I think this article is missing the elephant in the room by putting too much emphasis on efficiency: the biggest issue with EVs is in the manufacturing, and the

I think this article is missing the elephant in the room by putting too much emphasis on efficiency: the biggest issue with EVs is in the manufacturing, and the reason why I often hear Tesla and other big EVs referred to as tools to ease one’s conscience, but certainly not long-term (or even medium-term) solutions to global warming. My figures are from Switzerland [1], so assume the Swiss grid (mostly hydroelectric and nuclear, so about as good as it gets). Using the same car, to ease the comparison: Peugeot 208 (ICE) vs Peugeot e-208 (BEV). Manufacturing takes 9.0 tCO2eq for the ICE version, 15.9 tCO2eq for the BEV version. Over the lifespan of the car (200,000 km): 42.0 tCO2eq for the ICE version against 22.7 tCO2eq for the BEV version. So as expected the BEV version wins: it breaks even at about 50,000 km. But note that it's "only" cutting emissions in half. And that's on the Swiss grid. Of course it's better than nothing, but unless manufacturing costs (in terms of GHG emissions) are massively reduced, it's a dead end. This is for a rather tiny BEV without much range, looking at Tesla Model 3 Long Range: 21.4 tCO2eq for manufacturing, 29.0 tCO2eq over 200,000km. Nearly 70% of the emissions of a Peugeot 208 ICE over the lifespan of the vehicle. And again that's with a nearly optimal grid in terms of emissions. I'm not even sure a coal powered Model 3 would break even with a Peugeot 208 (ICE). To give some perspective, to stabilize the climate we basically each have a 2.0 tCO2eq / year quota, of which currently about 1.0 tCO2eq is eaten by public services (infrastructure, hospitals, police, firefighters, etc.), rough estimation for France, YMMV depending on where you live. How to reconcile this with a car that emits 21.4 tCO2eq just for manufacturing, I don't know. [1] https://www.tcs.ch/fr/tests-conseils/conseils/achat-vente-vehicule/recherche-auto-comparaison.php https://www.tcs.ch/fr/tests-conseils/conseils/achat-vente-ve...