this post was submitted on 16 Sep 2023
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If we are talking solely about power usage from the grid then, even in the worst case scenarios, EVs are much cleaner than ICE vehicles.
For example, the average gas car emits around 441g or about .972 pounds worth of CO2 per mile.
For comparison purposes, let’s take the most popular EV currently sold right now which is the model 3 long range as our test case. This car in the worst conditions (cold) goes around 240 miles (a far cry from the 300+ it’s advertised to have I might add) and uses 72kWh to do so. This means, in the worst case scenario, the car is using .3kWh of battery per mile.
Now for the power plant. Let’s use coal as our power source. Coal power emits approximately 2.26 pounds of CO2 per KWh produced. If we take our numbers from earlier, then the model 3 driving in the cold results in .678 pounds of co2 per mile being emitted at the power plant if it is charged using coal power. This is still about 30% less emissions than the ICE vehicle per mile. If the car was powered by natural gas then the percentage grows to around 70%.
Of course there are other factors involved such as other pollutants emitted during power productions (especially when burning coal). However, a lot of these are also produced by ICE vehicles. It’s much easier to have centralized sources of pollution rather than millions of them spread out over the place. Another thing to note is that EVs take more emissions to produce, but is mostly offset over the lifespan of the vehicles due to their low maintenance. EV batteries can also be recycled, though they are usually used in power storage instead of new vehicles.
i am not doubting the calculations, but see ? Evs only save 30% on emissions, what about the rest of 66% ? the purpose of EVs is to save the environment thou, right ? if Evs were powered by a solar plant, that would be a cool 0% of emissions. and that would be really nice. Also u dont want to depend on countries like russia for fossil fuel, be it gas or coal, or have to invade african countries for their uranium. instead solar is a more sustainable form of energy
30% is better than nothing and for the majority of people that number would be much higher (different power mixes and climates). It's not like power plans have to be converted before we switch to EVs or vice versa. We should be doing everything we can to reduce emissions whether that is making new solar power plants or switching from ICE vehicles to electric.
I will add that EVs don't actually solve the problem and other solutions like increasing public transportation and shifting away from car culture would have a much greater impact overall. The purpose of EVs wasn't to "save the environment", but to sell people more new, expensive vehicles with the illusion that they will save the environment while lining the pockets of those who helped to destroy it. They do help and something is better than nothing, but it still isn't enough.
now we agree, but its a step in the right direction. just people should stop pretending they are saving the environment when buying Evs, thats just hypocrite. electric trains powered by solar should also subtitute airplanes, and electric buses are also less polluting..