Over the last couple of weeks I’ve seen an uptick in articles highlighting the issues we face in the wake of the Government’s recent announcement for the abolishment of new car sales of both petrol and diesels by 2030. The Guardian newspaper had this to say about the extraction of lithium – a key material used in EV batteries – while a Sunday Times article writes on the impact of (heavier) EVs on tyres resulting in increased toxic particles into the air.
This latest article from AutoExpress magazine deals with European auto manufacturers who are now warning that plans to have 30million EVs on the road by 2030 is “far removed from today’s reality”. To meet the target, the EU would have to see a 50 fold increase in the number of EVs sold. In percentage terms, this equals nearly a 5000% uptick in sales.
The article further points out that European car manufacturers simply won’t have the R&D budget needed to produce the volume of cars needed to meet the 30m EVs-on-the-road target.
Lest we forget charging infrastructure… Currently, there are 200,000 charge points across Europe. The European Automobile Manufacturers’ Association predicts that there will need to be 2million available by 2030 for the needs to be met for a European-wide fleet of 30m EVs. This represents a 15-fold increase. That’s a lot of charge points to be rolled out over the next 9 years. Oh la la…
Lastly the article shows us that the average age of vehicles on the road in Europe is 11years old. It will take significant Government-backed subsidies to make the purchase of EVs more viable for the masses. Should the price of EVs not fall (through Government subsidies or lower sticker prices), the risk is that people will hold on to their petrols and diesels for even longer. Unless the older petrols and diesels have been perfectly maintained, the likelihood is that we’ll see an increase in CO2 emissions as the older a car becomes, the more polluting it becomes. This is ironic as it flies in the face of the overall aim of reducing green house gases. Zut alors!
