EV Charging – Why do we need it to fight climate change?

Eurelectric, the Union of the Electricity Industry, has a vision of Europe being fully decarbonised well before 2050. Electric vehicles play an important part in fulfilling this vision. EVs and smart charging are one of many ways to support renewable energy production, improve energy efficiency and speed up the move towards fully electrified Europe.

As our CBO Elias Pöyry notes in his recent interview, there seems to be a scientific consensus forming on how to slow down climate change. The solution has three pillars, and electric cars will play a very important role in all of them.

1. Electrify everything

Using electricity to power our lives is more energy efficient, thus all energy consumption should be electrified. Up to 95% of CO2 emissions in Europe by 2050 could be reduced with electrification.

By electrifying transportation with zero-carbon power, a big slice of greenhouse emissions can be cut down. In Europe, transportation causes approximately one-fourth of all CO2 emissions.

2. Shift to carbon-neutral energy production

Powering electric vehicles with fossil fuels is not sustainable. Renewable energy production is volatile, but electric vehicles can help to tackle this hindrance.

Smart charging is the key when it comes to supporting the energy system. With smart charging, all charging stations are connected through the cloud. Smart services can aggregate these chargers into pools of storages, and use cars as flexibility resources for the energy system. Charging events are controlled based on electricity production and consumption to balance the grid. More renewable energy sources can be used without compromising the quality of our energy system.

3. A drastic increase in energy efficiency

Compared to gasoline cars, electric vehicles are much more energy efficient. In fact, even if electric cars were powered by electricity produced from coal, they’d pollute much less than conventional combustion engine vehicles. This is mostly because less energy is required to power electrical engines.

Learn more about the many environmental benefits of EV's from our mini-documentary From EV's to Grid:

Leading the Charge, series of mini-documentaries, by Eurelectric collects together stories of forerunners working towards the vision of fully decarbonised Europe. The documentary series has been produced by BBC StoryWorks Commercial Productions.