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The green movement in Germany recently stated that the electric cars are not as green as most would believe. However, according to the U.S. electric-car lobby, such statement does not refer to the United States. The statement made by the German branch of the World Wildlife Foundation is backed by the research that the environmental group carried out in collaboration with IZES, institute for future energy systems in Germany. The study involved the analysis of the negative influence of electric cars on the environment.

It is worth mentioning that Germany looks forward to become one of the major "green car" producers just like the United States. At the moment there are 40 million vehicles in the country and by 2020 the German government looks forward to achieve a goal of 1 million electric cars. The research discovered that the so-called green cars only slightly reduce the greenhouse gases. The study and its results and conclusions were published in March. They were written in German and the WWF Germany mentioned that in summer they will prepare a summary in English.

"What surprised us was that the carbon dioxide savings were so small," Viviane Raddatz, vehicle expert at WWF Germany, outlined in a phone interview. The group believes that in best-case the one million electric or plug-in vehicles are going to be powered by renewable electricity and used at maximum mileage. Currently electric cars do not have the same characteristics as traditional vehicles. The research states that the level of carbon dioxide emission is going to be lowered by these 1 million cars in Germany by only 1 percent, meaning that overall national CO2 emission would only decrease by 0.1 percent. "That is not a very big deal. It is not going to help us out of the transportation emission mess," said Raddatz.

Coal Instead of Renewable Resources

The environmental group considers that in the worst case electric vehicles would be powered by coal instead of recyclable resources. Besides, additional electricity would be required since a lot of people would charge their cars after coming from work and that would considerably increase the demand for electricity. Today, when people come home from work, electricity is used almost at its peak. In Germany, factories that produce marginal electricity are currently powered by coal, which is one of the major issues, the study sates.

According to the research, in order to generate the same level of energy, coal releases more carbon dioxide than gasoline. "The irony is that you don't need a lot more electricity for electric cars. But the problem is that if they cause these peaks, we would have to have power plants that would be ready to start (as) the massive charging starts."

For example, an electric vehicle that features a lithium ion battery and runs on electricity produced by an old coal factory releases over 200g of carbon dioxide per one kilometer. In comparison, today a car that runs on gasoline emits about 160g of carbon dioxide per kilometer in Europe, the study says. It is worth noting that the European Union has the goal of lowering the release of carbon dioxide to 95g per km by 2020.

Smart Energy Load Systems

According to WWF Germany, in order to smooth electricity peaks overnight it is important to apply smart system the goal of which would be to control the energy load as well as battery charge systems. Having over a million cars plugged in, such systems are crucial. However, a smart grid would be not enough, there's also a need of electricity storage. "Car batteries are one thing, but you need to develop other kinds of storage as well. You want to make sure you can get a lot of energy from renewable or you have no CO2 savings," Raddatz said.

Due to the fact that Germany looks forward to phase out nuclear power only by 2020, the environmental group decided not to consider this fact in its research. As it was previously mentioned the World Wildlife Foundation believes that only about half of today's transportation system could be exchanged for electric vehicles. It is worth mentioning that the president of the United States, Barack Obama, stated bout the goal for his country to have one million electric cars by 2015. According to the Electric Drive Transportation Association (EDTA), which represents the lobby organization for electric vehicles in the United States in the U.S., mentioned that the risks that the environmental group raised in its study will not be like in Germany.

"For the U.S., there will be environmental benefits because the grid is getting cleaner," said Jennifer Watts, spokeswoman for EDTA. She refers to the research carried out by the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory that states that 73 percent of light-duty cars could be connected to the grid without any issues and that the research of EPRI shows that each area of the country will benefit from lowering in greenhouse gas emissions when the electric vehicle is introduced.

The research of the German scientists refers only to the analysis of energy efficiency and does not take into consideration the savings of electric cars. The study focuses on the fact that electric vehicles could be rather advantageous in future, when low-carbon urban transport  will circulate throughout the country. It states that there should be marginal electricity that would be generated by a clean source and a smart grid, along with smart load management. However, according to the research, it would take a rather long period of time for the system of be developed.

"The electric car is a serious option for low-carbon future transportation, but must be linked with renewable energy to make the difference," said Raddatz.