“Climate advantage e-mobility?”

Electric vehicles already have a smaller carbon footprint than conventional ones, even though Germany still has a high volume of fossil-fuels in its power mix, writes Institute for Applied Ecology (Öko Institut) in a press release. Because the fuel source is decisive for emissions, the country’s Renewable Energy Act (EEG), which regulates renewables expansion, could be the “key instrument to reduce the carbon footprint of electric vehicles” in the coming years, writes Öko Institut in a policy paper. The federal government would have to adapt renewables targets in the future to meet demand for e-mobility, and taxes or levies on fossil fuels should increase to reflect their share in Germany’s greenhouse gas emissions, write the authors.

Find the press release in German here and the policy paper in German here.

For background, read the CLEW factsheet Germany’s energy consumption and power mix in charts