The manufacture of electric vehicles is more carbon emitting than diesel & petrol cars, BUT…
There are a lot of misconceptions out there on whether electric vehicles really do offer a lower carbon transport alternative to diesel or petrol engine cars. Here’s how things really stand.
In order to set the record straight, let’s start off with the truth: today the manufacture of the average electric vehicle does release more carbon emissions than a similar diesel or petrol powered alternative (i.e. ICE powered car). EV proponents (which we are) don’t usually like to admit to this, but as things stand, multiple and reputable studies have found that for EVs with a 250+ mile range, the manufacturing emissions can be as high as 68% more than the equivalent ICE vehicle.
This comes mainly from the vast amounts of energy used in EV manufacturing factories e.g. in adapting high performance metals to make the vehicles lighter, and this is before you even account for the battery manufacturing process, whose manufacturing emissions range hugely depending on the infrastructure and techniques available in the factories/region the batteries are made. Hence no surprises behind the reason why Tesla has placed such a high priority in designing and making sure its largest Gigafactory in Sparks, Nevada is carbon neutral — its planned to run on 100% renewable energy with over 200,000 solar PV panels planned.
But although EV manufacturing does result in more emissions vs ICE vehicles, there is another side to this that dwarfs the emissions during manufacture. And that is when lifetime emissions are factored in — i.e. bearing in mind pure electric vehicles have no combustion, and no tailpipe emissions. Over the vehicle lifetime, electric vehicles are therefore by far less emitting particularly when powered by what is an increasingly renewable energy backed electricity grid. The lifetime emissions lead by EVs is therefore set to continue to widen vs conventional ICE vehicles. The latter simply cannot compete going forward.
Another game changer that could be even more impactful and only started evolving over the second half of this decade, will be the growth and advancement of EV battery recycling, e.g. for use as home batteries along with solar PV energy storage.
Therefore, although certainly not (yet) a perfect transport technology, producing more electric vehicles and less ICE vehicles is still a huge leap to a more sustainable transport future.
