APPG 2030 Ban

Fair Fuel APPG for UK Motorists and UK Hauliers August 2021 Page | 28 The Polestar study acknowledges that the battery pack for a BEV (Battery Electric Vehicle) represents a significant carbon investment, with the battery pack accounting for 55% of the carbon impact of the total materials for an ICE car. BEVs suffer from reduced capacity due to age and use which shows as a reduction in driving range over time and will make them less attractive to used car buyers. Software changes could allow some limited recovery. Energy replenishment for a BEV is slow compared to ICE/H2 (petrol/diesel/hydrogen), which makes them inefficient for longer journeys. Use of fast chargers can also reduce battery life. BEV batteries at end-of-life currently present significant challenges. There are technical problems, to which the economic value net of costs of recovered materials are another. Consequently, the end-of-life route is largely for deployment into domestic and business environments for energy storage. The future ability of these markets to absorb the volumes created by BEV are uncertain. Another consequence of BEV’s is that because of the battery they tend to be heavier, typically 20%. This leads to greater wear on roads, tyres & emissions of particulate matter from general use & braking. Battery Materials Sourcing Concerns, Human Rights, Child Labour. These major issues are at the heart of numerous and serious concerns around ongoing physical availability and scarcity of various raw material components for BEV’s. The following is a verbatim extract from a paper published in Nature in 2019 where material availability is being discussed. Of greater immediate concern are cobalt reserves, which are geographically concentrated (mainly in the politically unstable Democratic Republic of the Congo). These have experienced wild short-term price fluctuations and raise multifarious social, ethical, and environmental concerns around their extraction, including artisanal mines employing child labour. In addition to the environmental imperative for recycling, there are clearly serious ethical concerns with the materials supply chain, and these social burdens are borne by some of the world’s most vulnerable people. Given the global nature of the industry, this will require international coordination to support a concerted push towards recycling LIBs ( Lithium-ion batteries ) and a circular economy in materials. In addition to cobalt, which is clearly one of the key components, other materials may also need to be sourced from less democratic parts of the world, including China, which is currently the subject of global political criticism in particular, for its treatment of Uighur Muslims.