Many municipalities are struggling to achieve often ambitious climate goals. With Opcharge’s CO2 calculator, municipalities can gain insight into the impact of the number of electric cars in a municipality on these goals. Marjolein Demmers of Natuur en Milieu: “Perspective is important. To have insight into how you can achieve your objectives as a municipality and which knobs you can turn.”
About the CO2 calculator
Electric driving is cleaner than a diesel or gasoline car. Freddy van Nispen, managing partner Opcharge, said, “The difference in fuel is an advantage, but the emissions – the amount of CO2 released into the atmosphere – also determine this and is often overlooked.” Research conducted by Isa Haans, an environmental science student at the University of Applied Sciences in Breda, commissioned Opcharge to map the CO2 reduction between an electric car and a gasoline car. The CO2 emissions were calculated for a distance of 100 km. It also shows how much CO2 a tree can absorb on average, and thus how many trees are needed per 100 km driven.
102 trees needed for gasoline cars
If we compare the amount of CO2 emitted per 100 km of driving a gasoline car to the CO2 uptake of trees, it takes slightly less than 1 fully grown tree to absorb the amount of CO2 emitted by 100 km of driving a gasoline car.
A person with a gasoline car needs about 102 trees (from young to mature) to offset CO2 emissions, assuming 15,000 miles driven per year. A neighbor with an electric car requires 0 trees to offset CO2.
“With the CO2 calculator, we give municipalities insight into how charging stations can contribute to achieving climate ambitions. In this way we not only contribute to the energy transition but also provide insight into the effect. In this way we make results concrete and even better, residents contribute to them directly.” Soon the CO2 calculator tool will follow on our website.