric car brand, became one of the first car manufacturers to release publicly a comparative life cycle assessment that compares its own car, the Polestar 2, to the petrol only version of the Volvo XC40. The results showed that the Polestar requires more energy to produce due to the number of batteries and electronics required. Combining material extraction and

processing, manufacturing and the transport stages, the study estimates the carbon footprint of the Polestar at 26.2 tonnes CO2-equivalent at point it ends production. This compares to the XC40 where it is only 16.1 tonnes. This suggests that the initial impact of producing electric cars was more than 60 percent higher than the petrol model.

However, the figures over the complete product lifecycle of 200,000km are different. With a typical European electricity mix, the equivalent CO2 production during the use phase is reduced by around two thirds compared to the XC40; switch exclusively to wind power, and it’s less than a tenth of the impact (0.4 tonnes for the EV versus 41 tonnes for the petrol car). The end-of-life treatment is fractionally less impactful for the EV too, accounting for 0.5 tonnes of CO2-equivalent, as opposed to 0.6 tonnes. Combine all these factors, and the lifecycle carbon footprint of the Polestar 2 is around 28 per cent lower when running on a standard European electricity mix, or 53 per cent lower on wind power alone. This life cycle assessment shows that even though the production requires more energy, the benefits of being electric mean that is has a significantly better impact on the environment as it emits less CO2. The transition to EVs will bring significant benefits and present market opportunities, particularly as the UK seeks to recover from COVID-19. One obvious benefit is the improved air quality as air pollution is the top environmental risk to human health in the UK. A full shift to electric vehicles by 2050 will reduce nitrogen dioxide and non-methane volatile organic compounds which is responsible for asthma and lung problems. An independent study from the Climate Change Committee showed that air quality and noise impacts going electric could also result in annual benefits close to 0.1% GDP in 2030. Another reason why this transition could be beneficial is that it provides a new market opportunity for the UK to become a world leader in the development and production of electric vehicles since they made their intentions clear in wanting to be net zero by 2050.

To conclude, I think that the future of the UK is going full electric on the roads as outlined by the government and will be a significant on it becoming net zero country as it will help significantly reduce its’ carbon emissions.

References

The-UKs-transition-to-electric-vehicles.pdf (theccc.org.uk) https://www-jstor-org.lonlib.idm.oclc.org/ stable/pdf/24891965.pdf?refreqid=excelsior%3A124a0a4a7ac47a3ff6de1d43b9c0d1e3

(PDF) Electric cars: Are they solution to reduce CO2 emission? (researchgate.net) https://www.gov.uk/government/news/ government-takes-historic-step-towardsnet-zero-with-end-of-sale-of-new-petroland-diesel-cars-by-2030 Measuring the true impact of electric vehicles | The Engineer The Engineer