Mobility is a major driver of economic growth and societal development. A large share
of mobility relies on passenger car use – and the use of the passenger car is expected to
continue to increase further, especially in developing and emerging countries. Today,
transport is almost exclusively dominated by internal combustion vehicles – with approximately
95 % of transport reliant upon liquid carbon fuels derived from crude oil.
There is no other sector which shows such a high level of dependence on one single
source of primary energy.

Between 1990 and 2006, greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from overall transport (including
international aviation and marine) in EU-27 have much increased (+35.8%)
while emissions from non transport sectors have decreased (-13.4%) over the same period.
Road emissions in EU-27 have actually contributed to 61% of transport emissions
increase and accounted for about 71% of overall transport emissions in 2006. Besides,
international aviation and marine have shown the fastest growth over the same period
(+73%), and weighted 23.5% of overall transport emissions in 2006 [EEA 2009, DELC
2009].

In light of climate change, urgent action is required to reduce global GHG emissions.
The EU Council [EUCON 2007] and the European Parliament [EUPA 2008a] stated
that developed countries should collectively reduce their GHG emissions by 60% to
80% by 2050 compared to 1990. Yet, the rate of growth of transport emissions has the
potential to undermine the EU's efforts to meet these long-term GHG emission reduction
targets if no action is taken to reduce them [EEA 2009, DELC 2009]. A challenge
of such a scale requires all sectors, including road transport, to make urgent and substantial
progress in reducing GHG emissions [KING 2007].

The two main drivers of transport emissions are the amount of kilometres travelled and
the carbon intensity of these trips. Recognising the importance of increasing global mobility
and economic growth and the associated increase in road transport use, large reductions
in emissions have to be achieved, however this is also acknowledged as being
particularly challenging for the transport sector. In this context, an increasing decarbonisation
of the transport sector is essential. While the improvement of internal combustion
engines still shows considerable potential to cut emissions, in particular in the
short- and mid-term, reductions of GHG emissions in a range of more than 50 % will
require new technological solutions.

Therefore, new propulsion systems gain increasing attraction in the context of long-term
emission targets. Vehicles with electric propulsion are considered as an attractive option
on the pathway towards low-emission vehicles that could enable the transport sector to
reduce sectoral emissions by a significant degree.

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