Sustainability Newsletter – January 2024

Using tax, tolls and charges to ‘nudge’ car buyers into more sustainable habits is nothing new, as London’s Congestion Charge and the Ultra Low Emissions Zone prove.
But is charging for emissions the fairest way of steering behaviour? Critics of the ULEZ expansion have, after all, pointed out that it penalises less well-off drivers with older cars while benefitting those able to buy the latest premium plug-in hybrids or fully electric alternatives. Even if they are not always as ‘green’ as advertised down to the embedded carbon that comes from manufacturing new cars, especially big, luxurious ones with huge batteries. Paris is taking a different route, with proposals for increased parking charges based on a vehicle’s weight. While this inevitably targets SUVs it also closes the loophole of heavier, premium electric vehicles effectively dodging tolls with the aim of encouraging drivers into smaller, more efficient alternatives more suited to busy city streets.

Excess weight is, of course, one of the dirty secrets of many electric cars, the Kia EV9 we drove recently tipping in at over three tonnes with passengers onboard. While fully electric and ‘zero emissions’ in use, heavy EVs like this demand huge resources in their manufacture and generate more particulates from their bigger tyres and over-worked brakes. They’re also less space efficient on crowded city streets, taller vehicles like SUVs proven to be more dangerous to pedestrians, cyclists and other vulnerable road users as well.
Under the new rules Parisian authorities propose additional parking charges for any regular car over 1.6 tonnes (about the weight of a Golf-sized hatchback or crossover) and any electric vehicle over two tonnes. Which includes even the likes of the VW ID.4. So, while a London-based owner of a 2.6-tonne Mercedes EQE SUV can currently dodge the Congestion Charge and doesn’t pay ULEZ fees there’d be no such free pass driving the same into Paris. Also in France, authorities are looking at the carbon burden of building cars on the other side of the world before shipping them to Europe. Where French car buyers currently enjoy incentives that can slash thousands off the price of a new EV this would be cancelled if the car fails to meet certain criteria on where and how it has been made. Sounds noble in theory. But there’s cold, commercial logic at play here as well, given it particularly targets cars built in, and imported from, coal-fired Chinese factories to the advantage of brands building their cars in Europe. Especially French ones, like Renault, Peugeot and Citroën all struggling for sales against the flood of Chinese brands and their cheap EVs. There are some unintended consequences though, like the fact a Chinese-manufactured Tesla Model 3 will lose its discount while the European-built Tesla Model Y still qualifies. French-owned Dacia also loses out, given its cost-conscious Dacia Spring EV is actually made in China. Both policies are interesting responses to prevailing industry trends that, in a very Gallic way, present an egalitarian response to wider issues while simultaneously tipping the scales in favour of domestic jobs, production and manufacturers pinched between cheaper rivals from China on one side and premium heavyweights from the German brands on the other. What's the French for 'win-win' again?

Not that the powerful Chinese brands are taking this lying down, of course. BYD’s investment in a new factory in Hungary would enable it to build cars in Europe and escape such penalties, while Nio is pressing ahead with its policy of battery swapping as an alternative to plugging in and charging for long-distance electric travel.
30 or so of its 2,200 battery swapping stations are now here in Europe, meaning you can drive from Hamburg to Oslo or Amsterdam to Munich stopping only to swap batteries along the way. This takes just three minutes and can be done while you sit in the car, which in theory is way more convenient than stopping to plug in and charge. In the early days of electric cars the absence of charging infrastructure had the likes of Renault, Tesla and others flirting with the idea of battery swapping but soon ruled it out on the grounds that rival brands sharing battery tech was never going to happen. And, as Rory explored in a video, the supposed convenience benefits don’t always add up. Nio still thinks it can be a goer, though, and has explored different ‘ownership’ models where the battery is no longer the property of the driver or even the manufacturer, a deal with EV giant Geely (which owns Smart, Volvo, Lotus, Zeekr and others) on shared standards for batteries potentially solving the cross-brand compatibility issue as well. Other benefits include not having to worry about long-term battery degradation (a proven concern of used EV buyers) on the basis you’re only one swap away from a fresh one. Bringing the story full circle that could mean you drive your Nio into Paris with a smaller, lighter battery to swerve the weight-based charging. And then swap it to a bigger, heavier pack on the outskirts for longer journeys. As history proves, when lawmakers try and close a loophole it’s only a matter of time before drivers and manufacturers find creative ways to open a new one!

• Sustainability newsletter – December 2023 | Vauxhall electrifies Britain’s streets, a second life for electric car batteries and recycled Alcantara seat fabric combines luxury and sustainability
• Sustainability newsletter – November 2023 | Costs for EV batteries fall, funding for UK-sourced lithium project, GM goes renewable and Lynk & Co commits to life cycle CO2 audits • Sustainability newsletter – October 2023 | Costs for EV batteries fall, funding for UK-sourced lithium project, GM goes renewable and Lynk & Co commits to life cycle CO2 audits • Sustainability newsletter – September 2023 | Erin Baker shares her thoughts on the UK's changing net zero targets and delaying the 2030 ban for new petrol and diesel cars. • Sustainability newsletter – August 2023 | Zapmap reports increased charger installations, Lime's e-mobility revolution and Nissan's autonomous driving • Sustainability newsletter – July 2023 | Public charging network expands, hydrogen back on the agenda and choosing green tyres • Sustainability newsletter – June 2023 | BMW helps electrify the UK’s national parks and Kia ditches leather across its range of cars • Sustainability newsletter – May 2023 | What upholstery will you be choosing for your next car - leather or pleather? • Sustainability newsletter – April 2023 | Polestar’s ‘moonshot’ for a zero emissions car and a look into synthetic fuels as a possible lifeline for internal combustion classics • Sustainability newsletter – February 2023 | Our regular sustainability round-up continues with a look at some new recycled materials this month, all of which could be in your car soon • Sustainability newsletter – January 2023 | Eco awareness is driving more and more car buying decisions for a variety of reasons -here we celebrate those doing it right!