New Zealand has proposed new fuel standards, along with a consumer rebates for cleaner cars – paid for by higher costs for high-polluting cars – to cut its rising transport emissions.
Electric cars are hot, yet their global market penetration remains less than 0.5% of all vehicles. Research points the way to key questions to ask when building new markets.
Chinese electric vehicle sales already amount to more than half of the world’s total – and car makers and battery manufacturers are working hard to grow even faster.
Only a small share of the vehicles Americans buy are electric. Even if all of them were, it would take until 2040 to phase out the fossil fuels used to power personal travel and road-bound freight.
Some countries have already committed to using electric aircraft on domestic routes. These aircraft could slash costs and emissions on some of Australia’s busiest flight routes.
More electric vehicles and renewable energy means more mining for resources. Unless industry adopts cleaner habits urgently, the environment faces more damage.
The exploding popularity of e-scooters has the potential to reshape transport in our cities. Regulators need to adapt their approaches to handle the new mobility service rather than ban it altogether.
Labor’s ambitious plans to reduce transport emissions will be dead in the water without regulatory CO2 emission standards and real financial and non-financial incentives for buyers.
Electric vehicles are taking off, but will demand remain sustainable once governments phase out subsidies? And as the “hidden costs” of the EV revolution emerge, some might get left behind…
Researchers have found a way to evaluate how energy-efficient electric vehicles are, and compare the sizes and costs of batteries for different models.
It’s unclear exactly what mix of technologies will drive the zero-emission vehicles of the future. But in terms of ‘well-to-wheel’ efficiency, electric batteries outperform hydrogen.