Electric cars emit less over their lifetime – often 50%–67% less — than gas or diesel cars
Posted by cgiattino
Electric cars emit less over their lifetime – often 50%–67% less — than gas or diesel cars
Posted by cgiattino
17 Comments
Wasn’t always the case, but now with mass production – duh!
I was surprised it wasn’t more, but then I glanced at the article and of course it’s for America where on average the electricity grid is not particularly green (outside of a few select states).
51% net-zero energy in the UK in 2024 makes that number much bigger 🤓
Car tires are surprisingly bad for the environment. Guess not so surprising when you think about it lol
Not to mention the impact of roads and infrastructure for car-centric design…
We need to move away from car-centric communities, not just marginally improve one aspect of them
“Often [up to] 67% less” feels like a bit of a stretch here. The only place I can find a 67% or greater reduction in the charts is comparing an ICE Land Rover to an electric sedan, which really isn’t a helpful comparison.
Something tells me this isn’t a “cradle to grave” analysis
I charge my car from nuclear power plants produced electricity. I would imagine the carbon footprint is even smaller.
Battery technology. We are about a generation or two away from getting to where we want to be with batteries.
with Electricity: we know how to make it many differnt ways, including clean and sustainable. We know how to transport it, even wirelessly. We know how to use it, electric motors can be very effecient in output. What we can’t do? Store it very well. That’s the one key piece that is holding back EV from being truly great.
Thankfully, research has been continuous and seems to be well funded for future research as well. Hopefully in some years (hopefully within my lifetime) we’ll see some exceptional battery technology that makes storing electricy as easy as storing a jug of water (or gasoline).
ICE-cars powered with renewable diesel have even lower lifetime emissions than EVs.
Cool, but they’re completely impractical to own if you don’t own a house with a driveway.
And LEDs consumed much less energy overall, but people used them more frequently because they felt less ashamed. It’s a monkey’s paw issue.
The rebound effect should not stay unrecognized; the best way forward is to heavily build our public transportation infrastructure.
And conservatives took that personally
I’d need to know how much CO2 is released during the construction process and weather the electrical grid is using fossil fuels to make any kind of assumption here.
This whole EV vs. gas car emissions debate is filled with misleading assumptions, cherry-picked comparisons, and an outright dismissal of real-world conditions. First off, the claim that EVs are automatically better ignores the fact that their entire advantage hinges on grid energy sources, which in most places are still fossil-fuel heavy. The upfront emissions from battery manufacturing are substantial, and the assumption that they “pay back” in a few years only holds if you’re driving tens of thousands of miles annually—what about people who drive less? Then there’s the comparison with a Fiat 500, a tiny econobox, instead of a hybrid like a Prius, which would make the emissions gap much smaller. And let’s not forget the complete lack of discussion on battery disposal and resource extraction, both of which are environmental nightmares. This isn’t to say EVs are *worse*—but the idea that they’re a climate savior while completely ignoring grid realities, battery recycling, and the actual *use case* of different drivers is pure propaganda.
Still don’t want to drive one.
Except Tesla – that guy emits pure evil at higher rates
Just a heads up, I’m seeing a lot of bot spam in the comments, Elon’s AI farms are most likely involved.
This study makes the classic mistake of politically useful/politicized data presentation by “Green” initiative think pieces of rhetoric. That is, basing its entire conclusion on data metrics of insufficient length and scope to come to any honest pronouncement that wasn’t decided upon by the study’s organizers before it was written. There is nothing sustainable, clean, and in many cases-ethical-about the way the rare Earth metals used in the construction of EV batteries fits into Greenwashing narratives, and this inconvenient context is almost universally left out of these studies. Don’t get me wrong oil is guilty of just about all of the same sins, but the point is that EVs will prove again to be no alternative to ICE vehicles if the only basis for their existence that can be found by their proponents is that they’re “clean”. This rationale is a stretch under the best circumstances, but once we have to discuss *how* rare Earth minerals are being extracted to build these cars and how workforces doing this kind of thing live the line that EV’s are more ethical than combustion engine vehicles becomes unsustainable.
The real marketing push to customers of these vehicles should simply be that they are an alternative to the use of gasoline engines-with some considerable advantages in some places and disadvantages against them in others. Otherwise, everyone is visibly exhausted with obvious and condescending propaganda.