“The potential for grid-connected vehicles to decimate our demand for liquid hydrocarbon fuels should be clear. Freed from the psychological barriers which hinder widespread market acceptance of pure battery electric vehicles, plug-in hybrids with an all-electric capability of just [30] kilometres would slash liquid fuel consumption, since such a high proportion of journeys undertaken are well within this range.”

"Plugged In: The End of the Oil Age” by WWF
(Dr. G. Kendall, 2008)

Pollution and CO₂ Consequences
In the EU, the share of transport in CO₂ emissions was 21% in 1990, but by 2006 this had grown to 28%. Although somewhat out of date the illustration below is a good proxy for global automotive pollution concentrations.

The graph below shows shares of global CO₂ from transport *1), *2)

• *1) CO₂ emissions from fuel combustion
• *2) Emissions from international aviation and maritime shipping are not allocated to each country

With over 500m of the 800m cars on the road between them, the USA and Europe will remain the dominant car markets, however considering growth forecasts, pollution pressures and diversified global supply chains, China and India are the key markets for new developments in powertrain technologies.

The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change has recommended that Annex I countries reduce their GHG emissions 25-40% by 2020 compared to 1990 and 50-80% by 2050, in order to limit GHG emissions to 450 ppm and the increase in global temperatures to less than 2º C above pre-industrial levels. Appendix 2 of the ‘EU Transport GHG: Routes to 2050?’ report ‘Identifying transport’s potential contributions to future GHG reduction’ TNO, 2009, shows that road transport emissions in the EU-27 need to reduce to 321Mt in 2050 (an approximate share of 16% compared to a 19.5% share of 982 Mt in 2007 - See: http://www.eea.europa.eu/data-and-maps/figures/greenhouse-gas-emissions-in-the-eu27-by-gas-and-sector-2007.

⁷Source: UN Geo 4 Report, 2007, Cohen and Others 2004
⁸Source: International Energy Agency (IEA) (2008), CO₂ Emissions from Fuel Combustion, 2008 Edition