NGO report says electric cars could increase carbon emissions unless they run on green energy

Tue 09 February 2010 View all news

A report jointly commissioned by three leading environment groups says that putting more electric cars on the road could increase carbon emissions unless the vehicles run on green energy. The three organisations - Friends of the Earth Europe, Greenpeace and T&E - call for national renewable electricity targets to ensure electric vehicles to ensure electric vehicles really are 'zero emissions'.

The report, written by consultancy CE Delft, comes warns that existing EU legislation on car emissions is flawed because it allows manufacturers to use sales of electric vehicles to offset the continued production of high CO2 emitting cars. So-called ‘super credits’ allow carmakers to sell 3.5 high-emitting cars for every electric car sold, without affecting their overall CO2 target. According to the report, increasing sales of electric cars to 10% of the total could lead to a 20% increase in both oil consumption and CO2 emissions in the EU car sector.

The environmental organisations call an end to super credits in current and future CO2 laws - starting with proposed EU legislation to regulate emissions from vans.

The organisations also call for all electric cars sold on the EU market to be equipped with so-called smart-metering technology that allows vehicles to only be charged when surplus electricity – mostly from renewables like wind and solar – is available on the power grid. To make this possible, the EU will also need to boost the supply of renewable electricity.

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