It is “inconceivable” that electric vehicles could be as polluting as conventional cars, new research has found, dismissing recent speculation that electric vehicles emit similar rates of CO2 to diesel vehicles when battery manufacturing is taken into account.

Instead, further decarbonisation in the UK could drive EV emissions down to 10% of conventional vehicles in the next five years.

Research by Imperial College London for Drax Electric Insights found that on average, EVs in Britain emit half the CO2 of diesel cars when the manufacturing of the battery is included and just 25% without.

After two to three years, the carbon emitted in battery production for the most efficient EVs would be saved.

This is being driven by the energy transition, with the report pointing to recent coal-free weeks and record-breaking performance of renewables that saw the carbon intensity of the grid tumble to a record low of 39g CO2/kWh.

As the UK’s decarbonisation ramps up in line with the net zero target, the CO2 being emitted by EVs could fall to a tenth of the CO2 of conventional cars within the next five years, the research found.

Read more: Current News

Breathe London – a collaborative project led by Environmental Defense Fund Europe in partnership with the Mayor’s office to monitor London’s air quality – has revealed data that shows some areas in and around London exceed legal air quality limits.

“What’s that got to do with tech?” we hear you ask. Well, rather lot really. London is a vehicle hub and what it needs is fewer vehicle emissions. The solution to that, in part, is an increase electric vehicles (EVs), therefore emitting fewer toxic emissions and helping to bring down the levels of pollution.

You only need to look at Breathe London’s website and click on one of its 100 fixed pollution monitors to track 24-hour data and it’s easy to see that during times when it’s less busy – i.e. from midnight to 6am – the levels of pollution often halve, before rising again due to traffic on the roads.

Mayor of London, Sadiq Khan, has already implemented some schemes to help lower pollution. In April 2019 the Ultra Low Emission Zone (ULEZ) was introduced to deter drivers from entering a given zone. However, the £12.50 daily charge – which is in operation 24/7 – doesn’t mean drivers cannot access the capital. By 2021 the ULEZ will be expanded to cover a wider region (to the North and South Circular roads, also known as the A406).

Read more: Pocket Lint

Official new data from the EU’s environmental watchdog (EEA) shows that the CO2 emissions of new cars increased by 1.6% in 2018 to 120.4 grams of CO2 per km.

While the lack of progress in real-world emissions and fuel efficiency was known for years, [1] now even the optimised and unrealistic lab test tests can no longer hide the problem. For the first time, CO2 emissions from vans also rose, by 1.2%.

The main driver is the rising sales of polluting yet very profitable SUVs. The average petrol SUV sold last year emitted 133g CO2/km while the average of other petrol cars sold was 120g CO2/km, according to provisional EU data released today. Heavier and less aerodynamic – and therefore less fuel efficient – than other cars, SUVs now account for around a third of new cars sold in Europe – up from 7% in 2008 [2].

Julia Poliscanova, clean vehicles manager at T&E, said:

“Carmakers are playing a high risk game where they’re deliberately postponing sales of cleaner cars to maximise SUV-fueled profits. It may please their shareholders but it’s a tragedy for our planet. These figures are a stark reminder that governments need to be much more forceful when it comes to promoting zero emission vehicles, in particular by reforming vehicle taxation and rolling out charge points.”

Read more: Transport & Environment

The automotive industry could be facing a new ‘petrolgate’ emissions scandal as Emissions Analytics uncovers discrepancies in new petrol car CO2 figures.

Following the fallout of of ‘dieselgate’, which led to a considerable decline in sales of diesel vehicles across Europe, experts believe the same emissions cheating techniques may be being used on petrol vehicles.

Results from the latest WLTP-certified vehicles show that average CO2 emissions for petrol cars are falling, but real-world testing carried out by Emissions Analytics paints a different picture.

“While our real-world test results for diesel cars are in line with WLTP data, indicating that manufacturers have got their house in order over diesel, the same cannot be said for petrol,” explained Nick Molden, CEO of Emissions Analytics.

Read more: AM Online

The U.S. buys big but relatively unsophisticated cars, while Europe prefers sophisticated small cars.

That truism is about to be rewritten in Europe, however, as automakers start to question their small-car strategy in response to costly new European Union legislation covering safety and tailpipe emissions, in particular the output of CO2.

“New CO2 rules will require automakers to fit thousands of euros of tech to each car,” Max Warburton, an analyst at research and brokerage firm Sanford C. Bernstein wrote in an April report. “Big cars have the price points and margins to cover these costs. Small cars simply do not. These segments may soon be abandoned by many manufacturers.”

Automakers across Europe are axing their smallest cars or preparing to do so.

• Opel will drop its Karl and Adam minicars, while fellow PSA Group brands Peugeot and Citroen said their 108 and C1 minicars are unlikely to survive. A source at Ford confirmed that it will stop exporting the Indian-built Ka+ small car to Europe.
• Volkswagen executives have said privately that the automaker is preparing to drop combustion-engine versions of the Up minicar, which would almost certainly mean the fuel-powered Seat Mii and Skoda Citigo would also disappear.
• Daimler, meanwhile, has begun the process of shifting production and development of its Smart brand to China, where the small cars will be built exclusively starting in 2022 as part of a joint venture with Zhejiang Geely Holding. That decision raises a question mark over Renault’s Twingo minicar, which was developed alongside the current Smart model range.

It won’t just be minicars affected, Warburton said. VW Group could be forced to axe the Polo small car as well as the related Audi A1, Skoda Fabia and Seat Ibiza, he said. ”

This is a very big volume platform, but it will face an increasingly tough economic challenge,” Warburton said. He also flagged up the size of BMW’s task with Mini. “BMW will need to rethink or reduce the size of the Mini business. We are not convinced it’s ever made proper money,” he said.

These cars are at risk because tougher EU rules for CO2 start to take effect next year. The industry has to reduce its fleet average to 95 grams per kilometer, down from an average of 120.5g/km last year, according to JATO Dynamics. The problem is that most current minicars cannot get to below the 95g/km average without including some form of electrification (for example, the Citroen C1 achieves 95g/km).

Read more: Automotive News

Since the first modern electric vehicles (EV) took to the roads in the 2000s, critics have been quick to question the ‘clean’ label attached to them

From manufacturing concerns to battery power sources as well as overall autonomy, EVs have been under scrutiny from sceptics. With the amount of debate and misinformation troubling the waters, the facts behind the efficiency of electric vehicles have become somewhat clouded – so just how clean are these vehicles?

Battery Production

An argument that is routinely put forward to contrast the clean image of electric cars is the pollution behind the manufacturing process of their batteries. There is indeed a range of rare earth metals that make up the composition of the battery, and their extraction and manipulation can contribute to carbon emissions. However, as a 2018 International Council on Clean Transportation (ICTT) report illustrates, the country in which the batteries are being produced as well as the battery composition has a much higher level of impact on emissions.

A comparative study between EVs and internal combustion engine vehicle (ICEV) in China corroborates the ICTT report, indicating that infrastructure and efficient manufacturing techniques are the keys to reducing emissions during production. Chinese EV battery manufacturers produce up to 60% more CO2 during fabrication than ICEV engine production, but could cut their emissions by up to 66% if they adopted American or European manufacturing techniques. As such, the pollution created through the extraction process and production of batteries remains on par or slightly higher than the manufacturing process of petrol or diesel-based engines.

Read more: Forbes