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End of the ICE-age. Start of an electrifying future
Zero Emission Vehicles (ZEV) paving the way to carbon
neutrality
[Excerpt from our March 2021 whitepaper]
A huge paradigm shift is taking place now in the automobile
industry. The last three years has seen an increasing number of
vehicle manufacturers worldwide announcing to only sell zero
emission vehicles (ZEV) starting as early as 2030. The pledge from
big names in the industry such as Ford of Europe, Jaguar and
General Motors signals the end of the internal combustion engine
(ICE) - age.
This is in line with the ambitious climate goals agreed at the
Paris climate conference (COP21).
Latest developments see not only vehicle manufacturers but
mobility provers such as ride-hailing companies resorting to ZEV
"self-mandates", committing themselves towards an even faster shift
away from conventional ICE vehicles in favor of zero-emission
vehicles (BEV/ FCEV).
Bumpy road to carbon neutrality
The journey to achieving carbon neutrality opens the currently
established automotive ecosystem to many new stakeholders in the
mobility sector. These new stakeholders include energy providers,
technology/ electric vehicle start-ups, infrastructure, and
connectivity enablers, manufacturing/ design operators, battery
suppliers and recycling experts.
This new level of complexity opens roughly three groups of
initial "impact areas":
1. Operational issues - how will manufacturers
gracefully exit the ICE market while reducing self-inflicted wounds
such as declining profit margins, drastic changes to product plans,
stranded manufacturing assets among other issues.
2. Business model - how will the light vehicle
sector, which has traditionally focused on retail/ dealer networks
tackle new vehicle brands and start-ups? This shake up may very
well involve the after-market, spare-parts, and service businesses
as well.
3. Supply chain - a rapid switch to EVs will
inevitably lead to the evaporation of scale economies for ICE
vehicle manufacturing activities. What does this entail for supply
chains that will see sharp declines in internal combustion engine
components?
The above is but just a tip of the iceberg on the road to carbon
neutrality. Our full white paper includes the topics below:
The new frontier: A co-dependency ecosystem/supply-chain
1) What is the Paris Climate Agreement and what was
achieved?
It is a framework to support and strengthen the global response
to the threat of climate change. The Paris Climate Agreement or
more commonly known as The Paris Agreement has commitments from all
major emitting countries to cut their climate pollution with a
long-term goal to achieve net zero emissions.
The short-term goal of the agreement is to keep global average
temperature increases below 2°C above pre-industrial levels in this
century; with the aim to limit the increase to 1.5°C
2) What does carbon neutral mean?
Carbon neutral means balancing the amount of carbon emissions by
absorbing carbon from the atmosphere in carbon sinks.
Carbon sinks are systems that absorb more carbon than emitted.
To date, only natural carbon sinks such as soil, forests and oceans
are able to remove carbon from the atmosphere on a scale that can
fight global warming.
3) What does it mean to be carbon neutral?
To be carbon neutral means that the carbon dioxide output has a
net neutral impact on the environment. Individuals, businesses, and
organizations can strive to become carbon neutral by various ways
such as using solar panels, electric vehicles to reduce carbon
footprint.
This can help to reduce the effects of climate change as
greenhouse gasses like carbon dioxide increase global average
temperatures resulting in rising sea levels, changing weather
patterns and other factors.
4) What is zero emission vehicle (ZEV)?
ZEV is an electric vehicle that runs completely free of carbon
dioxide tank-to-wheel. It requires a charging network powered
completely by renewable energy.
According to
ZEV regulation in California, the below vehicle designs are
considered "zero emission" to varying degrees:
Plug-in hybrid - runs on a combination of conventional
gasoline-powered engine with a rechargeable battery
Battery electric vehicles - runs entirely on a rechargeable
battery
Hydrogen fuel cell vehicles - runs on hydrogen gas powered fuel
cells that generate electricity
