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> But EVs still require energy to move, and generating it creates emissions. Only if you use coal/gas plants to generate your electricity. Mostly, there are be
by jillesvangurp 3y ago
> But EVs still require energy to move, and generating it creates emissions.
Only if you use coal/gas plants to generate your electricity. Mostly, there are better options. Many EV owners also have solar panels, for example. Or alternatively they'll use charging stations that are mostly powered by renewables (because that's cheaper for those who operate those commercially). The bottom line is that generating electricity indeed generates some emissions sometimes. And generally a lot less than burning petrol/diesel do.
> Gigantic batteries consume larger amounts of critical minerals like graphite and lithium that are in short supply worldwide.
Lithium shortages are mostly on the refining side; there's plenty of lithium on this planet. And for cheaper cars there's also sodium ion. Likewise, we're not exactly running out of carbon. Scaling up graphite and lithium production is a bit of a logistical challenge. We're much better at producing epic amounts of oil. The problem with that of course is that we need to stop doing that. Vastly less oil in exchange for a little bit extra graphite. Maybe we can even turn (some) oil into graphite.
This reads to me like a puff piece that is designed to lazily (without much critical thinking or journalistic expertise) rehash some cliches and half truths about EVs. We can guess at motivation but probably some advertising money can be traced back to the usual suspects in the burning dead dinosaur juice sector.
Are cars needlessly big and heavy in the US. Yes. No doubt about. That started years ago, long before there were EVs. And the trend continues. It's not because batteries are heavy but because people thing they need big heavy cars. It's perfectly doable to make a small, lightweight EV. There are some sports car conversions to electric that weigh less than the original without loss of range and with a lot better performance.