1. Introduction

Ever since the dawn of the industrial revolution, the world has witnessed an astronomic surge in greenhouse gas emissions (GHG). As of 2021, the total amount of GHG unleashed stood at 40.8 GT of carbon dioxide (CO2) equivalent per annum, with a soaring all-time high rate that utterly outstripped that in 2019 [1]. As the global economy slithered out of the economically lackadaisical state stemming from the pandemic gradually. This is in addition to the fact that, of all the categories of GHG emission, CO2 alone accounted for 65% of the total in 2014. Unsurprisingly, to date, human society and much of its consequential energy provenance are still heavily reliant upon the burning of fossil fuel, on many counts, as in those early years into the realization of the exploitation of these new-found energy sources. Based on this, decisively, it has had a perniciously momentous impact on the environment’s well-being. Global warming, the accelerating rate of increased GHG concentration, is a principal culprit; plus a stream of precocious thawing of polar glaciers incidental to its occurrence, in conjunction with unprocessed, non-innocuous effluent dumped into the river. These collectively add up to the escalating ocean acidification, which, in turn, poses a grave menace to all the enterprises and individuals living off of seafood sales for the foreseeable future.

For all those consequences aforementioned, the skyrocketing increase in the number of cars since the inception and propulsion of the generally affordable ownership of private cars has contributed a sizable set share to the spike in CO2 emission. In the US, about one-third of all air pollution was tainted by the operation and utilization of a vehicle, making it the biggest air quality compromiser for the US [2]. Beyond that, in Germany, 60% of transportation-induced CO2 emissions have been engendered directly by cars [3].

According to Global Energy Review on CO2 Emission, the CO2 emission incurred by oil-driven activities merely dipped significantly by virtue of the impact of the pandemic. Afterward, its trend swiftly leveled off, began to exhibit its powerful current again as the emission increased, and is positively likely to remain this tendency for quite a while, as being clipped in Figure 1.

Figure 1: Change in CO2 emissions by fossil fuel, relative to 2019 levels, 2019-2021.

(Source: https://iea.blob.core.windows.net/assets/c3086240-732b-4f6a-89d7-db01be018f5e/GlobalEnergyReviewCO2Emissionsin2021.pdf)

Sometime in the near future, the sheer volume of cars is projected to proceed with its increasing tendency, particularly as the public, by and large, in developed countries, namely, India and the majority of the African continent, started to amass enough wealth to be flagged to affordable automobiles. Furthermore, global vehicle registrations are anticipated to surpass nearly 96 million in 2026, with an average annual growth rate of 0.7% [4]. An array of countries are forecasted to see a decline in their sales. However, it is insufficient to offset the overall rise spotted worldwide, and the amount of pollutants is decidedly about to experience several bouts of uptick henceforth.

The invention of this contraption—electric vehicles (EVs) can be all the way traced back in time to the 19th century when, in 1890, the first successful six-passenger car made its debut appearance off the back of William Morrison. After that, it set into motion a battery of interest in the popularization of electric vehicles that eventually would lead to the intensifying commercialization thereof. By 1900, EVs manufactured by a wide range of companies were already at their rather brisk heyday. Nonetheless, the mass-produced Model T introduced by Henry Ford dealt a lethal blow to EVs. The justifiably relatively low cost associated with mass production was how this model proclaimed its ascendancy over its adversary, hence wreaking stupendous havoc on its subsequent development once and for all.

It was in this worrisome context of today that the idea of adopting this sort of electric-driven, eco-friendly vehicle was propounded again. And, a viable fulfillment of a set of commitments and visions rendered in COP26 entails too arduous an endeavor to make it possible, for instance, limiting global heating to 2 Celsius, an appraisal on the efficaciousness of those nationally determined contributions (NDC) plans, or, likewise, just the decarbonization solutions espoused by many. Accordingly, in order to minimize the hazard to the global environment, it is of paramount preeminence to internalize the negative externalities and craft economic instruments to subsidize ones evoking positive externalities. In this case, with the integrated effort on many other facets, EVs have the potential to come with great benefits.

