The Global Importance of Zero-Emission Vehicles

Abstract

This paper discusses the effect that zero-emission vehicles, such as the Tesla model 3, could have first in the reduction of CO₂ emissions in the UK and then its global potential. This paper only investigates the CO₂ emissions released by vehicles when being driven, and disregards those which are produced during production of the vehicle, and when charging a Tesla. Given the average CO₂ emissions per car, the number of registered cars in the UK, and the average annual mileage per vehicle, it is found that the entirety of the registered cars in the UK produces 48.6 million imperial tons of CO₂ each year. In comparing this value to those of countries which account for large percentages of the global CO₂ emissions, such as the United States and China, 511 million and 1.4 billion imperial tons respectively, it is evident that replacing all vehicles with a zero-emission vehicle such as the Tesla model 3 has great potential for the global reduction of annual CO₂ emissions.