For long-distance trucking, hydrogen fuel cells may be key to adequate range, but the engines will be electric, delivering dramatic improvements in urban air quality and reducing CO 2 emissions, if electricity comes from lower-carbon sources. Massive investments in battery innovation and manufacturing scale, driven by expected EV purchases, are delivering cost reductions and energy-density increases which make battery-powered electric buses and short-haul trucks increasingly competitive. Here, the pace of electrification will partly reflect how many people choose to buy electric cars. An additional 8 per cent of emissions come from trucks and buses, and the future is electric for these vehicles, too. Moreover, the potential for transport electrification to reduce CO 2 emissions is far greater than the 8 per cent figure suggests. As recent reports from the Energy Transitions Commission show, India could reduce its electricity carbon intensity to 550 grammes per kWh by 2030, while doubling electricity consumption, and at no cost to consumers. The optimal strategy is, therefore, to encourage auto electrification while also rapidly decarbonising power generation, which the collapsing cost of renewables now makes possible. But what matters is the carbon intensity of electricity used throughout the vehicle’s life. In China and India, by contrast, with average electricity carbon intensity around the break-even point of 800 grammes, very rapid EV growth could have an adverse effect initially. In France, with average intensity of about 80 grammes, the United Kingdom, about 250 grammes and falling fast, the United States, about 400 grammes, and even high-carbon Germany, still around 500 grammes, electric cars will undoubtedly reduce emissions, provided users avoid charging them at times when marginal intensity is highest. Provided the electricity used has a carbon intensity below about 800 grammes per kWh, electric cars reduce carbon emissions. So EVs will eventually dominate, and far sooner than many projections suggest, whether we care about the climate or not. And once battery costs fall below $100 per kilowatt-hour (kWh), which Bloomberg New Energy Finance (BNEF) expects to occur by 2024, electric cars will not only be cheaper to run, but also cheaper to buy. ![]() If you care about the climate, the next car you buy should be electric.Įlectric motors are inherently more efficient than internal combustion engines: While a gasoline or diesel engine typically wastes more than 70 per cent of the energy it uses as unwanted heat, an electric motor turns all but 5 per cent into kinetic energy. But vehicle electrification is nonetheless crucial to reducing emissions. ![]() So it’s important to stress, as Fatih Birol, executive director of the International Energy Agency, did at Davos in January, that electric cars alone will not avert catastrophic climate change. NEW DELHI - Passenger cars account for only 8 per cent of total global carbon dioxide emissions, and if you charge an electric vehicle (EV) with electricity generated by inefficient coal power plants, the immediate effect will be increased CO 2 emissions compared with driving a modern gasoline or diesel car.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |