Carbon credits may help expand EV charging infrastructure: industry group

Thomson Reuters

(Reuters) - Carbon credits could be used to cut the high costs involved with setting up charging stations for electric vehicles, an industry lobby said on Tuesday.

A carbon credit represents a reduction of one tonne of carbon dioxide emissions and would be available for sale in the United States in 2019, the Electric Vehicle Charging Carbon Coalition (EVCCC) said.

A shortage of adequate charging infrastructure, which requires huge investments with no immediate returns, has been affecting the production and sale of electric vehicles.

"One of the original motivations for this project was to compensate for the higher costs of deploying and operating EV charging infrastructure," said Sue Hall, chief executive officer of Climate Neutral Business Network, which has developed a method to trade on carbon credits, along with the EVCCC.

The carbon credits can be sold by entities investing in installation of electric vehicle chargers to firms or companies looking to go carbon neutral, and could generate a 5-10 percent return on capital over 10 years, the EVCCC said.

Volkswagen AG unit Electrify America, electric vehicle charging station provider EVgo, electric power generation company Exelon Corp and German engineering giant Siemens AG are some of the members of the EVCCC.

(Reporting by Sanjana Shivdas in Bengaluru; Editing by Sriraj Kalluvila)

See Also:

• Iraqi suspect in Chemnitz stabbing to be released: German broadcaster

• Finnish foreign minister criticized for attending anti-abortion vigil

• Earthquake of 6 magnitude strikes off Solomon Islands