Reality check for electric vehicles

A Royal Academy of Engineering panel says that EVs will do for cities and most commutes, but many British motorists will still need plug-in hybrids for longer trips.

Recent legislation passed by the British Parliament has committed the U.K. to new, more stringent limits on emissions of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases. The new law mandates at least a 26% cut by 2020 (compared to 1990 levels) and an 80% reduction by 2050. Soon afterwards, an independent expert panel of Royal Academy of Engineering (RAE) members was tasked with ascertaining how best to alter the road vehicle fleet of the Michigan-size nation to meet the challenge posed by climate-change scientists.

Roger Kemp of the University of Lancaster is the chairman of the panel, which consists of nine top automotive industry consultants, university researchers, and engineers from leading technology firms such as Ricardo and Prodrive. The initial question of the panel, he said, was, “How the heck are we going to do this?”