A report on the proceedings of the symposium on The Electrification of the Transportation System: Issues and Opportunities has been released by the MIT Energy Initiative (MITEI).
Both John Deutch and Ernest Motiz offered a summary reflecting their own observations on electrification.
- Why it is important: They outlined that electrification is important because petrol almost exclusively fuels the US transportation system and light duty vehicles are responsible for 17.5 per cent of CO2 emissions in the US. Electrification should reduce emissions and reduce oil dependence.
- Technologies: They point out that the costs of vehicles of comparable size and range increase when moving from internal combustion engines to battery electric vehicles in line with the increasing size of the battery pack. They believe manufacturing is a key to achieving a commercially successful battery pack.
- Infrastructure: The successful penetration of electric vehicles relies heavily on consumer acceptance and infrastructure change as well as competitive costs.
- Policy options: It was agreed in general that electrification is desirable because of CO2 emission reductions and reduced oil dependence. However, there is great difference over the policy instruments that should be invoked. Technology advocates typically wanted rapid, direct intervention to overcome technical costs and consumer acceptance barriers; while technology agnostics preferred policies internalising external cost and establishing a level playing field among technologies.
The three policy measures that received general support included: establishing a comprehensive carbon emission policy to influence the future generation mix; continuing to expand on research and development; and increasing the emphasis on a regulatory framework for electric vehicles; and measured demonstration of charging and price systems.
