The government is facing increasing pressure from businesses and industry groups to clarify its strategy for developing the infrastructure for electric vehicle (EV) charging, as studies persistently show consumers are being put off buying battery electric cars due to fears over chargepoint access. In a speech in London last week, CBI director-general Carolyn Fairbairn warned zero emission vehicles have the potential to be a “liberating force” for the 21st century economy, but only if more is done to make the process of building out the necessary infrastructure simpler. “Today, if you want to install an electric vehicle charge point, you must deal with multiple regulators and agencies – Ofgem, the local planning authority, the National Grid – each of which has different standards, different levels of responsiveness, operating under different legislation,” she said. “It’s a complex picture and it’s already having consequences. We have 22,000 charge points across the country, but the spread is inconsistent as one area pulls ahead of another.” Fairbairn suggested one single body overseeing the rollout of charge points and grid upgrades across the country could deliver a more co-ordinated development of the network, in turn convincing more drivers to switch to electric drivetrains.
Business Green 13th May 2019 read more »
Sir James Dyson has accused the government of “watering down” its commitment to electric vehicles after failing to take his advice to ban petrol and diesel vehicles by 2030. The British inventor, 72, said he met with prime minister Theresa May’s PPSs, (parliamentary private secretaries, who work on behalf of senior ministers in government) to discuss making electric cars compulsory a year ago. A report from the Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy committee in October last year called for the ban to be brought forward to 2032, calling the “effectively zero emission by 2040” plan both “vague and unambitious.” The government also cut grants for buyers of new eco-friendly cars in autumn last year, getting rid of incentives to purchase plug-in hybrid vehicles, which run on a combination of combustion engines and battery power, and slashing the grant for pure electric vehicles from £4,500 to £3,500.
The i News 14th May 2019 read more »
A LEADING builder is plugging into the surge in demand for electrics vehicles (EVs) by creating the most comprehensive charging provision of any development built in Scotland. All of the 84 homes at The Crescent at Donaldson’s, by Cala Homes (East), will be served by an EV fast charger, with infrastructure built into the underground parking at the premium Edinburgh development. The Crescent is home to a selection of unique apartments ranging from £950,000 to £1,925,000 in Edinburgh’s Unesco World Heritage Site, in 18 acres of grounds that comprise the largest new shared garden built to date in the capital. Cala teamed up with Scotland’s leading EV charge point installers, Jorro, for its largest development project to date.
The National 14th May 2019 read more »
Daimler has announced an ambitious plan to become carbon neutral within 20 years. The German car giant, which owns Mercedes-Benz, wants all its passenger cars to be CO2-free by 2039. Its targets will encompass not only its vehicles but also its plants and suppliers.
Times 14th May 2019 read more »
Electric vehicles (EVs) are an important part of meeting global goals on climate change. They feature prominently in mitigation pathways that limit warming to well-below 2C or 1.5C, which would be in-line with the Paris Agreement’s targets. However, while no greenhouse gas emissions directly come from EVs, they run on electricity that is, in large part, still produced from fossil fuels in many parts of the world. Energy is also used to manufacture the vehicle – and, in particular, the battery. Here, in response to recent misleading media reports on the topic, Carbon Brief provides a detailed look at the climate impacts of EVs. In this analysis, Carbon Brief finds: EVs are responsible for considerably lower emissions over their lifetime than conventional (internal combustion engine) vehicles across Europe as a whole. In countries with coal-intensive electricity generation, the benefits of EVs are smaller and they have similar lifetime emissions to the most efficient conventional vehicles – such as hybrid-electric models. However, as countries decarbonise electricity generation to meet their climate targets, driving emissions will fall for existing EVs and manufacturing emissions will fall for new EVs. Comparisons between electric vehicles and conventional vehicles are complex. They depend on the size of the vehicles, the accuracy of the fuel-economy estimates used, how electricity emissions are calculated, what driving patterns are assumed, and even the weather in regions where the vehicles are used. There is no single estimate that applies everywhere.
Carbon Brief 13th May 2019 read more »