The average car sits unused for more than 90% of the time, carries on average just one and a half people and costs, on average, €6,500 a year to own and run. Each car occupies 150m2 of urban land and still this is not the full bill – congestion costs the EU economy €100 billion annually. The convenience that made the car a 20th century icon has been eroded by its popularity.
The supply of electric vehicles to the British market could dry up when the UK leaves the EU, according to a new study by T&E. This is because sales of electric cars in a post-Brexit British market will not count towards a carmaker’s EU CO2 targets. The study also suggests up to 6,700 British automotive workers could lose their jobs in the event of a ‘hard Brexit’.
Evidence from Norway and other countries suggests the biggest obstacle to speeding up the electrification of road transport could be a lack of e-vehicles. Incentives to encourage people to go electric, coupled with advances in EV technology, have generated a level of demand that the supply of electric cars cannot match.
Efforts to tackle air pollution caused by diesel cars are moving the problem east rather than solving it. That is the conclusion of an analysis by T&E to coincide with Bulgaria’s presidency of the EU. Another T&E report suggests that efforts to clean up the air in western European cities are less effective than they should be because decisions on restricting certain car types are not based on real-world emissions.
Last week’s confirmation that the average CO2 emissions of a new car sold in the EU increased in 2017 is the result of carmakers selling more SUVs, crossovers and more powerful vehicles, T&E’s study shows. The European Environment Agency (EEA) reported a small but expected rise in new car CO2 emissions of 0.4g/km.
With drivers ditching their diesel cars in view of an increasing number of city bans and low-emissions zones in Western Europe, many of these dirty cars now end up in Central & Eastern EU Member States. This means the air quality problems will be exported, not solved, thus deepening the East-West divide that already exists on air quality in Europe. Bulgaria is case in point. This briefing details the impact of dirty diesels heading east to Bulgaria.
New mobility services like Uber and Lyft offer the potential to get cities moving, improve quality of life and reduce emissions. But this will only happen if new and traditional mobility services can be integrated to make a more attractive offering that finally persuades drivers out of their cars, write Greg Archer and Yoann Le Petit.
Whilst the rest of the economy has leapt forward to embrace digitalisation, transport has remained largely analogue. The internal combustion engine, a workhorse from the 19th century, stills powers virtually all vehicles using oil that chokes our cities and heats the planet.
Reacting to FuelsEurope's study on EURO 6 diesel cars performance, Greg Archer, clean vehicles director of Transport & Environment, said: "The oil industry’s crystal ball assumes that emissions from new cars on the road will be as low as during tests – but history suggests this is wishful thinking. The reality is that diesel emissions are so complex to control they will always be higher on the road so the study underestimates the likely future contribution of diesel vehicles. Despite this, the analysis still shows that the toxic air will still be poisoning some urban residents in 2030! Replacing dirty diesels and ultimately all vehicles with engines with zero emission alternatives, or banning them from city centres, is the only way to ensure it will be safe to breath."
Against the background of the Bonn Climate Change Conference and the release of the second Clean mobility package by the European Commission, the Spanish Government is elaborating Spain's Industrial Strategy. It feels like high time to secure the currently leading position of the Spanish vehicle and components manufacturers’ industries. Does it make sense to keep manufacturing internal combustion engines when the rest of the world goes in the opposite direction?