An expert from the Austrian Energy Agency takes a similar view. As a further aspect, he mentions that large parts of car traffic do not take place on motorways and that the majority of diesel consumption can be attributed to heavy traffic, where the speed limit would not apply. In addition, Austria has already imported large quantities of diesel following the OMV refinery in Schwechat is only working with limited capacity following an accident. In this respect, a speed limit currently has little impact on domestic production.
Electric cars also use natural gas
However, the experts agree that driving more slowly leads to significantly fewer CO2 emissions and pollutants as well as lower fuel consumption, since air resistance does not increase linearly but exponentially. This means that if you double your speed, the drag will quadruple.
Incidentally, electric cars also consume natural gas if they are charged at a time when not enough electricity from renewable energy sources is available. On an annual average, regarding every fifth kilowatt hour of electricity is produced in a gas-fired power plant. Naturally, natural gas vehicles also consume natural gas, although this type of drive is a niche market. Only 0.1 percent of the 5.1 million cars registered in Austria are powered by natural gas.