Aqib Zahoor elaborated that an overarching range of definitive implementation is needed for pollution level, in actuality, to be downgraded to a lower notch, for instance, the advertisement and its related promotion for EVs; the number of charging stations available in both commercial and residential areas; the flexibility in enforcing regulations to fuel the gasoline-based to EVs transitions and so on. These factors all have a run-down playable repercussion on the willingness on the part of consumers to continue supporting the propulsion of EVs [5]. Cathrine et al. found that, notwithstanding the costly investment concomitant with the application of dynamic mitigation policies, such as the construction of charging stations, and the fact that static abatement, for example, permits trading, is far more financially favorable due to its early low administrative cost, the high investment can be rationalized by its huge payback in the long run. And this corresponds with their conclusions: “Our numerical simulations show that it can be cost-effective to invest in charging stations today at a marginal abatement cost of eight times higher than the marginal abatement cost of subsidizing EVs. Thus, starting with the most expensive abatement option may make sense if it has impacts on abatement costs in years to come” [6]. And Kenneth Holmberg argued that, after calculation, the energy use of electric cars is totaled at a figure 3 times lower, on average, in correlation with internal combustion cars (ICs), while the CO2 emission is 4.5 times lower compared to LCs [7].

Most articles ostensibly merely confined their research scope to few aspects of the impact generated by the ever-heightening decisiveness that EVs are a gateway to a non-tainted end and the way to revamp this stampede, which cosmetically appears to be unseemly, for the cost and benefit to the environment in proportion have to be examined over its developing timeline, besides suited discount rate concurred upon, and proper conglomeration of policies to be mounted for perfection. This is what this article shall take into the equation.

This paper will, first and foremost, peruse the developing trajectory of modern commercial EVs and their consequential implication for the environment, though next to nil in its bud. Second, the focus will “the government responses to both static and dynamic end of the gradation, regarding the economic and environmental repercussions. The conundrum has risen along the way expounded in unison. Afterward, a set of corrective counteractions will then be proposed to preempt further hitch. EVs in this article refers to plug-in hybrid vehicles (PHEV), battery-based electric vehicle (BEVs), and fuel cell electric vehicles (FCEV).

2. Methodology

2.1. Data Analysis

Data analysis is an composite assemblage that in practice commingles several means, namely ferreting out, sorting through, and sequencing data. Effectively, it is of superlative prominence to catalogue data, and espouse it for other errands [8]. Throughout the study, innumerable data will be extracted and elicited via the internet to help layout and sort through the existing, up-to-date lapses and make up for the deficiency accompanying the development of EVs that are the centerpiece and spotlight of the human endeavor to actualize a sustainable future worldwide. Additionally, this analytical means is likewise used for evaluating and quantifying the environmental boons/bads it ineluctably brings, aiming to formulate a host of global and endemically economic instruments to unsnarl the economic countenance of the dilemma EVs induce.

2.2. Case Study

The case study is a experimental toolkit alluding to the utilization of a single case to acquire objectively pertinent information via trawling through extant datasets, analyzing and dissecting them stepwise hereafter. This article will make deployment of a real-life case in China where the government has promulgated a spate of statutes and policies that, by the agency of price mechanism and market forces, augment its accessibility and bring down its cost substantially. The causality will hereby be closely examined regarding the symbiosis in its preliminary phase and the influences arising from it environmentally and economically. Then the case in China will serve as a baseline to be compared to that of other major polities in efforts to seek out the similarities and distinctions amongst them, ergo lofting up the statistical precision, eradicating sloppiness.

