Are Electric Vehicles Are Really Better For Environment?
There has been a discussion going on, that Electric Vehicles are more eco-friendly than Gas-Powered ones. Some people agree on the first part while others on the second, but what exactly the truth is?
I did a study on both perspectives which I will share with you in this article.
Let’s divide it into three parts:
- Production.
- Energy Source.
- In long run.
1. Production:
Electric Vehicle:
Electric vehicles are mainly based on Lithium-Ion batteries. Lithium is a material like any other material that needs to be mine, and mining processes produce a heavy amount of greenhouse gases. As demand for EVs is increasing day by day, the mining of lithium will rise exponentially. On average, it takes 10 Metric tons of CO2 to produce an electric vehicle.
For smaller batteries in economy size EV’s it takes around two metric tons to produce but larger EV’s with long batteries can go up to 17 metric tons of CO2. More than half of the world’s lithium supply comes from three main countries, Chile, Bolivia, and Argentina.
In the Andes Mountains, workers drill through the crust of the salt to get the rich brine to the surface. This whole process needs a massive amount of groundwater. This results in consuming 65% of the water supply of the total region and directly causing a shortage of water to local Farmers. Cobalt is another mineral that is causing environmental damages because this needs to be mine as well.
Gas-Powered Vehicle: On the other hand, Internal combustion vehicles produce 7 Metric tons of CO2 during the production phase. This number takes into account everything, from the mining ore for steel to the moment it is fully prepared.
Now, Let’s talk about the energy source for both types of vehicles.
Electric Vehicle: In the US, for example, Coal power -plants are producing higher electricity than other sources such as wind, solar, and hydroelectric power plants. Emissions coming from mining coal to making electricity from it cause a lot of environmental damage. But, this can be neglected if more electricity starts to be driven from eco-friendly ways.
Gas-Powered Vehicles: Combustion engines need gasoline to run. Same as Lithium it needs to mine as well. The average car in the US goes through about 500 gallons per year. There are many steps from the extraction of crude oil to filling your car at a gas station. During mining, either from earth or from the ocean releases tons of greenhouse gases. Around the globe, 827 million tons of CO2 are released into the atmosphere because of gasoline mining to refine, which is a lot.
3. In Long Run:
Electric Vehicle: Taking into account emissions produced by power plants that electric vehicles source their power from, the national average for an EV is around two metric tons per year.
Gas-Powered Vehicles: Once the Combustion engine vehicle rolls out from the showroom, around 5.2 metric tons of greenhouse emission is produced by a car on average. It is only if the car drives around 11,800 miles per year.
To conclude, even though EV’s produce more CO2 during their production they go more efficiently over the period by producing less emission as compared to the Gas ones i.e 2 metric tons for EV per year and 57 metric tons for Gas-Powered Vehicles.
