Clean Tech
The UK already benefits from some significant advantages that make it well placed to deliver net zero automotive production
Powering the Clean Tech Revolution
The UK already benefits from some significant advantages that make it well placed to deliver net zero automotive production – and capitalising on these can unlock further investment and make Britain a ZEV manufacturing powerhouse with massively reduced lifecycle carbon emissions.
The UK’s energy mix is ‘carbon competitive’. More than a third of electricity generated last year came from renewable sources – wind, solar, and hydro – and when nuclear power is included, half of all UK electricity was zero carbon.
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The Plan
Deliver an easily accessible abundant supply of low cost zero emission energy.
Encourage investment in decarbonised and more efficient plants, eg by enhancing the Industrial Energy Transformation Fund.
Ensuring Climate Change Agreements support competitiveness and are broadened to include new technologies, like battery manufacturing.
Accelerate funding and permissions, and increase capability, to reduce waiting times for grid connections, and upgrades for production facilities and charging infrastructure.
The Prize
Cheaper energy could see the UK’s electricity costs become more competitive with the rest of Europe. Aside from the impact this could have more widely on the economy such as unlocking greater consumer spending and reducing general business operating costs – all factors that can stimulate the automotive market – it would also increase the UK’s value proposition as a destination for investment in production.
Energy would not just be cheaper, it would also be greener – a critical factor in reducing the lifecycle emissions of EVs. The UK will be a place where green energy produces batteries and powertrains and powers green vehicles. This could see Britain producing more than a million battery electric vehicles a year from 2031. Furthermore, it would also mean that EVs driven in the UK would have lower indirect emissions from EV charging.
Such growth will enable the UK to drive more investment, create more jobs, and compete internationally on energy efficient, low carbon manufacturing, powered by more affordable clean energy from well to wheel.
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