2.3. Comparative Analysis

Comparative analysis can be classified as a modus operandi to correlate identical items to each another for underscoring and highlighting their discrepancies, which functions as a procedure to discriminate if extant cases are at odds with one another. Accordingly, the divergence is dissected in the process [9]. In this paper, comparative analysis will be exploited to showcase and underscore the disparities during discrete stages of development and promotion of EVs in terms of economic and environmental aspects. This comes with an extra view to highlighting the technical bottleneck the EVs are encountering in terms of the abject performance of lithium batteries in freezing and nippy conditions, which, as opposed to the consecutive miles combustion-engined vehicles, typically can journey. The fact of its chilliness-daring character in relatively low latitude areas decidedly snubs out the willingness of the populace dwelling in these regions. The overall impact the EVs have on the globe in relation to the epoch preceding its advent.

3. Results

3.1. An Brief Overview of the Timeline in Which Modern EVs Were Brought out

EVs, as aforesaid, have long been contrived and commercialized, even back in 19th century with the subsequent discovery of prolific reservoirs of petroleum and crude oil, in conjunction with the high lucrativeness emanating from the viability of the low cost of mass production direly cripples and mangle the otherwise promising outlook for EVs. All in all, the ideas being entertained of modern EVs are by no means novel and original happenings, at best, repurposed and refined usage.

The emissions emanating from an average passenger vehicle approximate at 4.6 metric tons of CO2 per annum, and this data is predicated upon a postulation that the fuel-propelled vehicle on the road hurtles 22.0 miles per gallon consumed and that the milestone racked up is well situated at 11,500 miles year-over-year [10]. Accordingly, as the burgeoning awareness of the urgency of action-taking rises concerning the environmental exasperation wholesale, multiple parties and nations ramped up their investment and began to roll out an array of modern-version archetypes in the latter half of 20th century and the early 21stcenturies.

The mind-boggling proportion of emissions contributed by the operation of domestic transport in the EU leading up to mass mania into EVs, the potential worsening implication associated with the ever-magnifying affordability of CEVs worldwide unquestionably did an in-discountable solid for the incoming propulsion of EVs as depicted by Figure 2.

Figure 2: Change in emission levels by sectors in the EU since 1990).

(Source: https://www.europarl.europa.eu/news/en/headlines/society/20190313STO31218/co2-emissions-from-cars-facts-and-figures-infographics)

3.2. The General Course of EVs

A assortment of progress in the chronology of the electric vehicle is delineated below. And the form is in no way exhaustive, as shown in Table 1.

Table 1: The chronology of the evolution of EVs.

3.3. The Policy Responses on the Part of the Government

Throughout the history of the democratization of EVs, a quintessentially similar rash of policies responses has sprung up over the last couple decades, some as early as the issuance of “Electric and Hybrid Vehicle Research, Development, and Demonstration Act” in the US in 1976, whereas the majority of policies were whipped up following the 2000s.In China, the proliferation of EVs-related policies occurred at a formerly unprecedented rate in terms of electrifying existing vehicles, starting from superseding the fuel-powered bus with battery-charged ones to granting entitlements of price waivers to customers. One of many plans staged in 2009 by the government was meant to convert the country into the spearheading figure of EVs by 2012, plus to provide jobs and exports in this industry. However, on an unpromising note, a study indicated that the abatement of GHG, as a consequential impact, would merely stand at 19%. Over the ensuing decade, monetary incentives were to be given to power up its sales, further. For instance, on June 1, 2010, a trial program was rolled out to grant an incentive worthy of 60000 yuan for each private purchase of EVs and 50000 yuan for PHEV in five cities. Afterward, on January 1, 2012, an annual tax exemption was introduced for PHEV, FCEV, while hybrid vehicles were entitled to 50% elimination only [11].

Albeit all aforementioned endeavors, only an abject, wretched EVs were sold at this juncture. This partly follows from the operational limitations attached to EVs in terms of their thudding maneuvering capabilities. In addition, a 2021 study delineated that the marginal cost of the program is in contradistinction to its accompanying marginal benefits, which suggests that it is not welfare-enhancing as the public bargained for. In other people’s minds, the inconvenience by dint of the spotty disposition of charge stations and a long-drawn-out waiting time in general notches up their reluctance to trade their own cars for upgrading.

