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Decarbonizing mobility: Thoughts on an unresolved challenge

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Abstract.

Mobility and freight transportation are of worldwide importance. Presently they rely almost exclusively on fossil fuels. The 2015 Paris Agreement on Climate Protection calls for a drastic reduction of the associated CO2 emissions. As a prime choice for emission reduction of cars, presently battery-powered electrical vehicles (BEV) are widely favored. By law, the European Union uniformly classified all BEV as zero-CO2-emission vehicles, completely ignoring the source of the electrical energy and the very significant emissions due to battery fabrication. In order to expose this misleading regulation, we take a closer look at the CO2 footprint of a sedan BEV, if charged from the German grid, and compare this BEV to a conventional internal combustion engine (ICE), running on Diesel fuel. If a large BEV is equipped with a heavy, long-range battery and if this BEV is charged from the German grid, we find no CO2 reduction for a run of 200 000km, if compared to a modern Diesel engine. We offer some thoughts on a more detailed and proper analysis of future mobility concepts, the respective pros and cons, and on some of the alternative developments.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Peter-Grünberg-Institut, PGI 9, Forschungszentrum, Jülich, Germany

    Christoph Buchal

  2. Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität und CESifo, Munich, Germany

    Hans-Werner Sinn

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  1. Christoph Buchal
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  2. Hans-Werner Sinn
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Correspondence to Christoph Buchal.

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Buchal, C., Sinn, HW. Decarbonizing mobility: Thoughts on an unresolved challenge. Eur. Phys. J. Plus 134, 599 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1140/epjp/i2019-13020-6

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