How Green is Your Electric Car?
They are not entirely zero-emission but there is hope
Volvo has announced it will only sell electric cars by 2030, not including hybrids. This marks the beginning of the transition to cars, being entirely electric as carmakers adapt to government policies.
Volvo’s deadline of 2030 is unsurprising, considering many governments are banning the selling of petrol or diesel vehicles by various dates (e.g., Britain after 2030). However, electric vehicles cannot be treated as a magical solution to transport pollution. While they are much greener than conventional cars, they are not zero-emission.
Electric vehicles don’t produce emissions directly. But their manufacturing process isn’t entirely environmentally friendly. And the higher electric cars rise in popularity, the more work will be done to recycle their batteries more effectively in addition to renewable sources of energy rising in usage.
Direct vs. life cycle emissions
In the US, road transport makes up 28% of carbon emissions, and to decarbonize this, the best way is to convert to EVs, which governments are doing. However, there are two types of vehicle emissions: direct, and life cycle.
Direct emissions are what petrol and diesel cars emit through their tailpipe. While EVs don’t produce this type of emissions, they do have life cycle emissions. Luckily, the amount of life cycle emissions can be reduced, and EVs become more sustainable than they are already.
So, what’s the difference between a non-electric and a fully electric car’s emissions? EVs don’t emit CO2 while driving, and on the whole, emit 32% less CO2 than a petrol car. For now, EVs produce more emissions in production, but this is compensated for by the lack of direct emissions from the vehicles.
This chart demonstrates how the Nissan Leaf (the most popular electric car in 2018) compares to a non-electric standard car’s carbon footprint, split between tailpipe (direct emissions) and life cycle emissions.
The truth
An electric car is only as green as the country it’s in. If an electric car is charged by fossil fuel energy, then it might as well be a petrol car.
Countries having more low-polluting energy sources will also see the most significant benefit from EVs in reducing greenhouse emissions. It is to mention that electricity generation is becoming less carbon-intensive every year. Emissions from it are expected to fall by over 70% in the mid-2020s.
More renewable energy for electricity production, along with increased efficiency in battery production, will bring EVs closer to being zero-emission.
Transitioning to EVs brings a lot to the table for countries striving to meet the Paris Agreement targets. However, these countries need to remember coal and gas need to be replaced with less polluting sources. While coal is being phased out (Carbon Brief monitors this progress here), alternatives like fracking and nuclear power are being considered.
The battery
A lot of controversy surrounding the ‘green’ claim of EVs surrounds their batteries. The larger the battery, the bigger the range on the car.
These batteries are made of rare earth elements (lithium, nickel, cobalt, or graphite), and these reside beneath the Earth’s surface — extracted by polluting mining processes. Mining lithium can be very dangerous, leaking into nearby rivers, polluting the water, and killing the fish.
At least, the availability of these resources is not something to be concerned about (there is enough lithium for the next 185 years even if the demand triples, and there are enough resources for all vehicles to be electric).
The emissions from the vehicles’ batteries are offset within 6–8 months of the EV being used if it is charged using clean energy in the US or two years in the EU. This is good, right? But what about after, when the battery is no longer useful?
At the moment, recycling an EV battery is expensive and inefficient, with only 20% of the battery’s materials being used. But as the demand grows, the research and opportunities will develop, with this research estimating the batteries can have a lifespan of 15 years. Also, this report said closed-loop recycling of the batteries had been successfully tested.
Closed-loop recycling is when the material from something is used to make something new, preserving natural resources, saving landfill space, and reducing pollution.
EV batteries could also be reused to store energy from wind or solar sources.
To conclude
It is clear that electric vehicle production needs improvements, and they need to be charged with electricity from renewable, clean sources.
There is extensive research on how to do this, and it will pick up as popularity increases. Hopefully, by 2030, the drawbacks of EVs will be mitigated.
Thank you for reading.
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