Skip to main content

Europe Moves Forward with Electric Cars

The electric car got another nudge—perhaps a significant nudge—towards reality with a new plan from the European Commission to standardize charging points for electric vehicles. 

Fill 'Er Up! The gas station of the future?

“The new European strategy will provide a supportive framework based on a twin-track approach: improving the efficiency of conventional engines and making ultra low-carbon mobility a reality for European consumers … The strategy also aims at achieving common standards for electrical cars so that they can be charged everywhere in the EU.”

There is a bit of Eurocrat-ese to wade through here, but these two goals from the plan stood out: 

  • Promote common standards that will allow all electric vehicles to be charged anywhere in the EU.

  • Encourage installation of publicly accessible charging points.

Sounds like a good start. A report released in conjunction with the plan, goes a little deeper on the two points.

“However, fast charging with high voltage, public charging points and the need to ensure communication between the vehicle and the electricity grid requires a dedicated plug and socket, which needs to be standardized at the EU level to ensure interoperability…An adequate electric charging network will require significant investment and definition of standards on safety, interoperability and payment.”

Think of it as the Euro of electric vehicles. It wasn’t too long ago in Europe that you had to stop at every new border, hit up the ATM and grab some cash. Now, with the Euro you can glide over borders without a second thought.

It’s kind of the same thing with pan-European charging stations for electric cars. The idea is to be able to drive any make of electric car from the Scottish highlands to Sicily with the knowledge you can plug it in conveniently anywhere, charge up quickly and be on your way. It’s a compelling vision.

But what will these “zero emission” cars run on ultimately? Sure, you’re getting off oil, but if you’re replacing it with another high-emission fossil fuel you really haven’t made much progress. (Of course, “zero emission” is a bit of a polite fiction as nothing is truly zero emissions over its entire lifecycle.)

In a question and answer piece, the EC notes:

The environmental impact of fully electric vehicles depends largely on the production of electricity that is used to charge them…care will have to be taken that electric vehicles are charged by using electricity from renewable sources to the extent possible...”

In another piece the EC quotes an interesting statistic:

“The global car fleet is predicted to grow from 800 million to 1.6 billion vehicles by 2030. In order to ensure sustainable mobility, a step change in automotive technology must happen.”

Now, that may be a global, not European statistic, and significant market penetration of electric cars may take some time. However, putting all these pieces together, it’s not that big of a leap to the next point: if electric vehicles are going to start gathering market share and if we expect them to be low emissions we will need to make sure the grid is as clean as possible. Renewables? Sure. Efficiency? You bet. Smart Grid? Sounds good. Nuclear? No doubt.

It seems that if Europe wants to realize its dream of “sustainable mobility,” it will have to continue to rely on "the largest source of largely carbon-free energy in Europe,” a source that provides about a third of the EU's electricity: nuclear energy.

Renewables and nuclear working together near the Elbe: the Brokdorf nuclear plant in Germany.

The Brokdorf nuclear plant in Germany. Click on the photo, then click the “coordinates” link in the upper right corner. Then, choose the “satellite” version of your favorite map application. You should be able to find wind farms to the north and northwest of the plant.

Comments

electric cars is one of the trends this days..no wonder Europe is into this kind of car technology
Sara said…
I follow your blog for a long time and must tell you that your posts always prove to be of a high value and quality for readers.
Ya now a days electric car demand increasing.

Popular posts from this blog

An Ohio School Board Is Working to Save Nuclear Plants

Ohio faces a decision soon about its two nuclear reactors, Davis-Besse and Perry, and on Wednesday, neighbors of one of those plants issued a cry for help. The reactors’ problem is that the price of electricity they sell on the high-voltage grid is depressed, mostly because of a surplus of natural gas. And the reactors do not get any revenue for the other benefits they provide. Some of those benefits are regional – emissions-free electricity, reliability with months of fuel on-site, and diversity in case of problems or price spikes with gas or coal, state and federal payroll taxes, and national economic stimulus as the plants buy fuel, supplies and services. Some of the benefits are highly localized, including employment and property taxes. One locality is already feeling the pinch: Oak Harbor on Lake Erie, home to Davis-Besse. The town has a middle school in a building that is 106 years old, and an elementary school from the 1950s, and on May 2 was scheduled to have a referendu

Why Ex-Im Bank Board Nominations Will Turn the Page on a Dysfunctional Chapter in Washington

In our present era of political discord, could Washington agree to support an agency that creates thousands of American jobs by enabling U.S. companies of all sizes to compete in foreign markets? What if that agency generated nearly billions of dollars more in revenue than the cost of its operations and returned that money – $7 billion over the past two decades – to U.S. taxpayers? In fact, that agency, the Export-Import Bank of the United States (Ex-Im Bank), was reauthorized by a large majority of Congress in 2015. To be sure, the matter was not without controversy. A bipartisan House coalition resorted to a rarely-used parliamentary maneuver in order to force a vote. But when Congress voted, Ex-Im Bank won a supermajority in the House and a large majority in the Senate. For almost two years, however, Ex-Im Bank has been unable to function fully because a single Senate committee chairman prevented the confirmation of nominees to its Board of Directors. Without a quorum

NEI Praises Connecticut Action in Support of Nuclear Energy

Earlier this week, Connecticut Gov. Dannel P. Malloy signed SB-1501 into law, legislation that puts nuclear energy on an equal footing with other non-emitting sources of energy in the state’s electricity marketplace. “Gov. Malloy and the state legislature deserve praise for their decision to support Dominion’s Millstone Power Station and the 1,500 Connecticut residents who work there," said NEI President and CEO Maria Korsnick. "By opening the door to Millstone having equal access to auctions open to other non-emitting sources of electricity, the state will help preserve $1.5 billion in economic activity, grid resiliency and reliability, and clean air that all residents of the state can enjoy," Korsnick said. Millstone Power Station Korsnick continued, "Connecticut is the third state to re-balance its electricity marketplace, joining New York and Illinois, which took their own legislative paths to preserving nuclear power plants in 2016. Now attention should