The sustainability of different vehicle technologies must be compared "from cradle to grave", by evaluating their impact over their whole life cycle. However, about 3/4 of a vehicle impact occurs during its use. Therefore, a "well-to-wheels" assessment allows reaching valuable conclusions for practical purposes.
The three most sustainable vehicle technologies are clearly electric:
Battery Electric Vehicles (BEVs) are electric vehicles that are powered by batteries recharged on the electric network.
BEVs are the most sustainable vehicle technology, in terms of energy savings, oil independency and environmental protection (greenhouse gas emissions, urban pollution and noise). BEV technology is ready for widespread commercialisation. Therefore, we fully support BEVs. More...
BEVs are not yet practical for long trips, but they are ideal for daily commuting and short trips, which represents about 80% of cars mileage, mostly in slow traffic with only one occupant. For this usage, new categories of vehicles should be created, in-between L7e quadricycles and M1 cars, for Ultra-Small Urban electric Cars (USUCs), and Ultra-Narrow Urban electric Cars (UNUCs) which are now entering the market. This would further improve the sustainability of urban cars. More...
Car safety regulations concentrate on occupant safety (crash-test, airbags...).
This has resulted in bigger and heavier cars, which not only increases fuel consumption and emissions, but also increases the risk of casualties for small vehicles and deters consumers from buying smaller car. Therefore, safety regulations should also address crash impact onto other vehicles. More...
A key issue for
BEV introduction is the availability of charging stations. Public authorities should concentrate on making it possible for EV drivers to slow-charge close to where they live onto domestic plugs. More...
Extended-Range Electric Vehicles (EREVs) are BEVs with an on-board generator that switches on when batteries are low.
EREVs are today's most sustainable technology for cars that need to cover long distances. Therefore, we fully support EREVs until they can be replaced by even cleaner technologies such as fast charging BEVs and Fuel Cell Vehicles (FCVs). More...
Fuel Cell Vehicles (FCVs) are electric vehicles whose electricity is provided by hydrogen (or other gases such as methane).
FCVs are clean, silent, petrol-free, and about as energy efficient than BEVs.
They are likely to become a choice technology for vehicles covering long distances.
Also, fuel cells will likely have several other applications such as in power generation.
Therefore, we fully support FCVs.
However, fuel cells are today still too expensive for widespread commercialisation.
Also, fuel cell cars spread will require an extensive hydrogen distribution network.
We recognise that more money and effort should be invested into research, pilot plants and large scale demonstration project
in order to enable widespread FCV commercialisation in the future. More...
These three vehicle technologies will slowly penetrate the light vehicle market up to 2020. But sometimes between 2025 and 2035, they will start replacing all petrol cars. More...
