The majority of people working in Brussels use their cars to get to and from the office. These are typically short journeys, even for the commuters who live in the city’s suburbs and surrounding areas. They are responsible, however, for the city's horrendous air quality (Brussels frequently breaches European standards), increasing the rates of respiratory disease. What’s more, the noise pollution causes stress-related health problems, even heart attacks.

Aside from these immediate effects, carbon dioxide emissions from cars are rising in Europe. So much so that after 2040 the European Commission says they could wipe out reductions made in other areas, threatening our target to limit global warming and avoid catastrophic climate change.

With its love of cars, Belgium risks jeopardising such targets if it neglects this source of pollution. But if it acts quickly, then supporters of electric cars say this would go a long way to solving the climate problem, easing noise pollution (electric cars are exceptionally quiet) and introducing health benefits.

Supporters of electric vehicles, which are limited in their range but will keep going long enough for most commuters’ distances, say the city of Brussels is a perfect place to push this technology and clean up the city.

“Environmentally speaking, it’s a bonanza: no more urban pollution caused by cars, no more obnoxious road noise and, with the current electricity mix in Belgium, we would be producing about three times less carbon dioxide,” says Jacques de Selliers, head of Going Electric.

The government’s secretary of state for finance, Bernard Clerfayt, has recently launched a plan to promote electric cars and hybrids, through a series of favourable tax breaks. (Hybrids use petrol but may also harness energy to charge a battery).Since 1 January, individuals can deduct €900 of the price of an electric car from income tax and 40% of the cost of a charging station, which can be installed in a garage or driveway, for an amount up to €250.

Clerfayt’s crew has also improved measures to promote cleaner company cars, introducing a deduction of 120% for zero emission electric cars whereas previously there was only the possibility to deduct up to 90%, depending on the carbon emissions of each vehicle.

To promote electric cars, the government must also consider how to develop an infrastructure of charging points. The new tax breaks include the possibility for a company to deduct 21.5% of the investment in a charging station, offering its staff a place to reload their batteries.

Speed it up

And still, according to supporters of electric vehicles, this is not enough. While countries like the UK, Portugal and Spain have been pushing the technology for several years, Belgium, despite being at the heart of the EU, is only just going down this road.

The UK is offering an up-front subsidy of 25% of the purchase price of an electric vehicle up to £5,000 (€5,500). Its Department of Transport has also announced a £30 million investment in charging stations to be installed over the next three years.

De Selliers points out that India’s Gee Whizz, a maker of electric cars, already left Belgium because of the lack of support. “There could be a future for electric cars in Brussels if politicians get their act together,” he says.

Even this latest plan, which he wryly notes had been expected by industry for some time, does not go far enough to promote electric cars, given the cost and the time to recoup the price through a tax rebate. An electric car will set you back about €15,000; a hard sell. “What customers say is that, for €15,000, they can get a bigger car and that the electric car, because of its size, is only worth €5,000,” says De Selliers, who imports the Indian Reva brand from Bangalore.

Some of the cost would eventually be recouped in the form of lower fuel bills. For one kilometre’s worth of power, offpeak electricity would cost about €1. Petrol costs closer to €7 for such a distance, explains De Selliers. But he admits that the cost is not fully compensated.

Electric cars are also plagued by their past when models were typically clunky and had few of the technological gadgets we have all come to expect. The latest examples have all the latest technology, but nevertheless lack the appeal of traditional brands. According to the Belgian Federation of Automobiles (Febiac), there have been very few sales of electric vehicles. And, without these sales, there has been little incentive for power companies to provide charging infrastructure. Only one station has been installed, in Zaventem.

“We are at the beginning of this evolution of electric cars, and it will be a few years before we really see these vehicles on our streets,” said Febiac spokesman Joost Kaesemans.

EU boost

Nonetheless, as well as the bid by the government to promote electric cars, Brussels and other European cities could benefit from the European Union’s plans to cut climate-changing gases and reduce its dependency on oil by promoting electric cars.

The Spanish government, which currently holds the rotating presidency of the EU, has honed in on electric cars, asking industry ministers from across the bloc to pledge their commitment to the sector in the context of the latest industrial policy. Officials in the European Commission are busying themselves with plans for electric cars and are expected to deliver a policy paper on promotion of these vehicles at some point in the near future.

EU leaders will discuss electric cars at their summit in mid-March and could agree to a plan to invest in electric cars and develop a common infrastructure with interoperable equipment, so a Spanish driver could charge his car in, say, Denmark.

Much has been made of the environmental question marks over electric cars. For instance, Transport & Environment (T&E) says: “Current EU policies offer no guarantee that more electric vehicles on Europe’s roads will lead to savings in carbon emissions over coming years.”

T&E says the EU should scrap measures allowing makers of electric vehicles to earn credits, allowing their traditional petrol-fuelled cars to pollute more. The EU should also introduce more ambitious targets for renewables to ensure the extra demand for electricity is not met by dirty energy.

Despite these doubts, environmentalists agree that electric cars are a way to solve these problems if the context is carefully considered. A study commissioned by T&E, Greenpeace and Friends of the Earth Europe found that they would contribute to the decarbonising of Europe’s transport sector.

De Selliers, a self-confessed enthusiast with his own electric vehicle and charging point, says: “I hope that in most cities, including Brussels, only electric cars will be allowed in the future. Clearly that is what should and will happen in the next 10 to 20 years.”