Question to the Department for Transport:

To ask Her Majesty's Government what measures they plan to take to inform consumers about the comparative carbon footprint generated by different electric vehicles in their production.

Vehicle manufacture is a global industry and there is no agreed harmonised approach that can be used to inform consumers of the comparative carbon footprint of the production of different vehicles. The Government does not have any current plans to inform consumers about the comparative carbon footprint generated by different electric vehicles in their production. We expect the transition to zero emission motoring to be industry led and supported by the measures set out in the Road to Zero strategy.

In 2018, the Department for Transport developed the Transport Energy Model, published alongside the Road to Zero strategy, to provide a clear assessment of the relative environmental impacts of different road vehicle technologies and fuels. This showed that battery electric vehicles in the UK have substantially lower greenhouse gas emissions than conventional vehicles, even when taking into account the energy mix of the electricity to charge the battery and the electricity used for battery production. This largely agrees with full life cycle analyses (which also account for greenhouse gas emissions from vehicle manufacture) from independent sources.

Emission values are highly dependent on the electricity mix of the country in which the vehicle is charged, and the country(/ies) in which the vehicle, battery and other parts are manufactured. They will also vary according to model type, car size and miles driven. To obtain full environmental benefits, electric vehicles and their batteries need to be manufactured using electricity from carbon-free sources.

The UK’s £274 million Faraday Battery Challenge is taking steps to ensure the batteries used in electric vehicles are sustainable. This includes research into greenhouse gas emissions over the lifecycle of a battery, from raw materials to end-of-life.

By 2050, as the electric grid decarbonises and we further establish UK electric vehicle and battery manufacturing, we expect battery electric vehicles produced and driven in the UK to reach near zero greenhouse gas emissions.