4 ms·
All credible lifecycle ghg emissions analyses have found that EVs have substantial reductions vs ICE. It is true that they have more emissions from manufacture
by thinkcontext 2y ago
All credible lifecycle ghg emissions analyses have found that EVs have substantial reductions vs ICE. It is true that they have more emissions from manufacture but this is overcome, on average, in a few years. This is true even on carbon intense electric grids. And their emissions drop as the grid gets cleaner.
https://www.ucsusa.org/resources/driving-cleaner https://www.ucsusa.org/resources/driving-cleaner
The Cybertruck is a likely exception. It's manufacturing emissions are likely enormous and it's likely to be driven less than average since it's impractical.
- alt227 2y agoIf we all dump our vehicles and buy EVs, the energy required to to scrap/recycle 1.5 billion ICE vehicles far outweighs any savings we would make and will take decades to recover. On top of that they have massive chemical battery packs which are horrible to mine the resources for, are useless after 10 years, and cannot be recycled. The report you quoted confirms all of this. Simply putting synthetic fuel into our existing cars negates all of that and turns our existing cars tailpipe emissions into water.
- thinkcontext 2y agoThe ICEs traded in for EVs don't get scrapped, they get sold as used cars. It's unclear if or how much the transition to EVs will shave off their expected lifespan. It will play out over decades. Also batteries aren't useless after 10 years. They can be used for grid storage for years after being retired from EV service. Synthetic fuel schemes are very expensive and haven't proven to be scalable.