A Study on Feasibility of Carbon Credit System for Road Vehicles

As we move towards greener technologies in the transportation sector, it becomes mandatory to monitor its impact or the utilization of such a technology in the intended manner. Improper usage results in lesser utilization of benefits of such green technologies. One such scenario is the range anxiety; users of parallel hybrid vehicles face a dilemma between charging and refueling the vehicle. If the hybrid vehicle is operated in a gas-powered mode most of the time, the emission levels would be comparable to those of gas-powered vehicles. On the other hand, gas-powered vehicles have no mechanism to completely cut CO2 emissions, unlike hybrids (electric drive). Emission regulatory bodies are facing difficulties in regulating each road vehicle. Therefore, the actual emission levels emitted from the vehicles are higher than the estimate provided by regulations. This paper discusses the possibility of implementing a Carbon Credit Scoring for each class of vehicles. The paper also proposes the possibility of implementing a flexible-fuel pricing model. Each vehicle is assigned a credit score while purchasing, equating to the total CO2 the vehicle can emit during its lifetime. The credit score drops whenever the user exhibits poor driving behavior, which affects the environment, for example, when the user utilizes the engine drive (in the case of parallel hybrid systems or gas-powered vehicles) over the electric drive. The credit score shall improve whenever good practices are adapted by the driver. For example, when the driver charges from a station that utilizes renewable sources to generate electricity or if he prefers to do slow charging instead of fast charging. The engine can be immobilized if the carbon credit score is too low. To undo the immobilization, the user must purchase additional carbon credits from the emission regulatory bodies. The emission regulatory bodies can utilize this additional revenue to develop more charging stations and infrastructure that utilizes renewable energy sources.