Electric cars having been gaining in popularity in recent years, in part due to talk about their benefit to the environment. On one hand, gas-powered vehicles use fossil fuels to run. On the other hand, electric cars can also run on fossil fuels. This makes it difficult to know if electric cars are actually better for the environment. The truth is that it depends on many factors.
In this article, we will clear up all of the confusion with electric cars and their impact on the environment.
Electric Cars Vs Gas Cars: Environmental Impact
Electric cars and gas cars both have an impact on the environment. They both require raw materials and energy to be manufactured, driven, maintained, and disposed one day. While the impact of electric vehicles tends to be higher during the manufacturing process, gas-powered vehicles are typically more impactful in the “use” or driving stage of its lifecycle.
This means, for electric vehicles to be the better option for the environment, they need to produce a low enough impact while being driven. In the next sections, we will break down the impact of each life-cycle stage of a car to see which has the lowest environmental impact.
While there are many different areas in which cars impact the environment, we will focus on climate change in this article. The reason for this is carbon emissions are global issue, while many other impact areas are more local. Further, many of these other impact areas follow a similar trend to climate change, so they can be at least partially covered aby discussing carbon emissions.
Electric Cars Vs Gas Cars: Manufacturing
The climate impact of manufacturing electric cars is generally worse than the climate impact of manufacturing gas cars. This is because the battery and motors in electric vehicles are more impactful than the internal combustion engines of gas-powered cars.
The amount of greenhouse gas emissions created by manufacturing an electric vehicle can also vary significantly, depending on where the manufacturing facility is located. Still, electric vehicles are pretty much always more impactful to manufacture.
Electric Cars Vs Gas Cars: Manufacturing The Body
The impact of making the body or glider of electric vehicles and gas vehicles are nearly the same at about 4,000 kg CO2e each. The powertrain, or the parts that make the vehicle move forward are a bit different because some of the parts needed in electric vehicles have a bigger impact.
Electric Cars Vs Gas Cars: Manufacturing The Powertrain
The powertrain on gas cars generates about 1,000 kg of CO2e, while the powertrain in an electric vehicle creates about 2,500 kg CO2e [1].
So far, this brings the impact to make a gas car to about 5,000 kg CO2e and the impact to make an electric car to about 6,500 kg CO2e. For gasoline cars, this is the total impact. However, for electric cars the battery still needs to be accounted for, which is one of the most impactful parts of making an electric car.
Electric Cars Vs Gas Cars: Manufacturing The Battery
The exact impact of battery production changes a bit based on the type of battery that is being created, although usually not by much. Rather, a much more influential impact on battery manufacturing is where a battery is manufactured [2]. This is because much of the impact to create the battery comes from the electricity use at the manufacturing location.
Different studies show different results, but the impact of manufacturing each kWh of battery capacity creates about 30-500 kg co2e, depending on where its manufactured [2].
Since many batteries are made in China, where coal use is high, the impact of manufacturing a battery is high as well. Electricity production in the United States is much cleaner than China because it uses less coal and more renewables and natural gas, which burns cleaner than coal [3,4].
So just by manufacturing batteries in the US instead of China, the impact of battery manufacturing drops by about 2-3 times, all without changing anything about the materials used to make the car or how the car is manufactured.
Altogether, this means we can estimate the impact of any electric car battery by taking the value of the country where the battery was created and multiply it by the size of the battery.
For example, the Tesla model 3 battery is made in the US and has a 52 kWh capacity, for an impact of about 1,560 kg CO2e. This brings the total electric vehicle impact to about 8,000 kg CO2e, compared to 5,000 kg for conventional cars.
Roughly, the amount of carbon emissions to create vehicles made around the world is as low as about 7100 kg CO2e to nearly 65,000 kg CO2e for electric cars. The average in the US about 9,000 kg CO2e, the average in Europe around 10,000 kg, and average in China around 13,500 kg.
EMISSION FROM DRIVING ELECTRIC CARS VS GAS CARS
Electric cars produce less emissions per mile than gas cars, even if the electric car is powered by fossil fuels. While electric cars have zero tailpipe emissions, they are still responsible for producing greenhouse gases if they are charged with fossil fuel generated electricity.
In order for electric cars to be the less impactful option overall, they need to produce low enough emissions per mile to make up for their higher emissions from the manufacturing stage.
Gasoline-powered cars each use gas with different fuel efficiencies, usually measure in gallons per mile. Emissions per mile can be estimated by dividing 8887 by the fuel efficiency [5]. The avenge gas car emits about 342g of emissions per mile [6]
The electricity used in electric cars can be generated by fossil fuels, which leads many people to think electric cars are dirtier than gas cars. However, power plants are much more efficient at turning fuel into power and it’s easier to control emissions from a single source rather than multiple sources. In addition, certain fossil fuels used in power plants such as natural gas burn cleaner than gasoline.
Electricity generation can come from completely emission free, renewable sources as well. Even if you account for the emissions to produce renewable energy sources, they still produce much less emissions per mile than any fossil fuel option. The emissions to generate a single kWh of electricity from wind power is about 9 kg CO2e and the emissions for solar power is about 65 kg CO2e. Compare that with natural gas at 490 kg CO2e and coal at 820 kg CO2e [7].
