Electric cars cannot cut CO2 emissions on their own

[Aurora]

The Guardian - 25/05/10

Electrifying the UK's cars will require a relatively modest expansion of energy generation but will not be enough on its own to cut CO2 emissions, engineers said today.

Switching all the UK's petrol and diesel road transport vehicles to electric models will require 16% extra electricity capacity, equivalent to 10GW or around six new nuclear power stations, they said. The 30m vehicles on British roads are responsible for a quarter of the UK's carbon emissions.

In a report for the Royal Academy of Engineering (RAEng) published today, experts identified several hurdles in cleaning up the environmental footprint of the UK's road transport. These included the development of better batteries, creation of a smarter electricity grid that is more flexible at managing demand for power, and the mass-rollout of recharging points.

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