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> By far the most environmentally friendly thing to do currently is to keep existing vehicles running for longer, until they are eventually traded for something

> By far the most environmentally friendly thing to do currently is to keep existing vehicles running for longer, until they are eventually traded for something more efficient. I'm yet to be convinced that these EV batteries will serve out the 10 years they claim and they also have a higher emissions for manufacturing Well no, the emissions threshold between both types of cars is only around 35k km on the lifetime of the vehicle. So unless you are retired and only going once per month to the nearby supermarket until you decommission the car, the most environmental friendly in most common scenarios is to get rid of the petrol car in favor of an electric one. Part of the reason behind these results is the very high polluting petrol infrastructure and the other part is the very low efficiency of petrol cars at around 35% which certainly doesn't help.

Tade0 3y ago
I was originally planning to switch to an EV in 2027, but during the past three years I've been doing less than 6k km annually. I still fire it up twice a month to do a weekend trip to places without public transport infrastructure, but that's it. And this is the sort of edge case where it makes more sense to keep the fossil car - not your average daily user who racks up more miles annually than I do in three years. My hope is that in the future I will be able to convert it to fully electric, since it's a hybrid.
ZeroGravitas 3y ago
https://www.sustainabilitybynumbers.com/p/ev-fossil-cars-climate https://www.sustainabilitybynumbers.com/p/ev-fossil-cars-cli... Has graphs and data to further illustrate your point on EVs vs continued use of an ICE. > Buying a new EV will often result in lower emissions compared to buying a second-hand petrol car unless you only plan to drive it for a year or two, or you’re driving very little.
bArray 3y ago
Please see another comment (don't want to duplicate the comments on HN): https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=37998960 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=37998960

Tade0 3y ago

I was originally planning to switch to an EV in 2027, but during the past three years I've been doing less than 6k km annually. I still fire it up twice a month to do a weekend trip to places without public transport infrastructure, but that's it. And this is the sort of edge case where it makes more sense to keep the fossil car - not your average daily user who racks up more miles annually than I do in three years. My hope is that in the future I will be able to convert it to fully electric, since it's a hybrid.

ZeroGravitas 3y ago

https://www.sustainabilitybynumbers.com/p/ev-fossil-cars-climate https://www.sustainabilitybynumbers.com/p/ev-fossil-cars-cli... Has graphs and data to further illustrate your point on EVs vs continued use of an ICE. > Buying a new EV will often result in lower emissions compared to buying a second-hand petrol car unless you only plan to drive it for a year or two, or you’re driving very little.

bArray 3y ago

Please see another comment (don't want to duplicate the comments on HN): https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=37998960 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=37998960