Electric vehicles are considerably better for the environment producing far less CO2 emissions than traditional combustion engines says a major new report published this week.

A new study published by Imperial College London in partnership with Drax Electric Insights claims that the electric vehicles produced today are already much greener than conventional cars over a life cycle of 93,000 miles - even when you factor in the emissions produced to create the car batteries.

Pure electric models emit just one quarter of the carbon dioxide produced by a combustion engine according to the report. Even with battery production the carbon footprint is still half as much as conventional cars.

An electric vehicle would need to travel for two to three years on zero emissions to compensate for the carbon dioxide required to produce them.

Though there are major disparities between smaller EVs and some of the more luxury long range models such as Tesla, the fact remains that plug-in options are a greener alternative.

Dr Iain Staffell from Imperial College London said: “EVs have real potential to reduce our carbon footprint and help meet our net-zero carbon ambitions, despite some speculation about how clean they really are.

“An electric vehicle in the UK simply cannot be more polluting than its petrol or diesel equivalent, even when taking into account the upfront ‘carbon cost’ of manufacturing their batteries.

“The carbon content of Britain’s electricity has halved in recent years and keeps on falling, whereas conventional engine vehicles have very limited scope to reduce emissions over their lifetime.

“Any EV bought today could be emitting just a tenth of what a petrol car would in as little as five years’ time, as the electricity it uses to charge comes from an increasingly low-carbon mix.”

Sell or part ex your car today