Sustainability Newsletter – November 2024

The move to electric vehicles is a huge change for the automotive industry and this month we waited with bated breath to hear how the Autumn Budget might impact the switch. While there’s no return to the grants previously offered to help offset the greater cost of electric cars we were pleased to see Benefit In Kind incentives for company drivers will remain in place – albeit with the benefit becoming less generous as we get closer to 2030. This will hopefully go some way to support fleet buyers with the transition, though calls for equivalent incentives for private buyers seem to have been ignored this time round.
This would have helped retailers currently struggling to sell electric cars, though discounting contributed to one in five new electric cars in October selling for less than the average cost of a petrol or diesel. A step towards price parity, but there’s still a long way to go and this year only 18.1 per cent of new car sales have been fully electric, falling short of the 22 per cent required by the ZEV mandate. In better news for consumers than retailers that may mean more discounts before the year is out, and some great deals to be had.

Reducing – or removing - the puffs of smoke coming out of an exhaust is only one part of making cars sustainable, though. Accordingly eco conscious consumers now want to know if their car was manufactured using sustainable energy, where the materials came from and whether new cars are built to last. As we reported in previous months, each brand is creating their own solutions. For example, Dacia’s Starkle cladding on the new Duster is paint-free and contains up to 20 per cent recycled plastics, while Volvo uses materials made from recycled jeans and plastic in its interiors. It also looks to natural products including wool and flax.
As it happens, flax is a multipurpose material and already used in race cars. To that end this month Skoda announced it would be using flax-based composite materials in its Enyaq RS Race concept car. This showcases the latest technology from Skoda Motorsport and is based on the production version of the Enyaq Coupe vRS like the one we’ve been living with recently. The flax-based material is manufactured by Swiss cleantech company Bcomp and contributes to an impressive weight saving of over 300kg for the concept over its road-going equivalent. Skoda has already used the same material in its race winning Fabia RS Rally2 and many other manufacturers such as BMW, Porsche and Mercedes-AMG have done the same.

For those curious about the amount of recycled content in their car Kia has included QR codes in the interior of the all-new EV3 to show off its eco credentials. It’s also attempting futureproof the with some nifty charging capabilities which could play a key role in supporting the national grid as electric cars become more widespread. You may have heard the term vehicle-to-load (V2L), which essentially means using your electric car as a power bank. You can either use a three-pin plug inside to charge small items such as laptops or you can attach an adaptor to the external charge port for bigger appliances like camping equipment. This is becoming increasingly common, but Kia takes it further by also allowing the EV3 to send power from its battery into your home (V2H) or other buildings (V2B).
If you combine the car with home solar panels the EV3 can be used to store any excess energy produced when the sun’s out, which can be used later to power your home when it gets dark. This way you won’t need another battery permanently installed. Alternatively, the EV3 can send energy from its battery straight back into the grid (V2G) to help balance the load on the system at peak time. It can then use its regular grid-to-vehicle (V1G) charging capability to choose when to charge back up again, depending on a range of factors such as when energy is cheapest and ready the car for any pre-set departure times you may have saved. While we are not quite at the point where you’ll be able to utilise all these features it’s good to know Kia is among those ensuring its products are ready for advances in tech and infrastructure.

Car drivers aren’t the only ones grappling with the transition to more sustainable transport, though, and conversation with Tony Campbell of the Motor Cycle Industry Association (MCIA) perhaps shows how far the four-wheeled world has already come. And the challenge for other road users, like motorcyclists, to catch up.
Electrifying motorbikes is, in some ways, more challenging than it is for cars, where the extra weight of batteries, motors and charging hardware can be masked by the extra power. On a bike every kilo counts, to the point where the motorcycle industry is looking beyond road transport for inspiration. “Anthony Browne was the minister we were working with in the previous government and we helped him realise we face similar technical challenges to the aviation sector when it comes to weight and battery density,” explains Campbell, who reckons battery tech that works for cars currently can’t deliver combustion-engine performance for bikes.

While optimistic innovation like solid state batteries may yet provide an answer Campbell has a bigger picture of how two-wheeled transport can fit into the mobility landscape.
“We know the end point for decarbonisation isn’t just about electrifying cars, because that doesn’t solve congestion or create space for active travellers,” says Campbell. “One of the things I’m enthused about is the willing adoption of e-scooters and e-bikes by younger users. Some of it falls into a legal grey area but it tells me there’s an audience, and given an electric moped can cost about the same as an e-bike and last a lot longer there is potential.” This fits with what we already know about a shift to subscription-based mobility where, as you might switch between buses, trains and tube with an Oyster card while travelling round London you might have something similar to access a car for long journeys or electric moped for shorter trips around town, much as many people already do with Lime Bikes and similar. It's an intriguing thought, and proof there is more to decarbonising transport than electrification or recycled materials in our cars.

• Sustainability newsletter – October 2024 | Industry asks government to make EVs more affordable in name of Net Zero and how sustainability works as a selling point
• Sustainability newsletter – September 2024 | Road charging for electric cars, UK’s car manufacturers clean up their act and VW explores hemp-based bio interiors • Sustainability newsletter – August 2024 | Is stimulating electric car sales ‘green’ and how improved charging infrastructure is helping with the great summer getaway • Sustainability newsletter – July 2024 | Hidden carbon cost of tech, Volvo pushes for more recycled plastics and Renault secures greener supply chain for EV batteries • Sustainability newsletter – June 2024 | Farewell chrome plating, bravo for Renault’s recycled interiors and a cheer for the … circular economy for recycled tyres • Sustainability newsletter – May 2024 | Lithium is key in the production of electric car batteries, but where does it all come from and at what cost? • Sustainability newsletter – March 2024 | The importance of renewable energy in making sure electric cars really are the green choice, and one Dutch couple’s mission to prove it! • Sustainability newsletter – January 2024 | French act on heavy SUVs and embedded CO2 of imported electric cars, BYD plans European factory and Nio opens battery swapping centres • Sustainability newsletter – December 2024 | 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!