Scooters - a silver bullet to cut fossil fuel use?
Our cities need micro mobility (scooters and bikes) to work if we are to reduce car use, as they can replace shorter distance trips and first/last mile travel.
Summary: Our cities need micro mobility (scooters and bikes) to work if we are to reduce car use, as they can replace shorter distance trips and first/last mile travel. As well as the air pollution reductions and wider social benefits, decarbonising scooters could be one of the biggest measures we could take to reduce fossil fuel use in transport. So why are we not talking about this more?
The big theme: Electric vehicles are a key technology to decarbonise road transport, a sector that accounts for 16% of global emissions. But despite what you might think, it's not just about cars, or even trucks & buses. If you look outside of Europe and North America, two/three wheelers are really important. And they could be important in developed markets as well, as we transition toward a lower car use future in our biggest cities.
"Two/three-wheelers are easy to electrify because their light weight and short driving distances require relatively small batteries, which also raises fewer issues related to charging from power systems. On a total cost of ownership basis, electrification already makes economic sense in some regions."
IEA Global EV Outlook 2021
The details
Summary of a study published by BNEF:
BNEF reports are always worth a read, even if you don't always agree with all of their conclusions. The data point I found most interesting in their latest report was about the displacement of oil demand by EV's. Apparently vans & trucks displace nearly 60,000 barrels per day, then up to passenger cars at nearly 200,000 barrels, buses at just over 230,000 barrels and then a massive step up (and we mean massive) to two & three wheelers (scooters and small motorbikes to you and me) at over 1m barrels per day. So scooters currently reduce oil use by twice as much as vans, buses and cars combined.
