Electric vehicles - why we need them

Vehicles are the third largest source of greenhouse gasses after stationary energy and food production. They account for almost 15 per cent of Australia’s emissions. To meet our international obligations, we must achieve major reduction of those emissions and work towards their eventual elimination. This can largely be achieved by 2020 through production and use of electric vehicles.

It is asserted that such a rapid departure from fossil-fuelled engines would be disastrous for the industry. Those who believe this argue that CO2 pollution from vehicles could be halved by production of cars able to run on an ethanol-petrol mix with 80 per cent ethanol.

This would entail only small modifications to existing engines and fuel systems, and permit unchanged production of vehicle components by sub-contactors. It would eliminate the expense of a radical shift to production of electric vehicles.

Minimum disruption, a significant reduction in CO2 emissions and, importantly, significant reduction of dependence on oil imports. From a car producer’s point of view, it is business as usual. From a government perspective, it sounds seductive since it postpones the need for additional public expenditure on managing the transition to electricity.

No need to retrain staff, re-tool workshops or provide assistance to those affected by the new technology - which would eliminate the need for production, fitting or maintenance of combustion engines, clutches, gear boxes, radiators or exhaust pipes. An attractive proposal - but is it feasible?

It would entail a massive increase in production of ethanol which, as noted above, would cause scarcity and inflation in the food sector of the economy. It would also require agreement of oil refiners and the owners of fuel stations to produce and stock an 80 per cent ethanol 20 per cent petrol mix. Prima facie this does not appear to be something refiners would willingly agree to do.

What finally kills this idea is that the cost of electricity for propulsion is far cheaper than the cost of an ethanol-petrol mix, even at the relatively affordable prices of February 2009.

The advantage of using electricity for propulsion is that, if it is generated from renewables such as wind or geothermal, it produces no greenhouse gas emissions. The result is a net reduction of atmospheric CO2. Use of a petrol/ethanol mix continues to produce a net increase in atmospheric CO2 from the petrol content and re-emits CO2 taken-up be the vegetation from which ethanol was made. It is more polluting than electricity.

Summary

Whether produced in Australia or imported duty-free, electric cars would rapidly displace fossil-fuelled vehicles because their use would result in:

• lower fuel and operating costs for motorists;
• cheaper cars since production costs are less;
• use of a fuel which is already widely available;
• rapid and permanent reduction of oil imports;
• greater competitiveness of the Australian economy; and
• significantly reduced greenhouse gas pollution.

Postponing the change from engines running on fossil fuels to electric motors does nothing more than defer the inevitable.

And the Government response to date? To give Holden a $170 million subsidy from the Green Car Fund to produce a new car running on a variety of fossil fuels.