Press Release: Electric cars should not be delayed by fossil-fuelled grid

October 25, 2011

Is investing in electric cars before we’ve cleaned up our electricity production like putting the cart before the horse? If you asked readers of the TheGreenCarWebsite.co.uk, then the answer would appear to be ‘no’. Research by the website suggests that motorists believe that a dual approach makes the most sense; like training the horse while someone else builds the cart.

It has been one of the major criticisms of electric cars; that they are not really ‘zero emission’ because the electricity they use is largely generated by fossil fuels.

According to TheGreenCarWebsite.co.uk however, it makes sense to encourage the uptake of electric cars now as we work to clean up our electricity production at the same time. A majority of 58 per cent* voted in favour of this approach, while 29 per cent thought we should focus on clean electricity production first. Just 13 per cent thought we should encourage electric car uptake no matter what.

The Business Enterprise & Regulatory Reform (BERR) reports that UK electricity production in 2010 was 75 per cent generated from coal and gas**. Already this shows improvement over previous years. Back in 2007, this figure was 77 per cent. As generation from these non renewable sources has decreased, generation from cleaner sources has increased, growing 2.3 per cent just between 2009 and 2010, to take a share of 7 per cent in the total UK electricity production. Electricity generation from renewable sources such as wind and tidal may still be lagging a long way behind more popular sources but higher efficiencies make it cleaner than using fossil fuels directly in your tank.

According to the US Department of Energy, electric cars offer energy efficiency of around 75 per cent compared to around 20 per cent efficiency among the best that combustion cars can offer.***

Plus electric cars boast the advantage of improving local air quality especially in inner city areas, where it is desperately needed.

“We need to increase renewables share of our electricity production; there is no doubt about that. In the UK, we lag behind many of our European neighbours in this sense,” says the website’s editor Faye Sunderland. “But even with our current electricity mix, electric cars still offer many advantages; from low running costs to a carbon footprint which can get lighter as we make progress towards cleaner power.”

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Notes to Editors:

1. * TheGreenCarWebsite.co.uk asked 513 website visitors; “Should we increase production of renewable and clean sources of electricity before increasing electric vehicle (EV) numbers in the UK?” The full results were:

No, we encourage EV uptake now and develop clean electricity at the same time (58%)
Yes, we should focus on clean electricity first (29%)
No, we should encourage EV uptake no matter what (13%)
1. **BERR’s statistics can be found on the following link; http://www.decc.gov.uk/en/content/cms/statistics/statistics.aspx
2. *** US Department of Energy stats: http://www.fueleconomy.gov/feg/evtech.shtml

About TheGreenCarWebsite.co.uk: The award-winning definitive guide to green cars, providing a wealth of information on everything from electric cars, efficient petrol and diesel cars to biofuels and hydrogen technology. The green car advisory website is also the best place for all the latest news and events relating to green cars. Since its launch on 16^th June 2007, TheGreenCarWebsite.co.uk has experienced a tremendous growth in traffic and now attains more than 225,000 page views a month.

TheGreenCarWebsite.co.uk is owned and maintained by Really Good Domains Ltd, which run more motoring websites than any other company in the UK. As the UK’s largest internet advertising and marketing company for the motor industry, Really Good Domains also run the popular websites ContractHireAndLeasing.com, SaveMoneyOnCars.co.uk, TheVanWebsite.co.uk, RoadTestReports.co.uk, CarSupermarkets.co.uk and FleetDirectory.co.uk to name a few.

For further information or interview, contact: Faye Sunderland on 0161 482 7650 or email fayes@reallygooddomains.com. Really Good Domains, Domain House, 4 Watchgate, Newby Road, Hazel Grove, Stockport, SK7 5DB.