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Most electricity in the US isn't carbon-free, and isn't likely to become so in the near future. From a climate perspective, living close to work, and carpoolin
by fennecfoxen 7y ago
Most electricity in the US isn't carbon-free, and isn't likely to become so in the near future.
From a climate perspective, living close to work, and carpooling, bicycling, or riding a motorcycle are all much more effective than buying an electric car.
Heck, even in a city like New York with a good (electric) mass transit system, the main climate savings is that people are close together and go shorter distances. (The carbon emissions per passenger-mile are not very impressive.)
- tonmoy 7y agoThe efficiency of Internal combustion engine is about 25%, whereas a combined cycle power plant can be around 60% efficient. Even with transmission, storage and electric motor inefficiencies, EVs come ahead. Add the fact that more and more percentage of power is come from renewables each day, I’d say EVs are more than feel good BS. Sure, staying closer to work may be a better idea, but we can’t let the perfect be the enemy of the good.
- kortilla 7y agoYou forgot to account for manufacturing and transport of a new car and disposal of the old that wouldn’t have happened if replacement wasn’t forced early. Also, efficiency isn’t the number to compare. It’s CO2 emissions.
- adrianN 7y agoWe don't have time to wait for one climate policy to come into full effect before starting work on the next. We need to replace ICE cars with BEV while simultaneously replacing fossil fuels for electricity generation.