Day: June 27, 2022

We need to electrify our transport sector to cut our reliance on fossil fuels. This is needed to achieve our climate goals and energy security. And the more electric vehicles we have on our roads, the more wind turbines we will need to power them.

It’s possible to use electric vehicles without adding pressure on the electricity grid. Smart and bidirectional charging allow us to do that. And it can also help us integrate additional renewable energy capacity.

Everyone wants to pay less for charging their electric vehicles and that is achievable by installing more renewable power capacity. Legislation must help as much as possible. But how to make it happen?

European countries should ensure that permitting of renewable energy sources is done much simpler and faster. And they should allow electric vehicles to realise their full potential by allowing them to provide grid services.

Finally, the joint development of electric vehicles and renewable energy power plants represents great job opportunities for many Europeans. We must ensure that they have the right skills they need to accompany the transition. Find more details on our recommendations on the platform’s website.

Corporate fleets are both a challenger and a great enabler for the decarbonation of transport. Europe should act and here is why:

Company cars are often underestimated because they represent 20% of the car park but, they are usually driven twice more than individual cars, they emit 50% of total road transport CO2 emissions and represent 62% of new car registrations!  This is therefore a key lever to decarbonize transport. Company cars quickly become private cars via the second-hand market. This is called the “Trickle-down effect”

At the Platform for electromobility, we therefore believe we should first act to decarbonize corporate fleets by mandating their decarbonization. There would be a clear benefit: ensuring a large second-hand market after they are no longer used by companies and therefore making clean transportation more accessible to all. It is urgent to act at EU level to take the cost of the transition off people’s shoulder.

The is at the moment only one legislation at EU level to push large fleet to drive cleaner: the clean vehicle directive. Since 2021, it pushes member states’ public service to change their fleet to new, non-polluting vehicles. On paper it is a great idea but it only cover 1% of all fleets. We need to decarbonize the 99% left