Reducing your carbon footprint

As world leaders gather for the COP26 summit to find a way forward in the fight against climate change, you may be wondering how you can help to reduce your own carbon footprint.

One of the many ways is to smart charge your car. Smart charging helps to minimise your carbon emissions by reducing our reliance on fossil fuels and limiting the impact on the grid during peak energy demand.

The ev.energy app is one such solution as our clever algorithm has the power to deliver renewable energy to your EV by automatically charging your vehicle during your energy supplier’s off-peak period, and using self-generated solar power where possible.

Another one of the ways in which you can take responsibility for the carbon you emit, is by carbon offsetting.

There are two main methods of carbon offsetting:

1. Removing CO2 from the atmosphere through schemes such as planting treesto soak up carbon from the atmosphere, or conserving and reforestingcarbon sinks.
2. Supporting renewable energy projects, which makes the world less reliant onfossil fuels and reduces the amount of CO2 emissions from being produced.

Carbon offset projects allow people or companies to invest in carbon reduction projects around the world to balance out their own carbon emissions.

This is why ev.energy has partnered with Carbon Footprint’s UK Tree Planting Scheme, to offer our users the chance to offset their EV charging emissions. Rewards points accrued in the app can be redeemed to offset the CO2 emissions emitted when charging your EV. Here’s how it works:

• Gain Smart points in the app by conducting qualifying Smart charges (sessions must be excess of 10kWh)
• Once you’ve accrued 20 Smart points, navigate to the rewards tab and claim your carbon credits reward
• ev.energy will offset your months CO2 emissions and send you a report summarising your usage

We’re proud to be taking positive action to reduce our members’ emissions wherever we can. And carbon offsetting isn’t all we’re doing to help.

Now, you can monitor and control the environmental impact of your charge using the ev.energy app. The app allows you to easily charge your car at off-peak times when greener, cheaper energy is available, reducing the strain you put on the electric grid and making your vehicle even more energy-efficient.

Better still, if you have an at-home solar set up, you can integrate this with our app and charge for free. And, you’ll be using renewable energy. Win win.

Driving change forward for battery afterlife

But what happens when the lifecycle of the car battery used to power an electric vehicle comes to an end? Unfortunately, unlike the lead-acid batteries found in conventional cars, the lithium ion batteries used in EVs are not widely recycled – yet.

EV batteries are heavier, larger and more intricate than those in regular cars. They are made up of several hundred individual lithium-ion cells, which need dismantling one by one. Lithium ion batteries also contain hazardous materials, and can even explode if disassembled incorrectly. All of this results in only 5% of lithium ion batteries currently being recycled.

But EV suppliers are already beginning to adapt to ensure that the batteries used to power their EVs are not dumped at the end of their life cycle. Nissan Leaf and Volkswagen owners can rest assured that old batteries from the electric cars are reused in the automated guided vehicles in their factories.

Volkswagen have gone one step further and have opened their own recycling plant, with plans to recycle up to 3,600 battery systems per year during the project’s pilot phase. Meanwhile, Renault is recycling all its car batteries, and has ambitions to expand beyond the 100 or so of their own batteries that they currently recycle each year.

Science is on our side

With the environmental impact of electric car batteries a problem that needs to be solved, the issue is attracting attention from scientific institutes. One example is the Faraday Institution, whose ReLiB project aims to optimise the recycling of EV batteries. They believe that by automating the process of dismantling and recycling lithium ion batteries, it can become more efficient and streamlined.

The electricity generation, or ‘EVolution’ is just beginning

Whilst electric cars are not quite zero emissions vehicles, they’re moving in the right direction. Solutions are in development to make them eco-friendlier and more sustainable, and with manufacturers and scientists alike searching for solutions, things are only going to get better.

Do your part to reduce your carbon footprint by downloading the ev.energy app today.

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