Fact and Fiction: ARE THEY REALLY CLEANER?
Electric cars need electricity and much of the world’s electricity is still produced from fossil fuels across the globe. The argument that electric cars are not really a solution to climate change, and just shift the problem from the gas engine to the power plant has been used for years to resist electric car adoption.
I am not saying that this isn’t true, 80% of the world’s energy is still produced from fossil fuels, even heavily polluting coal-powered generation stations.
My argument for increasing the adoption of electric cars is that although many power stations are still CO2 producing, they are centralised. Yes, power plants are mostly pumping CO2 into the atmosphere, however, it is still more efficient to produce energy at a central source than millions of mini power plants in the form of internal combustion engines.
The added benefit of electric cars is that the pollution is removed from our city streets. This means we can benefit from clean air and all the health benefits that brings on a local level where most people live, away from power plants.
The other argument against electric cars is that they produce more CO2 than internal combustion cars to build. There are multiple sources and methods for calculating the net climate impact of an electric car over its lifetime. Although these models often give different results, in the main, they confirm electric cars are far cleaner, better for our atmosphere and air than an internal combustion engine one. There are also a lot of mistruths out there, and deliberate misinformation, often shadily backed or supported by big oil and vested interests trying to discredit the ‘cleanliness’ of electric cars.
Some of the research and models don’t perform fair like-for-like comparisons. For example, they will compare the total cost in terms of carbon produced to build an EV plus the cost in terms of carbon to power its battery over a lifetime then compare this to the gasoline car equivalent. Often these calculations deliberately exclude the CO2 output from pumping the oil out of the ground, so-called well to wheel, refining it, and then moving it all over the world in diesel sea tankers and trucks to your gas station.
Many media reports have surfaced, often in reputable mainstream newspapers, claiming that electric cars are even worse for the environment than internal combustion. This is simply not true. Many of these reports have been spectacularly debunked and proven to be supported by internal combustion vested interests. Once again, I’m not trying to blindly convince you that electric cars are super clean and absolved of all climate impact guilt. Building electric cars does produce a negative climate impact, so does electricity generation.
Electric cars have to “earn” their green badge of honour. Until all electricity is produced from clean renewable sources, electric cars need to accumulate lots of clean miles before they become net carbon neutral.
Electric cars produce more carbon dioxide to build than gasoline cars but then produce fewer lifetime emissions of greenhouse gases than internal combustion, this is a fact. In countries where the energy percentage generated from renewables and nuclear power are higher, the emissions level from electric cars can be even lower, up to 70% lower in countries like Sweden and France for example. This is because Sweden has a high proportion of renewable energy and France has a high proportion of nuclear energy.
Various mechanisms including life cycle-based sustainability standards have been used to compare the two like International standard, ISO 14040. During the production of electric cars, the battery is the biggest consideration as the chassis and body frame are pretty much like a gas car. Raw materials like cobalt, lithium and rare earth elements are required to build the battery pack. Mining, smelting and preparing these metals produce carbon dioxide. Indeed, it is estimated the current manufacturing process to build an electric car produces 1.5 times more carbon dioxide than the equivalent fossil fuel car. This is 14.6 tons of CO2 for electric compared to around 9 tons for an ICE car. The battery production alone accounts for at least 40% of the car’s life cycle emissions. This is a bad start for electric cars but of course, the total life cycle must be taken into account.
So, all things being equal what we're really comparing here is the carbon cost to produce a battery pack plus the source of electricity to power that pack over its lifetime versus making a gas car, its maintenance, and its burning of fossil fuels over its lifetime.
The International Council on Clean Transportation (ICCT), the organisation responsible for exposing Dieselgate, state the typical European electric car is at least 30% cleaner than its petrol or diesel equivalent.
This percentage is compared to even the most efficient internal combustion car. This life cycle assessment is based on four stages including: 1 - supply chain, 2 - production, 3 - lifetime usage and 4 - recycling. Gas cars win on 1 & 2 but then electric cars win big on 3 and 4, significantly beating gas cars. Electric cars win on criteria number 3 because they are far more efficient at converting energy into movement. Electric cars score a further big win on criteria number 4 because batteries can be repurposed after they're finished in electric cars for home storage and business use. Modern electric cars have indeed been designed from the beginning to be disassembled for recycling.
This all means that although electric cars have a bigger carbon debt when they come off the production line, this is usually written off within two years and the vehicle becomes carbon neutral, while its petrol or diesel cousin continues to pollute for its lifetime. The efficiency of internal combustion cars has improved by about a factor of three times since the Ford Model T. Efficiency has peaked with only small marginal gains in the most recent decades. Therefore, gas cars will no longer deliver any efficiency benefit or lower carbon emissions going forward while electric cars will continue to get better as the source of electricity generation shifts towards renewables. In other words, although electric cars are on average 30% cleaner today this percentage is going to grow.
Another climate benefit is that with smart charging, electric cars can take advantage of lower peak demand electricity, which is usually cleaner, as it is not produced from typical standby fossil fuel electricity generators.
Battery production will become more efficient, energy sources will become cleaner, and economies of scale will drive the margin between electric and internal combustion even wider. An example of this can be seen from the Swedish Environmental Research Institute. In a 2017 report, the Institute calculated that there was an average 150 to 200 kilos of carbon dioxide produced per kilowatt of battery capacity.
Just two years later, in 2019, the Institute revised its estimate down to 46 kilos of carbon dioxide per equivalent kWh produced; this is because the battery factories have been scaled up and are now running at a more efficient capacity. Improved mining techniques and more efficient recycling processes are expected to drive this ratio down even further in the years ahead.
Before I conclude the argument that electric cars are cleaner, I want to take you back to the misinformation and deliberate deceit we have witnessed from the oil industry and car manufacturers like Dieselgate. Several reports have appeared in mainstream media making claims that electric cars were worse for the environment.
One such article was published in late 2020 claiming electric cars had to be driven at least 50,000 miles before they became greener than their petrol counterparts. The report behind the article, which appeared in mainstream UK press, was commissioned by Honda, Aston Martin and the fossil fuel industry.
Electric cars are not the panacea to avoid a total climate disaster, but their emergence and eventual dominance are also helping to accelerate more research and transition into renewable sources of energy. Clean sources of energy combined with more efficient clean electric car production are the future.
FICTION: Electric cars are worse for the environment than petrol or diesel cars.
FACT: Electric cars are cleaner by at least 30% over their lifetime than an equivalent internal combustion car. This can grow to over 70% where renewable energy has been used to power the car. The manufacturing of electric cars is currently 1.5 times worse for the environment than an internal combustion car, however, this is recovered over its life cycle through zero emissions. A Transport and Environment study in 2021 suggests that battery-electric cars will use 58% less energy than a petrol car over their lifetime and emit 64% less CO2.
