Are EVs Really That Bad?
Well, since 61.3% of all our electricity comes from coal, diesel, lignite and natural gas [1], most of us think it is safe to say that an EV would have a carbon footprint comparable if not equal to a conventional internal combustion engine (ICE) vehicle. Plus, the carbon footprint of an EV at the time of manufacture is higher than that of an ICE vehicle mainly because mining Lithium, a key component in modern day EV battery packs is not a very green process and has a pretty high carbon footprint as much as 74% higher than ICE vehicles [2]. Estimates put the carbon footprint of Lithium-ion battery manufacturing between 61kg equivalent of CO2 per kWh and 100 equivalent of CO2 per kWh [3]. After looking at these numbers, most of us would think EVs aren’t a very green option. As if adding insult to injury, an EV costs more than an equivalent ICE vehicle, for example, the Tata Nexon EV which is my country’s best-selling EV today starts at ₹13.99 lakh whereas its petrol counterpart, the petrol driven Nexon starts at ₹7.19 lakh (both are ex-showroom prices i.e., prices prior to paying registration fees, insurance, road tax etc.). So, is an EV really a good option?
The short answer is yes, the medium sized answer is yes in all cases and the long answer well, it’s given below.
Let us take the Nexon EV for reference, it has an ARAI certified range of 312km and a 30.2kWh battery. Let us take the worst-case scenario which is the most polluting scenario and assume all of the electrical power needed to charge the EV comes from thermal power, the amount of fuel that would be burnt to fully charge the battery would be as follows [3,4],
· 3.75kg of bituminous coal i.e., 8.45kg of total CO2 emissions or 0.027kg/km.
· 1.85 litres of petrol i.e., 7.85kg of total CO2 emissions or 0.0025kg/km
Now these values of emissions are in addition to the 1842.2kg to 3020kg of CO2 emissions which are a result of the manufacturing of the battery pack which is only a one-time emission.
Now, let us take the Nexon petrol for reference, this car has an ARAI certified mileage of 17km/l, this results in a carbon footprint of 4.25kg of CO2 per km driven. (For the purpose of consistency, I have taken ARAI certified figures for both vehicles, real life values may differ.)
From the above figures, it is clear that as an EV is driven, its carbon footprint keeps shrinking and the more the EV is driven, the more its carbon footprint shrinks to the point where the carbon footprint of the EV falls below that of an ICE vehicle within the first 2–4 years of driving (even when it is powered by thermal power!), switching over to zero-emissions sources of power such as hydroelectric, nuclear and solar power, the carbon footprint of an EV would shrink faster.
Now, how about the cost of owning an EV? Aren’t EVs more expensive to begin with? Yes, they are because, they’re a relatively new technology and aren’t being produced in large volumes plus, everything that’s new comes with an “early adopter” tax. But still, let us do a little but of mathematics here as well,
The on-road price in Delhi for the base variant of the petrol-driven Nexon is ₹8.19 lakhs, assuming that you’re an average Indian driver like me, you might be driving around 1000km per month which leads to a monthly petrol cost of ₹5800 per month at a minimum. Further, a petrol driven car requires more frequent maintenance than an EV. Services such as oil-changes, brake pads and regular wear and tear of the engine, the costs of this also add up significantly. On the other hand, in the Nexon EV which has an on-road price of ₹14.69 lakhs, costs ₹241.6 to fully charge leading to a minimum monthly bill of ₹724.8. The only maintenance that would be needed in an EV is for consumables like brake pads and tyres, thanks to technologies such as regenerative braking in the Nexon EV, its brake-pads will wear out slower than the ones on its petrol counterpart. The aspect of battery degradation comes after driving the EV for at least 1 lakh kilometres or around 8 years after which you’ll be needing a new battery. But what happens to the old one? Won’t dumping it harm the environment? Maybe this is why EVs should be avoided at all costs! Wrong again! Old EV batteries are perfectly usable for non-automotive applications, you can use these batteries for backup power yourself or your EV manufacturer, would sell the battery pack to those who need batteries for energy storage. These batteries are rated to function for 10 years after they’ve been discarded by an EV driver. Several start-ups such as Nunam are actually working on giving these batteries a second life in smartphones, laptops or even in medium to large scale applications such as power inverters [5]. Further, there’s ongoing research on extracting several useful metals such as Cobalt, Nickel, Magnesium etc. from Lithium-ion batteries.
Now that you know that an EV will save your wallet in addition to saving the environment, why not consider buying an EV especially when petrol prices have skyrocketed?
References
[1] https://powermin.gov.in/en/content/power-sector-glance-all-india
[2] https://www.carbonbrief.org/factcheck-how-electric-vehicles-help-to-tackle-climate-change
[3] https://www.engineeringtoolbox.com/fuels-higher-calorific-values-d_169.html
[4] https://www.engineeringtoolbox.com/co2-emission-fuels-d_1085.html