Converting to emissions per mile, the impact of each mile driven in an electric vehicle is better than that of a gas vehicle, no matter the fuel source. So, for an electric car to be the better option, you just have to drive it long enough to make up for it’s higher production emissions.
An electric car made in the US that was charged with wind power will have produced less overall emissions than a gas car at about 12,000 miles, including the emissions from manufacturing both cars. Even if your car is powered by coal, this “break-even” point occurs at about 45,000 miles, if it was made in the US.
If an electric car is made in China and powered by wind, you would have to drive about 25,000 miles for the electric car to be the better option. However, if the same car was charged with coal-generated electricity, it would take about 167,000 miles to become the better option.
Todays cars will drive at least 150,000 miles in their lifetime, so its expected that nearly all electric cars on the road today will have a lower climate impact than gas cars. It’s estimated that 95% of the world would lower its emissions by using electric cars, without using any extra renewables [8].
Of course, if your area is powered more by renewables, such as solar power, the “break-even” point will occur sooner. As the world moves towards renewable energy, this positions electric cars to be the least impactful option in the long run.
NON-CLIMATE IMPACTS - ELECTRIC VEHICLES VS GAS VEHICLES
There are many other impacts both vehicles have, for example impacts on water, eco-toxicity, and creation of air pollution, such as particulate matter.
As mentioned above, much of these impacts are heavily influenced by using cleaner energy sources to manufacture electric vehicles and drive them, which means they often follow a similar trend to climate change.
In fact, these other impact areas are so dependent on how clean energy systems are they can be grouped into three categories:
- EV’s are always better than gas (no matter the energy sources used)
- EV’s could be better (depending on the energy sources used)
- EV’s will need improvements before they are equal to or better than gas cars (no matter the energy sources used)
Impacts Where Electric Vehicles Are Better
- Climate change
- Ozone depletion
- Photochemical oxidant formation
- Fossil fuel depletion
- Natural land use
Impacts Where Electric Vehicles Can Be Better
- Particulate matter formation
- Marine eutrophication
- Terrestrial acidification
Impacts Where Electric Vehicles Could Be Better Are Worse
- Freshwater eutrophication
- Marine, freshwater and terrestrial eco-toxicity
- Human toxicity
- Ionizing radiation
- Mineral depletion
- Agricultural land use
- Urban land use
- Water depletion
Regardless of these impacts, studies still show that thousands of human lives would be saved and medical costs would be significantly reduced as a result of cleaner transportation as a result of using EVs, even without doing anything to make them less impactful than they are today.
Metal use and mineral depletion is a topic that gets a lot of attention when it comes to electric vehicles and e-waste in general. Metals are used to make batteries and there is concern that we won’t have enough metals for all our future needs and that their impact has negative social and environmental impacts. While these concerns are valid, battery technology is always changing and it’s possible to substitute metals that are scarce and controversial now with metals that are more abundant and mined with safer practices.
Much research on electric vehicles shows how quickly battery technology is changing. In addition, if you buy an EV today you will likely not need another battery for about 8-10 years, maybe even more. This means by the time you need a new battery there could be entirely new battery technology and supply chains.
In addition, to qualify for any tax credits passed in the US after 2022, the electric vehicle in question must have components made in North America or countries with a fair trade agreement with the US. This move eliminates many parts of the world with controversial mining problems and dirty electric grids.
Much of the toxicity indicators are worse for electric cars because they use more metals. Metals are found within rock. Much processing is needed to get the metals out of rock and this processing is usually powered by dirtier sources of energy. In addition, all of the unused materials left over once metals are extracted and put back into the environment.
However, since they have been crushed and processed, the other minerals within them are more available. This makes it much easier to pollute water ways through rain run off and cause unwanted plant growth and algae blooms known as eutrophication. So, by creating better mining practices such as preventing waste and monitoring nutrient runoff, these impacts can be greatly lowered. Countries such as those in the US and Europe typically have higher pollution monitoring and prevention laws, so this could be another reason to buy cars made in those areas.
Last, electric cars require far less maintenance than gasoline cars. For example, electric cars don’t need conventional oil changes, while gas cars do.
Overall, electric cars offer a more sustainable future for the automotive industry, even if it’s not fully there today. EV’s are a much newer technology than gas cars, but already have a lower environmental impact in many important areas, including lower lifecycle emissions.
EnergySage
EV owners may be interested in getting solar panels for their homes to make each charge of their electric vehicle run on renewable electricity, as well as to cut down on trips to gas stations and fuel costs. EnergySage can help by connecting you to multiple reliable solar providers in your area. With their fully online experience, you can get multiple quotes so you can find the options and providers that work best for your home.
If you go solar, you may also qualify for the solar tax credit, which can cover 30% of your system costs.
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![[7] – Emissions per kWh for Energy Sources](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Life-cycle_greenhouse_gas_emissions_of_energy_sources#/media/File:CO2_Emissions_from_Electricity_Production_IPCC.png){kind=link}