Past vs. Future: Are electric cars truly better for the environment?
Electric cars. Touted to be the future of transport and the next leap forward for mobility, EVs (electric vehicles) produce no emissions and waste less energy than ICE (internal combustion engine) powered cars. As a result, the governing bodies of many nations have provided their residents with tax incentives to buy more electric vehicles, eventually planning to eliminate ICE-powered cars altogether.
Malaysian EV owners will not only be fully exempt from road tax, but they will also receive personal tax relief of up to RM2500 for the cost of purchasing, installing, or renting a charging station. Beginning on January 1st, 2022, this incentive aims to attract more car manufacturers to launch EVs in Malaysia, aiding Malaysia’s goal of becoming a greener nation. However, there are still doubts about whether this is the perfect solution for pollution. So, are EVs really better for the environment than their petrol and diesel-powered counterparts?
The first piece to the puzzle lies in the production process of an EV. They store their energy in big lithium-ion batteries installed on the car’s floor.
These batteries usually contain REEs (rare earth elements) such as lithium, cobalt, and nickel. For example, lithium is extracted by pumping up brine from under the surface of salt flats and left to dry into concentrated lithium solutions. This extraction method is often detrimental to the environment, leeching groundwater from the surrounding regions, using as much as 750 tons of brine to yield just 1 ton of lithium, and hindering agricultural activities due to the lowered water table and lack of groundwater to irrigate crops.
Heavy machinery is also often used in the mining of lithium and the production of EVs, resulting in the emission of greenhouse gases such as carbon dioxide. As a result, the average EV would produce more CO2 than an ICE-powered counterpart, with the former producing between 8–10 tons of CO2 and the latter emitting just 7 tons.
Another significant piece of the puzzle is how electricity is generated. In Malaysia, only 6% of electricity is from renewable sources, which means that buying an EV would still contribute to the pollution problem due to the increased amount of fossil fuels needed to be burnt to produce more electricity.
However, not all is gloom for EVs. According to the EPA, the average ICE-powered passenger car produces 4.6 tons of CO2 every year. This totals up to 53 tons from production to its 10-year mark on the roads, while the average EV emits only 28 tons of CO2, less than half of an ICE-powered car. Therefore, an EV would become more efficient than an ICE-powered vehicle between 6 months to 2 years of driving it.
Another factor to consider is the production of fuel for ICE-powered vehicles. Oil refineries, which process crude oil into products such as petrol and diesel, produce a whopping 250 billion tonnes of CO2 a year, dwarfing the pollution produced by EV production. Although the petroleum used to power ICE-powered vehicles might also be used in power generation, less petrol is needed, meaning that it will not affect the outcome.
Even though we can safely assume that EVs are more environmentally friendly, the truth is much more complicated than it seems. Thankfully, EVs are only getting more efficient as they are merely in their infancy compared to ICE-powered vehicles. With this in mind, we hope that we can make small steps toward a greener automotive industry, thus making small steps toward a greener planet.
Written by: Brian Lo
