REVEAL CO2

Electric cars are only as clean as their power supply. But who knows how green your last charging session was?

Today, the carbon footprint of electric vehicles is calculated using rough estimates. This lack of trustworthy charging data is preventing drivers, fleet managers and car manufacturers from taking meaningful actions to reduce charging emissions. Instead, the estimated carbon footprint is reduced using low-quality renewable energy certificates. Together with our partners, we are addressing this challenge in a six-month corporate collaboration project with the goal to provide an audit-proof track record of charging emissions that enables effective reduction measures to be taken.

Challenge

Tracking emissions

The carbon footprint of electric vehicles depends on the source of electricity used for charging. Because electricity is indistinguishable, two methods are used to estimate emissions. These include the emission factor for the physically available electricity as well as the electricity contract. Tracing emissions across different charging locations (1) using these approaches is exceptionally challenging, yet mandatory for both, fleet operators as well as car manufacturers as part of reporting and reducing their carbon footprint.

Approach

Actionable data

Today, many charge points operators, be it at home, at work or at road, buy green electricity contracts, proof for which is usually not shared with drivers. In order to provide actionable data for emission accounting, (2) contractual information has to be provided across locations as well as (3) granular emission factors for the physically available grid mix, in order to allow drivers to adapt their charging behavior to reduce the carbon footprint of their EV.

Potential

Report and reduce

To solve the challenge, two things are needed: Auditable granular emission factors to reduce the physical carbon footprint of EVs and tamperproof contractual information. Making both available on a ecosystem-wide platform, where data suppliers and data offtakers trade emission data (4), will enable fleet operators and OEMs to fulfill their sustainability reporting requirements (5) and provide transparency regarding their ambitious decarbonization goals.

We talked to more than 30 experts to understand the problem

The challenge of market-based emission accounting for charging

Green electricity contracts consist of electricity and renewable energy certificates bought separately.
Public and private charge point operators often advertise the supply of 100% green electricity. Because they are the „end consumer“ as defined by §42 EnGW, they do not share auditable proof with downstream stakeholders.

Today, fleet operators and car manufacturers either use the residual mix or resort to buying GOs themselves in order to reduce market-based emissions for their fleets.
In the future, fleet operators and car manufacturers could incentivize charge point operators to procure green electricity and to provide auditable proof by covering a part of the cost of GOs.