The UK government has restated its commitment to reducing CO2 emissions and last month announced a net zero greenhouse gas emission target by 2050. The blog explores the impact of EVs and how that might help meet the target.
Net zero by 2050
This is clearly a worthy goal, but how attainable might this be? The latest emissions data showed 8,798 kilogrammes of CO2 per annum and the UK government needs to hit 1,160 kilogrammes of CO2 by 2050 to meet the net zero target. That means reducing CO2 emissions across all sectors such as heating, electricity and waste. Crucially though it means slashing transport emissions, given they currently make up around a third of the total.
The role of electric cars in making the change
There are a lot of sectors that will need to change but as the graph shows, transport is one of the biggest contributors of greenhouse gases at present. Right now cars and vans make up 18% of the CO2 emissions generated by transport. Therefore moving to electric technology will make a significant difference. The good news is that many companies are already adopting this for their fleets. Forward looking businesses have already started this process and include such names as BT, Centrica and AstraZeneca moving to EV fleets by 2030. This will herald a major shift in consumer behaviour. A societal change away from combustion engines would have a profound effect as around 20% of transport related carbon dioxide emission come from cars and vans in the UK.
Currently heavy goods vehicles make up about 5% of the total CO2 emissions in the UK. With Tesla announcing electric HGVs and innovations to re-purpose overhead lines for HGV charging, the change in working vehicles may occur sooner than predicted too.
One impact of mas EV adoption is that the UK will need a four times increase in clean power generation by 2050. This is a major challenge but fortunately the UK is already a leader in renewable generation and the trend looks set to continue.
A brave new world
For those ready to take the plunge into the world of electric motoring there are more and more options available. With both new companies and old are offering an increasing choice to consumers this can only be a good thing.
If you are looking for a retro styled electric car why not contact us at www.retroelectrics.co.uk, we offer classic VW Beetles powered by clean, green electric motors.
RETROELECTRIC CARS
Iconic Style, Electric Performance
Comments