EU electric vehicle strategy flawed, say NGOs

Current EU policy on car emissions is flawed because it offers no guarantee that more electric vehicles on Europe’s roads will lead to savings in carbon emissions over coming years, according to a report commissioned jointly by Friends of the Earth Europe, Greenpeace and Transport & Environment.

The current policy allows manufacturers to gain "super credits" for the sale of electric vehicles to offset the continued production of gas-guzzling cars. Each electric vehicle sold can be counted 3.5 times as part of a manufacturer's calculations towards their overall fleet limit – leaving them capacity to sell 3.5 gas-guzzlers with no effect on emissions targets.

And more needs to be done to make sure the cars run on green energy, otherwise automakers could be getting green credits for cars that run from a grid powered by fossil fuels, the study by consultants CE Delft says.

The report comes as European industry ministers today meet to discuss an EU strategy for electric cars at San Sebastián in Spain.

The environmental organisations are calling for the super credits to be cancelled and for all electric cars sold on the EU market to be equipped with smart metering technology that allows vehicles to be charged only when surplus electricity from renewables is available on the power grid.

This would avoid them being charged by electricity produced from burning fossil fuels.

Greenpeace EU transport policy adviser Franziska Achterberg said: “Dumb electric vehicles plugged into a dumb electricity grid would only add demand for coal and nuclear power, and drive us away from a sustainable energy future.”

To guarantee that car manufacturers apply the necessary technology for smart metering, the technology needs to be standardised and enforced through EU legislation, according to Greenpeace.

The NGOs are also calling for member states to raise their renewable electricity targets by the anticipated additional amount of electricity consumption by electric vehicles.