How will electric vehicles aid the energy transition?
The two-fold problem with using cars is common knowledge; cars use carbon-based fuel and emit carbon dioxide – a greenhouse gas. However, it is not often emphasised how much fuel cars use and how much gas is emitted.
How much oil is road transport using?
The International Energy Agency (IEA) released the Key World Energy Statistics 2020, reviewing the energy consumption worldwide in different sectors as shown in Figure 1.[1] The 2018 statistic of oil comsumption by sector shows that the largest comsumer of oil, by far, is road transport. The road transport sector accounts for 49.3 % of oil comsumption worldwide.[1]
The total oil consumed in 2018 was 4051 Mtoe (Million Tonnes of Oil Equivalent).[1] This means that the road transport sector alone consumed 2219 Mtoe.
The amount of carbon dioxide (CO2) emitted by cars worldwide for 2018 was 6.09 Gt according to the IEA Transport Report.[2] The carbon neutrality goal of 2030 is to reach CO2 emissions of 4.07 Gt per year, a decrease of 3.4% per year from 2018.
Figure 1. IEA report of world oil consumption by sector in 2018. [1]
The advent of electric vehicles
The vehicle manufacturing industry has recently started giving more attention to electric vehicles. Although the first fully electric vehicle was made in the 1890s, they have not been a commonplace in industry.
When Henry Ford introduced the Model T, a gasoline-powered vehicle, it was mass produced and became widely available. It sold at a third of the price of its electric counterpart. This was the brunt of the fall of the electric vehicle market at the time. [3] Furthermore, petrol was more widely available than electricity at the time. [3]
For over half a century thereafter, electric vehicles received little attention. In the 1960s, fleeting interest resurfaced in the electric vehicle industry and concept cars were engineered but none entered production. The energy crisis of the 1970s and 1980s sparked the Electric and Hybrid Vehicle Research, Development and Demonstration Act of 1976 in the US which incentivised the development of electric vehicles. [4]
Interest in neighbourhood electric vehicles (NEVs) steadily rose in Europe and the Americas in early 2000s. In 2008, Tesla Motors launched the Tesla Roadster; the first highway legal, all electric, lithium-ion powered car that could travel 320 km per charge. [5]
European and Japanese companies, similarly, launched electric vehicles for consumers between 2009 and 2012. The growth of electric vehicles is shown in Figure 2.
Figure 2. Global electric vehicle stock by region, 2010-2020. [6]
References
[1] IEA (2020), Key World Energy Statistics 2020, IEA, Paris https://www.iea.org/reports/key-world-energy-statistics-2020, License: CC BY 4.0.
[2] IEA (2022), Transport, IEA, Paris https://www.iea.org/reports/transport, License: CC BY 4.0.
[3] The history of the electric car (no date) Energy.gov. Available at: https://www.energy.gov/articles/history-electric-car (Accessed: 4 December 2022).
[4] H.R.8800 – 94th Congress (1975-1976): Electric Vehicle Research, Development, and Demonstration Act. (1976, September 17). https://www.congress.gov/bill/94th-congress/house-bill/8800.
[5] Shahan, Z. (2015) Electric car history (In depth), CleanTechnica. Available at: https://cleantechnica.com/2015/04/26/electric-car-history/ (Accessed: 13 December 2022).
[6] IEA (2021), Global EV Outlook 2021, IEA, Paris https://www.iea.org/reports/global-ev-outlook-2021, License: CC BY 4.0.