As electric vehicles start to become mainstream and the contribution of renewable energy to the electricity grid grows, by 2030 over 70% of CO2 emissions from typical new road vehicles could arise during the production – rather than use – phase of the life cycle of a typical vehicle.
Consequently, the Low Carbon Vehicle Partnership (LowCVP) is calling for the development and introduction of a life cycle O2 metric to better inform policy and will be presenting proposals for its wider implementation at the two-day Cenex-LCV2019 Event last week.
The LowCVP is a collaboration between over 200 organisations representing government, industry and the widest range of stakeholders which is working to accelerate the transition to low carbon, low emission road transport across all sectors.
Life cycle assessment is at the foundation of the LowCVP’s 2019-20 work programme which aims to create the building blocks and evidence base across all road transport areas to enable the largest, most rapid reductions in total greenhouse gas emissions from transport.
LowCVP’s Head of Projects, Gloria Esposito will be presented the LowCVP’s work on life cycle assessment at the Millbrook event. She wants a full review and update of existing automotive life cycle emissions inventories, for low carbon vehicle policy to take account of these metrics and for automotive sector guidelines to be based upon them while ensuring consistency and comparability of data.
Gloria Esposito said, “Life Cycle thinking must become mainstream in policy considerations in the UK – and elsewhere – as the impacts of road vehicles during the production (and to a lesser extent, disposal) phases of the vehicle life cycle become much more prominent.
“A stronger evidence base needs to be developed and used to embed life cycle thinking into the UK’s supply chains, in policy and regulatory discussions and in the EU’s considerations around future car O2 regulation.”
A universal platform for electric vehicles was unveiled at the event by Silverstone-Based Delta Motorsport.
Using their extensive knowledge of structural chassis, the company aims to offer a production base to the myriad of advanced technology companies now entering the autonomous vehicle industry and challenging conventional car makers.