greenerideal.com
It is often claimed that electric cars will be the saviour of motoring as oil supplies begin to run out and the cost of petrol and diesel becomes more and more prohibitive. So far, electric cars have not caught on due to their limited range before a recharge is required and also to their high initial purchase cost. Recently however, breakthroughs have been made in regard to the range problem and electric cars may soon become a more realistic alternative to the internal combustion engine.
A new investigation by MoneySupermarket has revealed what the effects of making every car in the world battery-powered would be. The investigation shows that although there would undoubtedly be beneficial environmental consequences of switching to electricity from petrol and diesel, the loss of revenue for governments would be substantial. It also reveals that individual savings would be relatively low, particularly in terms of motor insurance.
The average car produces around 138 grams of carbon dioxide for every kilometre driven and the global average annual distance driven per car is around 13500 km. There are over 1 billion cars in the world. So the total carbon emissions produced globally by driving cars per annum is currently around 1,900,000,000,000 kilograms. If every car was converted immediately to run on electricity, annual emissions would be reduced by around 950 billion kilograms, or 950 million tonnes, which is around half of current levels.
If every motorist in the UK drove an electric vehicle the government would lose more than £24 billion of tax revenue every year compared to current levels. The vast majority of this loss, around 80%, is due to losses in fuel duty.
The British exchequer would also miss out on around £4.9 billion in road tax charges (green cars being exempt from road tax) as well as approximately £38 million resulting from sales of motor insurance. Green drivers save around 5% on their annual insurance premium, which amounts only to around £24 on average, the average insurance premium being around £478.
unintended impacts... both environmental & financial
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