Since the former outcome seemingly appeared to fizzle out, to offset these unsettling high costs and secure its ambitious objectives, China’s lawmakers intended to phase out those subsidies and, on top of that, impose a mandate upon manufacturers, which stipulates a fixed number of EVs being sold each year or withstands the administrative penalties. Over time, the ordained advisory toughened to have EVs account for 40% of all car sales by 2030 [12].

In the meantime, worldwide, a wide-ranging variety of countries is making their own formidable pledges and operationalizing all conceivable leverages to shunt it to reality. In the US, the Federal Government has made a commitment involved with setting aside a working and sound amount of expenses that aims at appropriating a rational horde of 500000 chargers to democratize EVs to all Americans for short and long-haul trips. Besides, the passage of the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law consisted of $7.5 billion in funding for charging stations. Beyond that, an EU legislative mandate designated zero emissions being scooped out for all new vehicles whatsoever from 2035 onwards and being blanked out for 55% in 2030 as opposed to 2021 levels in moves to facilitate the process of decarbonization. The static investment in the US regarding EVs is displayed in Figure 3.

Figure 3: Projection of the change in charging infrastructure and the associated investment over time).

(Source: https://theicct.org/publication/charging-up-america-assessing-the-growing-need-for-u-s-)

3.4. The Economic Connotation and Outlook on EVs’ Development

In retrospect, over the past decade of meteoric growth in EVs investment, with increasingly stringent mandates enacted in effect, the global average price of EVs on this precondition is modeled as a rising slope in correlation to any given baseline. Rather, as the global average income perks up consistently, and the conundrum of the difficulty in acquiring raw materials looms large effectively, prices are apt to be rising. Consequently, the average price of an EV pitched upwards to $54000 in May 2022, and prospective consumers would have to pay 22% more for a new EV year-over-year [13].

With the cascading gush of commitment being asserted, there has been an incidental ripple effect, namely, the new passage of legislation and its associated price fluctuation in the constituent components of EVs.

In China, the forcible adoption of electrifying vehicular transportation does not come without a cost. To specify, on the preconception, each vehicle has a lifespan of 12 years with a 12500-kilometer itinerary tripped each year, the incremental cost of ownership of an EV drops from 2021 to 2030. In addition, the cost of BEVs is stomped down more than that of hybrid EVs, regardless, the former remains more costly. By multiplying the unit cost to society by the total number, the total cost to society is obtained. According to the results, the cost of the total sale of EVs more than counteracts the decrease in per-vehicle cost, which signifies a problematic rising incremental cost to society. And, by calculation, the average cost incurred in this transitional segue is projected to reach 100 billion yuan per year from 2021 to 2030. As a result, the cost totaled 0.1% of the Chinese GDP equivalent, not to mention the structural unemployment deriving from this imposition, rendering the scheme exceedingly costly [14].

As with China, other economies of commensurate economic volume are tuned towards the optimal toolkit in rectifying the high cost that, per se, boils down to the fact that the scarce supply cannot keep in line with the combative rising demand. Heretofore, the EVs’ market is reputed to be altogether diverted from a niche market to a mass market, clamping down the supply of critical batteries, its component materials, and all the supply from subset industries interconnected with the supply chain in unison. Henceforth, a developing bunch of recycling companies will, in all probability, spring up to maximize the positive benefit that EVs may make possible.

3.5. The Palpability of the Environmental Fallout Appraised

The desirability and feasibility of the transition from conventional vehicles to EVs likewise must be adjudicated in light of its potential to ameliorate the well-being of people, reducing the emission of GHG, and other markers serving as calibration tools for global climate crises.

