European electricity of EUR 15 000 could replace millions of cars

ANDlast december, the European Union has advanced with the proposal to create a new category of affordable electric cars locally produced – known as M1E and associated with certain benefits for customers and manufacturers.

Now, in France, the French National Federation of Electric Vehicles (FNH) and the Institute for Mobility in Transition (IMT) have joined forces with consultant C-Ways for study the potential of a small electric vehicle, made in the EU with a final price below EUR 15 000.

It is estimated that 2.5 million cars a year can be sold in the EU by 2030 to 2035, rising to three million units in the future. This is the volume that the market would be able to absorb with an ideal offer, not a forecast of the number of sales. And about 40 percent of sales would take the place of the new cars in the segments A and B, with the remaining 60 percent replacing the acquisition of used vehicles.

Conservative characteristics

In order to reach a vehicle of up to 15 thousand euros without subsidies, the study stipulated certain characteristics considered conservative: 15 to 22 kWh battery for real autonomy between 140 km and 200 km, without fast charging. The length would be 3,6 meters and the weight would not reach 800 kg. The speed would be limited to 110 km/h.

The study considers that 54 percent of the cars in circulation on French roads fall within the characteristics the journeys and the allocation of four places.

The authors of the analysis understand that, even with the foundations of the car designed to be conservative, the vehicle “would meet a large part of the real mobility needs”, with a cost of ownership “significantly lower than that of any new electric vehicle of the segments A or B, and comparable to a newly used electric vehicle of segment B”.

The price of a car with these characteristics would still be higher than that of older combustion uses – the most sought after by low-income families. But after five years, an electric vehicle of 15 thousand euros would already be cheaper than a combustion vehicle of segment B with more than 15 years.

Replace 14 million vehicles by 2035?

The report also considers that, taking into account three defined filters, accessible electric cars “could represent 14 million vehicles by replacement” in the European Union by 2035 – about six percent of the fleet. And in the longer term they could take the place of about 29 percent of the current European car park.

Advantages for the environment

Besides being more accessible to families, these cheap electric cars could have a beneficial “immediate” impact on the environment, with the division by 3 to 3.5 of greenhouse gas emissions related to production and use over the same distances covered. The point of comparison is the replacement of a 10-year-old combustion vehicle in segment B.

Car park electricity consumption would also be reduced by about one percent of the current electricity consumption in the European Union, while lithium consumption would fall by something like 6,000 tons per year.

Even the job would benefit

According to FNH and IMT in France, the production of three million electric vehicles of eur 15 thousand per year would have an impact on job creation, with an estimated 7,000 additional jobs – only if development and marketing support is linked to local content requirements.