World EV Day: The Push For Sustainable, Low CO₂ Transport

Founded by Ade Thomas and his sustainability media company, Green.TV, alongside global technology leader ABB, World EV Day has become a key milestone in the global journey towards sustainable transport.

The inaugural event on 9 September 2020 established a clear and potent goal: to elevate awareness and speed up the worldwide transition to EVs.

What started as a campaign has since evolved into a significant movement, uniting various stakeholders in the pursuit of cleaner mobility.

World EV Day brings together companies, policymakers and individuals under a shared objective, encapsulated by the #DriveChange initiative.

The scale of its reach emphasises its importance; in 2023, the event generated more than 200 million impressions on Twitter/X, engaging people across 119 countries and showcasing progress from major industry players like Ford, Nissan, Volvo Trucks and ABB.

Research fuelling the green transition

The transition to sustainable transport is heavily reliant on innovation, a fact highlighted by the latest data from Elsevier’s Scopus research and citation database.

According to the data, global research on EV batteries has increased by 135% since 2019, growing from 4,728 published documents to 11,111 in 2024.

This information also indicates that China is a global leader in this field, with 13,755 publications since 2019.

India follows with 8,363 publications, while the US is in third place with 5,329 research outputs.

The data from Elsevier Scopus also reveals a competitive European landscape.

Despite the UK being named the continent's biggest EV market, its research output lags behind Germany.

Since 2019, Germany has produced 2,553 publications compared to the UK's 2,275.

This growth in research activity highlights not only the opportunities in the green transition but also the critical gaps that need to be addressed to ensure its long-term success and sustainability.

A skilled workforce is one such area requiring attention.

"We can pour billions into gigafactories, charging networks and OEM innovation, but if there aren’t enough trained people to install and maintain those systems safely, the wheels of progress grind to a halt,” says Martijn Gerlag, Field Application Engineer at Fluke Corporation. 

“We need a plan to bolster the future of this industry from the ground up with some strong foundation to scale upon. 

“Europe doesn’t just need more EVs; it needs a reliable and protected workforce behind them.”

Overcoming hurdles in battery sustainability

A core challenge for the sector is the sustainable management of EV batteries, particularly recovery and recycling.

As EV adoption grows, ensuring the entire lifecycle of a vehicle is environmentally sound becomes paramount.

This involves moving beyond tailpipe emissions to address the production and end-of-life phases of components like batteries.

“Improving EV battery production and critical material recovery will be key to meeting the growing demand for clean transport,” says Giacomo Margiotta-Mills, Industry Director, Transportation & Mobility, Euronorth, Dassault Systèmes.

“With EVs already making up 20% of new car sales, manufacturers must accelerate the move from R&D to market without compromising safety. 

“With the electricity demand at an all-time high and resources facing continuous strain, recycling and reusing critical materials from end-of-life batteries will be essential to address this pressure. 

“It is up to every industry to consider small, immediate gains, with energy providers and distributors continuing to invest in improved solutions to better capture and manage more energy sources, even those that are highly volatile.”

Despite the urgency, research into the recycling and reuse of critical raw materials has been limited.

For instance, since 2019, hydrometallurgical recovery, a process for extracting metals from used batteries, has been the focus of only 101 publications.

According to Elsevier's data, the number of research publications on this recovery method per metal type from 2019-2024 is:

• Lithium: 594
• Copper: 427
• Nickel: 308
• Cobalt: 278
• Manganese: 175
• Aluminium: 388
• Graphite: 52

These figures reveal a crucial need for more work on sustainable recovery methods to ensure valuable resources are reused in a circular economy rather than being wasted.

From policymakers developing regulatory frameworks to researchers advancing battery science and consumers making purchasing decisions, every action contributes to the collective goal of sustainable transport.