Are electric vehicles actually better for the environment or is this just a gimmick designed to entice customers to pay more for the fast acceleration exhibited by these cutting-edge machines due to instantaneous torque?
This article delves into the details and answers the myths that are typically associated when comparing EVs to conventional vehicles.
What If We Consider Plant Emissions?
While most supporters of gasoline and diesel vehicles agree that EVs emit almost no emissions from their exhaust pipes, they argue that the pollution from the plant where they are manufactured must also be considered.
However, according to the report of the United States Environmental Protection Agency, even after taking the emissions from the plant into consideration, EVs prove to be a better option in the long run.
It is also worth noting that, with several countries now using alternative energy sources to produce greener energy, pollution from the combustion of coal and other fuels has been significantly reduced, supporting the claim of EVs being much safer for the planet as a whole.
Does Battery Manufacturing Have Adverse Effects On The Environment?
The majority of people believe that the batteries used to power electric vehicles are also produced at the expense of environmental degradation.
Such people believe that, while these cars may generate fewer emissions per mile, they have a significant impact on the global environment.
This however is only partially true because while EVs put relatively more strain on the global ecosystem due to their batteries, in the long run, they generate significantly lower emissions during everyday use.
Research By Argonne National Laboratory
Experts at the Argonne National Laboratory carried out a series of tests to find the relationship between emissions of an EV and that of a gasoline car.
The study was conducted while considering a 300-mile-range electric vehicle. While emissions in the production of the EV were relatively higher than those in the production of a gasoline vehicle, the overall operation of the electric vehicle resulted in considerably higher pollution, as shown in the graph above.
The graph also shows another interesting fact that the emissions during manufacturing an EV are almost double than those of a gasoline car.
Nevertheless, it is important to note that the research is only an illustration, and the overall situation may differ slightly from the results shown.
However, one thing is for certain that the overall impact on the environment is always better in case of electric vehicles
Final Verdict
Although supporters of gasoline and diesel engines continue to argue that EVs are worse for the environment, the results show that EVs are the way to go if we want to reduce overall pollution levels.
Resultantly, the global trends have drastically changed and many people now want a car with less CO2 emission.
However, in addition to EVs, we will need to use renewable energy sources for manufacturing processes to reduce emissions during the production of such high-tech marvels, which will significantly contribute to the betterment of the global environment.
BEV cars are the future, and no oil should be used to transport ourselves and goods. We should care about our planet, there is no planet B after all.
Quit transporting ourselves wit automated transport machines.
Only Walking.
Then we are moving Fossil free.
The irish for instance, has promoted the idea to not sell any oil based cars past 2030. In Ireland there are currently 1 million cars on the road. 80% are 10 years or younger. This means, that by 2040, the hope is that 80% of cars will be EV. Now in theory this sounds great and promising.
Flip side. To power 80% EV cars, ireland will require 2no 2 gigawatt nuclear power stations, to generate the electricity required to power these cars, without affecting the normal run of power grid.
In addition to this, to manufacture and sell 800k EV cars, there is considerable transport involved as Ireland is an island.
In addition to this, there are limited countries in the world extracting lithium from mines. Bare in mind, these lithium mines have devastating effects on local environments and biosphere. So it gets mined. Then sent to a different country for refining. Then sent across the world to the car manufacturers. And that’s just for the battery. They still have to build the rest of the car, with electric robots, that use power grid electricity, that’s run off nuclear power, or hydro power which, depending on the country you live in again has devastating effects on local environments.
So I think the real question here is, for the owner of an EV, is it more environmentally friendly than oil. Yes it is. But only because car manufacturers hide what is required to make an EV car, and dont explain that if everyone has one, then there categorically will be issues with the power grid.
Carpool, train, bus, bike, walk. That’s it
A lot of those issues are the same for manufacturing ice cars too, as you said ireland is an island, Ireland also doesn’t have a car manufacturer so all cars are imported.
New forms of electricity production will have to come anyway as the plan is to remove all fossil fuel productions, maybe nuclear is possibility
Even with EV vehicles we will never drive Fossil free.
Only building a car kost tons of fossil fuels, and mining product.
We will use Fossil fuel yo make electricity, and for building the machines to create “fossil free” electricity.