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> Plus you're only as clean as your electric grid. "The Zwickau plant is supplied with electricity by Volkswagen Kraftwerks GmbH. For a few years now, this com

> Plus you're only as clean as your electric grid. "The Zwickau plant is supplied with electricity by Volkswagen Kraftwerks GmbH. For a few years now, this company has been offering pure green electricity sourced from hydroelectric power plants, wind farms, and solar parks. This green electricity is TÜV-certified. Even though it costs a little more, Volkswagen Sachsen (with the Zwickau, Dresden, and Chemnitz sites) has been using this green electricity since April 2017. “It is completely CO2-neutral“" https://electrek.co/2019/07/22/vw-zwickau-factory-electric-cars/ https://electrek.co/2019/07/22/vw-zwickau-factory-electric-c...

organsnyder 7y ago
That doesn't account for the energy used to charge the cars during their lifetime, though. Thankfully, in general the United States energy grid is getting less CO2-intensive.
- pgeorgi 7y ago
  That's outside the car makers' control. The public charging stations in my town (in Germany) are powered (hooked up to our common electricity network, but in terms of energy bought for them) using hydro power from a nearby river. Any car owner could use their own generator using coal or oil to power their private charging point though. Generally speaking the only remedy to that is to make CO2 intensive power cost prohibitive. Our government decided just today to attach a CO2 tax to sales of energy sources with CO2 residues, so let's see how that develops.
  - natch 7y ago
    Car makers don’t need to control it. Market forces are making the grid cleaner with options that blow dirty power away financially.
- 0xcase 7y ago
  yes, this is a huge concern. If these cars are powered by coal or other dirty energies it doesn't make sense. Most charger networks here are powered 100% by renewables though
  - travisporter 7y ago
    It still makes some sense. Granted coal rich sources will definitely make the transition worse. https://cleantechnica.com/2018/02/19/electric-car-well-to-wheel-emissions-myth/ https://cleantechnica.com/2018/02/19/electric-car-well-to-wh... Lifetime emissions for EVs beat ICE cars in 2-5 years [citation needed]
rmoriz 7y ago
VW Kraftwerk operates a coal plant in Wolfsburg and also burns waste oil https://de.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heizkraftwerk_Wolfsburg_West https://de.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heizkraftwerk_Wolfsburg_West
- pgeorgi 7y ago
  That doesn't contradict the claim I cited: VW Kraftwerk offers a product based on "pure green electricity" (they didn't say they do that exclusively) and apparently Zwickau is buying that product, not the oil based one used in Wolfsburg.

organsnyder 7y ago

That doesn't account for the energy used to charge the cars during their lifetime, though. Thankfully, in general the United States energy grid is getting less CO2-intensive.

pgeorgi 7y ago
That's outside the car makers' control. The public charging stations in my town (in Germany) are powered (hooked up to our common electricity network, but in terms of energy bought for them) using hydro power from a nearby river. Any car owner could use their own generator using coal or oil to power their private charging point though. Generally speaking the only remedy to that is to make CO2 intensive power cost prohibitive. Our government decided just today to attach a CO2 tax to sales of energy sources with CO2 residues, so let's see how that develops.
- natch 7y ago
  Car makers don’t need to control it. Market forces are making the grid cleaner with options that blow dirty power away financially.
0xcase 7y ago
yes, this is a huge concern. If these cars are powered by coal or other dirty energies it doesn't make sense. Most charger networks here are powered 100% by renewables though
- travisporter 7y ago
  It still makes some sense. Granted coal rich sources will definitely make the transition worse. https://cleantechnica.com/2018/02/19/electric-car-well-to-wheel-emissions-myth/ https://cleantechnica.com/2018/02/19/electric-car-well-to-wh... Lifetime emissions for EVs beat ICE cars in 2-5 years [citation needed]

rmoriz 7y ago

VW Kraftwerk operates a coal plant in Wolfsburg and also burns waste oil https://de.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heizkraftwerk_Wolfsburg_West https://de.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heizkraftwerk_Wolfsburg_West

pgeorgi 7y ago
That doesn't contradict the claim I cited: VW Kraftwerk offers a product based on "pure green electricity" (they didn't say they do that exclusively) and apparently Zwickau is buying that product, not the oil based one used in Wolfsburg.