>The headline is based on a Swedish study. It posits that production of a 100 kWh battery—Tesla's biggest—produces 17.5 tons of carbon dioxide. We'll take that

>The headline is based on a Swedish study. It posits that production of a 100 kWh battery—Tesla's biggest—produces 17.5 tons of carbon dioxide. We'll take that at face value so we can dig into it here. The link you provide does not dispute the 17.5 tons of CO2 per 100 kWh battery. Here's a figure for you. Cars produced in 2015: 68,560,000 http://www.statisticbrain.com/cars-produced-in-the-world/ http://www.statisticbrain.com/cars-produced-in-the-world/ If 100% of those cars were Teslas, that would be 1.2 Gigatons of CO2 from battery production alone. For reference, CO2 contributed by the burning of all fossil fuels combined is around 4-5 Gigatons annually. http://soilcarboncenter.k-state.edu/carbcycle.html http://soilcarboncenter.k-state.edu/carbcycle.html 1.2 gigatons is not a small number and that's before the cars even hit the road. Sweden must have realistic numbers. They pledge to reach carbon neutrality by 2050. Popular mechanics have pledged nothing.