The Economics of Electric Vehicles - Where Are We on the Road to Zero Emission Motoring?
The number of electric vehicles (EVs) on Britain’s roads is increasing. With the sale of new internal combustion engine vehicles due to be outlawed in the UK in 2035, that rate of change will need to increase significantly before then. But what are the issues in reaching zero emission motoring by 2035? James Tucker, Business Advisory Partner looks at some of the current obstacles.
Legislation There are a range of carrot and stick policy measures in existence to encourage the transition towards EVs. The UK government has also thrown itself 100% behind electric battery-powered vehicles, whilst the EU has rather more pragmatically backed more than one horse, leaving space for hydrogen and e-fuels (made of captured CO2 and hydrogen extracted from water using renewable energy). Time will tell whether this disparity represents inspired leadership in tackling climate change, as the government would no doubt portray. An alternative view may be that it is an example of post-Brexit bureaucracy that risks putting the UK at a competitive advantage.
Hearts and minds We all know that banning anything in isolation is rarely the answer, and in reality, people need to be convinced that they want to buy an electric vehicle, not that they have got to because they have no alternative. One of the biggest obstacles to that change of mindset (given that most of us want to make environmentally responsible decisions) is the now well-worn term of ‘range anxiety’. Anxiety about anything is often misplaced and not supported by facts and science so let’s look at some of real issues. Ken McMeikan, CEO of Moto service station operators put his view forward on national radio recently when he said that the power and/ or infrastructure simply does not exist to run the national fleet of EVs. Without significant strategic change, he said, it won’t happen any time soon.
Moto predict that they will require 25% of the power output of a nuclear power station to service rapid charging points at their service stations by 2030. In June 2023 alone they used 3M kilowatts of power for that purpose, enough to power 12-14,000 homes. But where will all this power come from and how will it get to where it is needed? Moto’s concerns appear to be backed up by Nick Winser, the government’s first Electricity Networks Commissioner who has put forward a raft of measures aimed at clearing the grid backlog. Currently new renewable energy projects face a wait of 10-15 years to connect to the UK power network because the grid simply cannot keep pace. The recommendations are designed to halve this to no more than 7 years – a key date as described above. The UK grid connection delay is the longest in Europe and a major obstacle to achieving our net zero targets.
12 | SCRUTTON BLAND | TRANSPORT AND LOGISTICS
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