Electric vehicles can have only a minor role in reducing transport's energy and environmental challenges

Abstract

Many governments have supported the introduction of electric vehicles (EVs) through purchase subsidies or waiving fuel taxes. The key findings of this paper are that the benefits of EVs may have been overstated, at least for some countries, as their energy savings and climate mitigation advantages depend on such factors as annual kilometres travelled per vehicle, electricity fuel mix, vehicle size and even local conditions. Because serious climate change has already arrived in the form of increasing frequency and severity of extreme events, we do not have the decades required for electricity production to be predominantly from non-carbon sources. Further, there are a variety of other challenges facing private transport—EVs just as much as conventionally powered vehicles. These include traffic casualties, non-engine air and noise pollution, light pollution, land requirements for roads and parking, and the intrusion of roads into natural habitats. With the promotion of EVs, these other transport problems run the risk of being downplayed. If all the environmental challenges facing road vehicles are to be effectively and quickly tackled, significant reductions in road vehicular travel are needed.