Electric vehicles and wind energy

It is generally recognised that electric motors are much more effi cient than the combustion engine. Consequently, a shift from the current petrol and diesel cars to electric cars could save a large amount of fossil fuels. An important note is that an electric vehicle is as “clean” as the technology used to produce the electricity needed to operate it.

Consequently, the larger the share of renewable energy in Europe’s power mix, the cleaner the electric vehicles of the future will be. Conservatively assuming that an average electric car consumes 0.2 kWh per kilometre and has an average mileage of 10,000 km per car, an electric car will consume 2,000 kWh per year. As a result, the wind energy produced in Europe in 2010 could power 90.8 million electric cars.

www.ewea.org/fileadmin/ewea_documents/documents/publications/reports/Pure_Power_III.pdf