Way of generating electricity changes from country to another which impacts electric cars carbon footprint (1). Four categories of countries can be distinguished in Europe:
- Countries where electricity is mainly generated from renewable energies, such as Iceland or Norway, where hydro-power produces almost all electricity. In those countries, electric car is a real solution to fight climate change.
- Countries where electricity is mainly generated from nuclear. In France, Slovakia and Hungary, nuclear power plants generate respectively 77%, 57% and 54% of electricity. In those countries, electric cars carbon footprint is lower than traditional thermic cars since nuclear power plants don’t produce CO2. But nuclear wastes question still remains.
- Countries where electricity is mainly generated from natural gas. Electric car carbon footprint is equal to diesel car (170 gCO2e/km) or gasoline car (180 gCO2e/km) (2). Netherlands, Germany and UK gather more than 60% of electric cars in the UE, with more than 190 000 vehicles in 2015 (3) even though there is no “climate” interest at all.
- Countries where electric cars produce more greenhouse gases than thermic car since electricity is largely generated from coal or oil shale. In Poland and Estonia, electric cars produce respectively 30% and 60% more CO2 than gas cars.
Notes & references
(1) More information about electric car carbon footprint can be found in previous posts.
(2) Biofuel cars produce about 120 gCO2e/km.
(3) International Energy Agency: https://www.iea.org/publications/freepublications/publication/Global_EV_Outlook_2016.pdf
