Recommendation 18

We questioned the Departments about the overall environmental and social impacts of the production and use of electric cars and whether they had undertaken analysis of the full lifecycle impacts of these vehicles, including production and disposal. The Department for Transport informed us that it has looked at the lifecycle emissions associated with electric vehicles, including reviewing global studies, and found that they are cleaner than internal combustion engines, although they cannot mitigate all emissions.41 The Department estimates that electric vehicles are between 30% and 40% lower in carbon emissions in their lifetime than internal combustion engine cars. It stated that electric cars also produce fewer particulates in the air than internal combustion engines, as these are non-existent from the tailpipe and fewer come from braking as the engines are regenerating the battery during this time.42 The Departments for Transport and for Business, Energy & Industrial Strategy wrote to us and quoted that a study for the European Commission from September 2020, found a typical new battery electric vehicle, operated in the UK, is considered to have about 35% of the lifetime greenhouse gas emissions of an equivalent petrol vehicle, and 41% of an equivalent diesel vehicle.43