Electric cars (EVs) do not offer “proven carbon savings” in the UK, scientists warn.
A new study, described as a “sanity check” for Britain’s Net Zero ambitions, shows that the push towards EVs is fundamentally wrong.
According to researchers at Queen Mary University, because the British electricity grid is not yet based on renewable energy, EVs “run almost entirely on fossil fuels burned in power plants.”
As a result, experts say that the most ecological option in practice is a hybrid car or a highly efficient diesel car.
In their paper published in the journal Environmental Research, the scientists compared Britain's Net Zero plan for 2030 with real-world data from 2023. They found that the variability of solar and wind power was "grossly underestimated" in the government's plans.
On cloudy or windless days, there are significant gaps in power supply that must be filled by gas-fired plants. Because EVs increase energy demand during these periods, charging a new EV only leads to burning more fossil fuels to produce the additional energy.
In 2024, the British government announced that it was advancing plans to decarbonize electricity generation from 2035 to 2030, including generating 43–50 GW of energy from offshore wind, 27–29 GW from onshore wind, 45–47 GW from solar, and a significant reduction in demand for fossil fuels.
At the same time, the government was trying to promote the use of “clean” electrical technologies, such as EVs and heat pumps. However, researchers argue that this is a fundamental planning error.
Professor Alan Drew, co-author of the study, explains: “The UK needs to re-prioritise urgently. EVs and heat pumps will pay off later – but we shouldn’t pretend now that they are reducing emissions when the data shows otherwise.”
Most studies on the carbon savings of EVs calculate their energy consumption based on the composition of the UK electricity grid. In 2025, renewable energy accounted for an average of 44% of the UK grid's energy supply.
When EVs are used, recent research estimates that generating the energy for charging creates 75% less CO₂ than traditional fuels. However, researchers argue that this is not enough.
Professor David Dunstan told the Daily Mail: “The actual amount of production is not what matters. Increasing energy demand – through EVs – does not increase the production of low-carbon or renewable energy. This can only be met by burning more fossil fuels.”
In other words, buying a new EV only adds an extra demand to the UK’s energy grid. If there were enough renewable energy left to meet this demand, then there would be real emissions savings. But in the UK, this extra demand on the grid is only met by burning more fossil fuels.
According to the researchers, environmental drivers would be better off with an efficient hybrid car or a highly efficient diesel car that would actually reduce the burning of fossil fuels.
Professor Drew stresses: “The real work now is to strengthen the grid, build out renewable energy and solve the big challenge of storing the remaining energy from renewable sources.”
The next step, according to the researchers, is to install more wind and solar power, strengthen the grid and invest in technologies such as green hydrogen production that uses excess energy. Only then would it make sense to switch people from internal combustion engines to fully electric vehicles. /GazetaExpress/
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