Considering progress
To really understand the electric vehicle and its environmental impact, “you have to develop a dynamic logic”, stresses Jean-Christophe Béziat, researcher at the “Advanced Fuels” department at Renault.
“We can’t take the current electricity production situation and compare it against the large EV market share that will exist in 20 years’ time. We have to consider the problem in an energy context that is in the making and that is undergoing rapid change.” In fact, the electric vehicle field will develop at the same time that electricity production “decarbonises”. The electricity production industry is subject to increasingly strong statutory restrictions. Europe has already set precise objectives for member States, notably through Directive 2009/28/EC of the European Parliament (3), which imposes a 20% target for the overall share of energy from renewable sources and a 10% target for energy from renewable sources in the transport sector alone, including electricity, by 2020.
The importance of renewable energies
Today, nuclear power certainly allows us to obtain very good results in terms of C02 emissions, when compared to thermic power stations and, particularly, to coal. The French example is proof of this. "But it is not the solution", says François Cuenot of the IEA. “The development of the electric vehicle must not take place with a dependence on nuclear power; rather, it should be to the benefit of renewable energies (wind, photovoltaic etc.). From a decarbonised energy perspective, electricity from renewable sources is, therefore, the prerequisite for EV development.” Statistics back this up: according to the Objectif Terre website, with a 100% mix of renewable energies (solar, photovoltaic…), the EV carbon footprint would fall below the 1 g/km of C02 mark!
In this context, Jean-Christophe Béziat reminds us that “the emergence of the electric vehicle could be an opportunity, a way of acting in order to stimulate renewable energy development.”