The normal operation of EVs, despite trifling detriments such as airborne dust or particulate matter evoked by common tire abrasion and wastage, merely emits fewer GHG and other air pollutants than petrol, and diesel vehicles dramatically, rendering an explanation for present preferential policies in place for EVs.

In its nascent and emergent phase, at a time when low popular awareness of EVs’ benefits and unsound grant of subsidies preveiled, the overall implication of this bud for the environment was, at best toothless. By contrast, until the recent past decade, matters regarding EVs start careening into public’s views in most regions. Now that the volume of EVs market has boomed, and with a battery of economic instruments in place, there is at present a measurable amount of mitigation of GHG progressively being set in motion.

As portrayed by Figure 4, EVs’ estimated reduction in life-cycle GHG emissions is decisively remarkable, not even to count in the multiplier effect here in the successive generations. Furthermore, in light of this forecasted current, the emission gap between EVs and conventional cars will only widen for decades. And truthfully, in order to bring about the expected outcome in combating climate change by achieving the goals in the Paris Agreement of the reduction of that magnitude, the more global endeavor is obliged to be propelled into place.

Figure 4: An estimated decline in GHG emission in exploitation of EVs in contradiction to gasoline counterparts.

(Source: https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2021/08/electric-cars-emissions-climate-change-green-environment)

4. Discussion

4.1. Policy Direction---Economic Instruments-wise

As many may have been apprised of, the exact accommodating approaches different countries resort to vary as to the means to chip in and drum up tenably supportive ones to bolster the trend. Nevertheless, there is yet a batch of existential hurdles awaiting to be staved off, to name a few, the high-soaring cost of raw material interlinked with EVs, the less-than-working volume of chargers available adjoined to the user’s residence, moreover, the capacity of the battery that keeps an EV rolling incessantly without a break.

For the most part, the primary policies nowadays in effect are either zeroing in on the work of popularizing and enhancing the manufacturing incidence of EVs, setting an un-negotiable quota for firms to compromise on that leaves them no leeway, or just issuance of waivers and subsidies. Given that charging takes an inordinate amount of time that most find fazing, as a self-explanatory result, the government ought to inject a prudently weighed amount of expenditure into the circular flow of income as one of many workable fiscal policies, and bidding their time for the multiplier effect to play out. For example, the provision and installment of charging points need to be ramped up in each engaged polities to broker an appropriate EVs-chargers ratio. Therefore, the government should dispose of manufacturers to rev up production, that way, convenience inducement is conducive to more uptake in terms of prime EVs customers. Additionally, a stipulation must be choreographed concerning the uniformity in the topology of all the necessary appurtenances incorporated in a charger to warrant the utilization of all possible chargers irrespective of their manufacturer, as the denial of access to charging points surely would repel practitioners’ inquisitiveness.

Other counteractions, such as prescriptive instruments, are likewise to be heeded, only with less weighted imperative deposited upon them since one of many shortcomings of these measures is their shortage of dynamic incentives. Government may want to underscore the importance of the synergy amongst different three main sectors, especially to heighten the production in associated primary sectors in efforts to diffuse the increasingly high price that is intercorrelated with the dynamics of the spectrum of all suppliers. The assurance that the outlets and channels are all cleansed of logistic barricades may procure a desirably low cost that ultimately will lead to the exponential proliferation of all components relating to EVs in the event that a notable skyrocket in the salience of the potentiality of EVs could be felt. Henceforth, new generations with driver’s licenses can dispense with going into trouble making adaptations for habitual force, and directly embrace the philosophy of EVs.

Plus, because, as of now, a substantial amount of investment, whereupon the ensuing 87% plummet in lithium-ion battery pack prices from 2010 to 2019 was effected, has been afoot for quite a while, what’s left behind is the guarantee of brisk profitability for firms implicated in the whole picture. Accordingly, the pricing gambit and the deadline for the ultimate demolition of conventional cars need to be weighed by multiple parties, all in a bid to perpetuate stimulus.

