EVs and the carbon question

Critics of electric vehicles and the electrification of transport, in general, are quick to point to the environmental impact of battery production as a reason to reject change. The carbon differential of battery production is real, though – and growing. However, it is only part of the story.

Critics of EVs only consider one part of the picture when forming their views. Noting, for example, that the lithium, cobalt, and nickel used in the large batteries in EVs is mined and is partly why EVs have a significantly larger raw resource impact than the internal combustion engine equivalent. Citing this fact, these critics argue that switching to electric transportation is a con and that the carbon impact compared to fossil-fueled vehicles is negligible. It is, therefore, nice to see the evidence to the contrary mounting. Indeed, this conclusion fails when the entire picture is considered.

A recent analysis from Visual Capitalist compares EV, hybrid and internal combustion engines across a range of carbon-producing parameters. It concludes that while EV battery production accounts for around 5 tonnes of CO2 equivalent and the internal combustion engine obviously ranks as zero here, over a 16-year lifespan, exhaust emissions dwarf that initial increase. According to this ranking, EVs have a total lifecycle impact of 39 tonnes of CO2 equivalent (tCO2e), against 47 tCO2e for a hybrid and a clearly larger 55 tCO2e for the conventional vehicle when taking into account manufacturing, maintenance, fuel, and through to end-of-life disposal. And this assessment does not consider the benefits of transition on the human toxic emissions that do not impact climate change.

From the analysis, we can see that a large portion of the carbon footprint of EVs comes from the production of electricity which today is still quite carbon-intensive. As the electric grid transitions to renewable generation, its carbon footprint will reduce, resulting in EVs having an even smaller carbon footprint than today. While it is reasonable to expect that the supply chain of fuel for gasoline-powered vehicles will decarbonize, it seems clear that its potential is much more limited than that of the electric grid.

This highlights the importance of looking at all options for decarbonization, we should transition our vehicle fleet to electric at the same time, we are transitioning our electric grid to renewables. Each transition will turbocharge the benefits of the other transition.

Resistance to change is natural. But as technology emerges to reduce the carbon footprint of batteries and we bring more renewable generation into our energy mix, we can’t deny EV’s role in decarbonizing mobility and the economy overall.