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To be fair, the current generation of electronic vehicles are a terrible idea. Sure, at first sight you are not burning fossil fuel in your car so you are slow
by chx 3y ago
To be fair, the current generation of electronic vehicles are a terrible idea.
Sure, at first sight you are not burning fossil fuel in your car so you are slowing down climate change. Plenty of studies show the life-cycle greenhouse gas emissions are significantly lower for an EV than an ICE vehicle. https://www.iea.org/data-and-statistics/charts/comparative-life-cycle-greenhouse-gas-emissions-of-a-mid-size-bev-and-ice-vehicle https://www.iea.org/data-and-statistics/charts/comparative-l... Although perhaps a mere half is not what people would think at first when they just compare tailpipe emissions... and it depends on how carbon intensive is the electricity you are using for charging.
And there's more than just emissions to consider.
1. Lithium mining needs water. The typical amount given is 500 000 gallons per one ton of lithium. Think of fracking.
2. Mining waste for base metals such as copper or nickel is 20-200 tonnes but rare earth minerals like platinum make a million tonne of waste per tonne extracted.
3. The lifetime of the battery which is the problematic component is significantly lower than the lifetime of a typical ICE car.
And more.
The solution is, of course, to reverse the dependence on the automobile. https://unevenearth.org/2018/08/the-social-ideology-of-the-motorcar/ https://unevenearth.org/2018/08/the-social-ideology-of-the-m... this might be old but it is still relevant.
- Shrezzing 3y ago> the current generation of electronic vehicles are a terrible idea... Although perhaps a mere half is not what people would think at first when they just compare tailpipe emissions The methodolody used by IEA for that chart uses the 2021 global average grid carbon intensity to calculate its electricity generation. If you live in Iceland, Sweeden, UK, Vermont, or similar regions with highly decarbonised grids, the majority of the chart's Electricity co2e isn't generated for that vehicle. You've got to consider your local average grid carbon intensity, and how that will change across the 20 year lifecycle of the vehicle.
- hnbad 3y agoCritics love to also cite the resource cost for manufacturing PV modules or wind turbines to point out that green electricity isn't emissions free either but that ignores the even worse resource costs of fossil power and the continuous environmental damage from mining/drilling the fuel. All things considered, green energy is better than fossil and EVs are better than ICEs. Of course where we really need to go is reducing individual transport by expanding public transit infrastructure, electrified buses, trams and trains easily beat personal EVs when it comes to resource use per person. FWIW a bigger concern than the increased energy demand from EVs is the load this puts on the grid infrastructure. But this is also very much true for rooftop PV.