The ergonomic design of the husk mirrors the staple principle EVs invariably tout as a merit and edge. Profuse advertising in underlining the nonpareil feature of EVs’ performance as corresponding technology marshals itself into another era could add to more game-changing acceptance on the part of prospective consumers.

4.2. Policy Direction---Non-economic Instruments-wise

It would be of no revamping effect for all aforementioned without other ostensibly trifling tweaks being operationalized. First of all, awareness is supposed to be raised, this, in conjunction with the increasing availability of charging stations, decidedly can incentivize customer to switch over to EVs. Second, social capital may want to use a certain level of augmentation, the trust with which consumers are believed to swear by the manufacturers, or the qualitative status of an EV plays a prominent role in the retention of the customers, for instance, a disposition to experiencing a brake malfunction on Tesla’s part enumerated specifically in an exhaustive range of bulletins as an anecdote hands-down sullies the prestige of EVs as a whole.

Voluntary measures are by all means one of many would-be schemes that are capable of inducing lucrative incentives for firms, as, once in excess of a particular concentration through a mean of popularization-intensive osmosis, the populace will spontaneously stand up against those large firms straggling behind in compliance with the eco-conscious tendency, thus rendering them impossible to stay afloat without hanging onto EVs transition commitment.

4.3. Oversight on Environmental-friendly Sourcing

Since the pollution produced by EVs is nearly nil, and negligible, securing an environmental-friendly sourcing throughout the assembly line would necessarily purport to epitomize an ideal zero-emission transporting scenario. Thereby, a concerted synergy in all sections of an economy is to be ensured for its realization. Suffice it to say, a tradable permit regulation will do the trick. For instance, in titrating the formula for an electrolyte that is an ineluctable portion of batteries, or uptake of rinsing fluid in incising chips, the resultant pollutants are to be disposed of harmlessly by neutralizing its chemical property in superlative transparency that is open to social supervision. In this way, the supposed zero-emission otherwise in operating an EV would be finally warranted.

5. Conclusion

This article has ruminated on the implication of EVs’ progress from chiefly three standpoints for societies and a stream of preemptive measures aimed at magnifying its availability and inducing more costumers into gravitating to this upstart. At first, this paper has applied data analysis to demonstrate the underpinning premises for a spate of economies vowing to be keenly supportive of a thorough transition to EVs, a constantly heightening reliance upon fossil fuels, so to speak. Beyond that, an immediate subsequent table of the timeline of the EVs’ development that includes its incipient setbacks exemplifies the reverse of the current situation immaculately.

Adjustments and improvements regarding the responsive policies, from this juncture onward, should then rather move the cross-hairs onto the efficiency and performance of the batteries as well as the number of chargers and their corresponding efficacy instead of direct entitlement of subsidies that is characteristic of many nations as yet.

Years into being set as the baseline of eco-friendliness, the un-institutionalized, sporadic advances in mass adoption originated merely perceivable aftermath in the direction of investment. Nonetheless, the environmental repercussions interlinked directly with the universal uptake of EVs undoubtedly have had a downgrading effect on GHG emissions in the wake of massive legal pronouncements concerning EVs.

Consequentially, two proposals of the polar spectrum is expounded in detail as well as the prospective on eco-conscious sourcing with emphatic stress on the focal propositions such as its direction, the governments ought to have the shortage of chargers, the dauntingly low effectiveness on its part covered, plus raise the public’s empathy with the environment or an immense volume of EVs would be left over only for the showcase.

This paper sedulously offers an all-rounded range of exacting opinions, enabling the authorities to orchestrate their own cut-off approaches intent on forestalling these climate crises and holding GHG emissions at bay. The provision of ideas tackles the conundrums relating to the fabric of the present mandates.

This work, in particular, is short on the application of primary data, which generally typifies more of a quality of rigorousness. In all probability, future studies will enlist help of more meticulous means, namely, the information collected through questionnaires or personal interviews that will have the potential to notch up studies’ definitive status.