According to a new study, e-cars could cut the UK’s oil imports by 40% and reduce drivers’ fuel bills by £13bn if deployed on a large scale.
An electric vehicle surge would deliver an average £1,000 of fuel savings a year per driver, and spark a 47% drop in carbon emissions by 2030, said the Cambridge Econometrics study.
“There will be a transition in the next five-10 years but you won’t see a sudden shift to electric vehicles until consumers have got over their ‘range anxiety’ concerns and that will only happen with infrastructure spending,” said Philip Summerton , one of the report’s authors.
The report, commissioned by the European Climate Foundation, said that air pollutants such as nitrogen oxide and particulates would be all but eliminated by mid-century, with knock-on health benefits from reduced respiratory diseases valued at over £1bn.
However, enjoying a clean vehicle boom will require an infrastructure roll-out soon, as the analysis assumes a deployment of over 6m electric vehicles by 2030 – growing to 23m by 2050 – powered by ambitious amounts of renewable energy.
The
‘range anxiety’ fear that battery-powered vehicles could run out of
power has been a notorious deterrent for consumers, since there are relatively few recharging stations.
One study earlier this month found that such concerns were more common among less experienced electric vehicle drivers. But the EU also believes that a lack of recharging infrastructure is holding back the budding industry.
In 2013, the European commission proposed a €10bn public works programme, which would have exponentially grown recharging station numbers across Europe. In the UK alone, their numbers would have multiplied from 703 in 2012 to 1.22m in 2020.
But the conservative government opposed the measure because of the costs involved in ensuring that a minimum 10% of recharging stations were publicly accessible in every country. However, British subsidies of about £5,000 for new electric car sales have helped the industry develop.
The study outlines that the knock-on benefits to the UK’s GDP from reduced oil costs and increased vehicle spending could amount to between £2.4-£5bn by 2030. There would also be created between 7,000-19,000 jobs.
“It can no longer come as a surprise to anyone that reducing emissions delivers commercial benefits to industry as well as benefits to the environment and consumers,” said Darren Lindsey, a spokesman for the tyre-maker, Michelin. “To maximise those benefits, however, international policymakers have to create a consistent and robust regulatory framework.”
An Automobile Association (AA) poll of 16,000 drivers last December found that 71% expected to change their car in the net five years. One-third said they would opt for a petrol-fuelled vehicle, one quarter for diesel, 5% would pick a hybrid and just 1% would choose an electric car.
However, fuel economy and low emissions were mentioned by 84% and 55%
of drivers respectively as factors they looked for in selecting a new
vehicle.
