When geography asks the right questions about the electric cars

The UK government has announced that all new cars registered from 2040 should have electric or hybrid engines by banning petrol and diesel engines from that date. Great news for the environment? Well, yes - as long as the follow-up environmental questions get a positive response too. But have they been fully thought through?

Hard on the heels of Volvo announcing that, from 2019, their full range of cars will be electric or hybrid models, the UK government this week announced that from 2040, all new cars should be similarly powered. Great news for the environment one would think. Certainly from the point of view of air quality in urban areas, this is definitely good news. But geographers are trained to think about causes and consequential implications; the full trail through of links. Two essential ones are raised.

Firstly, where will the additional electricity come from to charge up all these vehicles? It's fine to say that carbon emissions will be cut by reducing oil-based fuel, but if the additional electricity is generated from coal-fired power stations, the emissions are being transferred rather than reduced. This report by the National Grid that came out earlier in the month and reported in The Guardian, suggesting that there isn't enough generating capacity for the all-electric/hybrid proposals at the moment, and the question of how the extra generating capacity is to be found is an essential part of the equation.

Secondly, electric batteries are heavily reliant on some not-so-easily-found minerals. Nickel, cadmium and lithium are key metals in the manufacture of electric car batteries, and if millions of vehicles are to contain them, the mining of these minerals is going to have to be expanded far beyond what is produced globally at the moment. This has immense implications for environments where mines are located, the economies of the supplying countries, and working conditions for those employed - some good; some not so good. This article in The Observer/Guardian considers the mineral resource implications of an electric car future. 

Geography helps explore the wider systems in which policy operates. More often than not, what appears to be good news, is only so if it flows through the whole system from start to finish. This will be one to watch for the full sequence of implications.