“The first is the roll out of charging infrastructure, and the second is the take up of EVs.”
3. End of life considerations
Whilst decarbonising transport will be a huge step forward toward global net zero goals, electrifying vehicles will use limited natural resources, and produce carbon emissions in the extraction of those resources.
Accordingly, EV batteries will need to be reused, repurposed or recycled to ensure that natural resources are used as efficiently as possible for as long as possible, and also to deliver a net carbon reduction benefit compared to fossil fuelled internal combustion engines. Governments will therefore need to consider putting incentives and programmes in place to create a circular economy, to keep up with demand, and to avoid solving one problem only to create another.
Existing environmental laws may well cover disposal, reuse, and recycling of a number of key EV components, but it is likely that EV specific considerations will need to be catered for in the future.
4. The scope of the challenge
There are two strands to the work needed to deliver electrified transport. The first is the roll out of charging infrastructure, and the second is the take up of EVs. These two strands have generally been addressed in two ways:
- charging infrastructure – governments have provided regulations about infrastructure requirements, both its availability in existing and new buildings, and also its accessibility in terms of interoperability and cost; and
- take up of EVs – governments have provided incentive schemes, usually in the form of grants or tax breaks.
The first strand requires buy in from developers and investors. This is something most governments are familiar with. If sufficient regulatory certainty is provided, investment will usually come forward. Whilst creating the infrastructure required to support increased deployment may be a challenge, it is a challenge that has been successfully met in a number of different contexts around the globe. We can see this when we look at the exponential increase in renewable technologies such as solar and wind.