In a policy paper published yesterday (21 March), the Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile (FIA) also stresses the need for green procurement procedures, close cooperation between business and academia on research, and the integration of transport policy into urban planning and energy supply.
Werner Kraus, a senior FIA official, said in a statement that "with a range of new hybrid and fully electric products due to enter the market in the coming months, it looks like we may finally be on the verge of an 'eMobility' revolution for the car industry".
"Electric vehicles have great potential to improve individual mobility as well as lower CO2 emissions," he added.
Sigrid de Vries of the European Automobile Manufacturers' Association (ACEA) was more sceptical about the immediate prospects for electric vehicles, however. "The auto industry foresees a new vehicle market of 3-10% for e-vehicles by 2020-2025; the range being an illustration of the many uncertainties at this stage still," she told EurActiv.
"eMobility is one of many options to contribute to the sustainable transport transformation that is happening. Transport needs will continue to differ a lot – from passenger to commercial transport, short-term and long-range, occasional and regular, heavy and light – and there is no one 'silver bullet' that will cover for all."
Dudley Curtis, communications manager at Brussels-based NGO Transport & Environment, stressed that many apparently green technologies might not be environmentally sound, especially biofuels and electric cars if their power is generated by coal.
Echoing manufacturers and the FIA report itself, he called for a technologically-neutral approach. "At the end of the day it's about CO2, politicians should be wary about trying to pick technological winners. Their job is to set the tough fuel and energy efficiency standards and let carmakers take car of the technology," he told EurActiv.
Electric cars have existed since the late nineteenth century but have proven relatively unpopular due to cost, limited driving range and public infrastructure oriented towards gas-powered vehicles.
