Are electric cars better for the environment?

[NUance]

Are Electric Cars Really Greener?

Published Sept. 25th, 2018

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Not necessarily. Or better said, not always. If the source of energy to power these cars doesn’t come from solar panels, wind turbines or even nuclear or hydroelectric, their CO2 emissions will be much higher. For instance, if the electricity used to charge cars comes from the burning of fossil fuels, it doesn’t matter if the EC are not polluting while being driven, as this pollution was already released in some distant power plant.

This means that if you’re driving an electric car in the US, where fossil fuels accounted 62,7% of the country’s energy production in 2017, you’ll probably release more CO2 into the atmosphere than if you’re driving it in Iceland, that runs almost entirely on hydro, geothermal and solar energy.

LINK  

Are electric cars greener?  The answer depends largely on the source of electricity.  Since solar is a small player in the U.S., and we're getting away from wind generated electricity, I guess in the U.S. the answer is "NO".  And then there's the issue of battery disposal.  But that opens another can of worms.    

 

[jaws]

Are electric cars greener?  The answer depends largely on the source of electricity.  Since solar is a small player in the U.S., and we're getting away from wind generated electricity, I guess in the U.S. the answer is "NO".  And then there's the issue of battery disposal.  But that opens another can of worms.    

I think cars are becoming more disposable over time as well. Soon it won't become economical to repair cars because the amount of technology that is in them. Also, people don't think about the ways that electricity or batteries are produced because it typically doesn't happen in their back yard. 

The US defiantly needs to invest more into renewables and energy storage technology. We also need to figure out how to make things less disposable. 

 

[knapplc]

This is a good question. A search about the "green-ness" of electric cars yields a bunch of yes & no studies.  

I think right now, because wind/solar are not so prevalent sources of power, the electricity generated for them comes from fossil fuels (mostly coal). But fossil fuels are what powers internal combustion engines, so I don't know if that's a push or not. 

As we grow and develop better ways to generate clean electricity, I think electric cars are going to be far greener than IC. But who knows how long it'll take to get there. 

 

[NUance]

We're doing with electric cars what we did with manufacturing in the 1970s, 80s and 90s.  We're sending the dirty part of the process elsewhere.  And pretending it doesn't exist.  

When EPA, OSHA and labor unions became too onerous for U.S. manufacturing 40 years ago, we started sending nearly all of our manufacturing overseas.  The environmental impact on the U.S. was great.  No more dirty manufacturing plants in America!  But the net effect on the world wasn't so great.  Think about how much more world pollution is caused by shipping raw materials to China where there are lax environmental laws, then shipping the finished goods back to the U.S.  (Why don't people ever talk about this??)  

It's the same with electric cars.  If you only consider the car itself, sure it's much cleaner.  But if you consider the generation, transmission and storage of electricity it probably causes even more pollution for the world than what we have now.  And that's not even considering the manufacturing and disposal of batteries.  You can't just crush a battery, melt it down and make a new one like you can with a gas burning car engine.       

That said, I want an electric car.  They're so cool, and it would make me feel better about myself!   And my farts would smell good!  (Just like with hybrids 20 years ago.)  LINK

 

[RedDenver]

Electric cars are better for the environment in almost every case now. They basically break even with ICE cars on pollution if the grid is using really dirty coal plants (which is fairly rare these days due to dirty coal plants not being economically viable) and are better in basically all other cases compared to the average ICE car.

The article goes into the details of existing studies and how the assumptions affect the results:

https://www.carbonbrief.org/factcheck-how-electric-vehicles-help-to-tackle-climate-change

The conclusion also talks about how EV's aren't a panacea and that improvements to the electrical grid are needed to make EV's truly effective in reducing carbon emissions.

@NUance the article also discusses the aspects of batteries made in China vs in the US (specifically Tesla's batteries produced in Nevada).