Do Gas Cars Pollute Less than EVs? No.

[Dardedar]

Battery electric beats gas, regardless of where the kWh comes from.
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1) A Tesla being driven in Norway, which generates almost all its electricity from renewable hydropower, the break-even point would come after just 8,400 miles.
Even in the worst case scenario where an EV is charged only from a coal-fired grid, it would generate an extra 4.1 million grams of carbon a year while a comparable gasoline car would produce over 4.6 million grams,
https://www.reuters.com/business/autos- ... 021-06-29/

2) EVs Cleaner: Argonne National Lab's cradle-to-grave analysis considered everything from raw material extraction to vehicle scrappage. The analysis showed that EVs have fewer GHG emissions.
https://cleantechnica.com/2023/08/14/fr ... -vehicles/

3) The manufacture of an EV has a slightly greater carbon footprint than that of a gas-powered car, but it takes about a year of typical use to recover the difference.
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-021-27247-y

4) Life cycle assessment of electric vehicles: a systematic review of literature
“There is a compelling environmental advantage of EVs. They emit a staggering 97% less CO2 equivalent emissions when compared to petrol vehicles, and a significant 70% less compared to their diesel counterparts.”
https://link.springer.com/article/10.10 ... 23-30999-3

5) Australia
Are electric vehicles really better for the environment? Yes.
If the grid is powered by fossil fuels, how are EVs cleaner?
“In Australia, our electricity grid is currently heavily reliant on coal for generation. Despite this, driving a BEV off the current grid is still much less polluting than driving an ICE vehicle.
According to modelling by the NRMA and PwC Australia, an average new ICE vehicle emits around 185 gCO2/km compared to an average new BEV which emits around 98 gCO2/km if charged via the grid. As renewable energy represents an increasing proportion of the electricity mix and battery capacity improves, BEV emissions are estimated to fall to 58 gCO2/km.”
https://www.mynrma.com.au/cars-and-driv ... nvironment

6) "Battery manufacturing life-cycle emissions debt is quickly paid off. EV higher emissions during the manufacturing stage are paid off after only 2 years compared to ICE, which drops to about 1.5 years if the car is charged using renewable energy.”
https://theicct.org/publication/effects ... emissions/

7) Excellent summary of the relative energy efficiency improvement of EVs over ICEs, even if coal is burned to generate the electricity (only about 20% of the energy in gasoline gets used to propel the vehicle, while only about 1/3 of the energy in coal is delivered as electricity, 89% of which propels the vehicle, so about 59% propels the car).
Electrifying transportation reduces emissions AND saves massive amounts of energy
Electric vehicles are far more energy-efficient than traditional internal combustion vehicles.
“Traditional cars and trucks are surprisingly inefficient
Modern gasoline-powered vehicles waste a whopping 80% of the energy in their fuel. For each gallon pumped into the tank, only a bit more than three cups go to moving the vehicle forward. In economic terms, for a $5.00 gallon of gasoline, only $1.00 of it gets you closer to your destination.”
In all, the various energy losses in an EV add up to 31% to 35%. Regenerative braking adds 22% back into the system, making the overall efficiency around 87% to 91%.”
https://yaleclimateconnections.org/2022 ... of-energy/

8] Life Cycle Analysis of Electric Vehicles (Vancouver)
This study uses life cycle analysis (LCA) to comparatively analyze two vehicle models of similar size of each type (ICEV and EV) currently used in the City’s fleet. Ford Focus is chosen for the ICEV and Mitsubishi i-MiEV for the EV, both with a vehicle life of 150,000km.
Carbon emissions and energy consumption are analyzed for each phase from cradle-to-grave for both vehicles: raw material production, vehicle manufacture, transportation, operation, and decommissioning. The analysis shows that the electric vehicle has notably lower carbon emissions and lower energy consumption per kilometer. After considering all phases, the Ford Focus emits 392.4gCO2-eq/km and Mitsubishi i-MiEV emits 203.0gCO2-eq/km over the vehicle life.”
https://sustain.ubc.ca/sites/default/fi ... ukreja.pdf

9) Cleaner Now Than Ever: Driving Electric Cars and Trucks Cuts Global Warming Emissions
Over a Vehicle’s Lifetime, Electric Advantage Is Big and Growing
“On average, electric vehicles produce less than half the global warming emissions that come from driving a similar gasoline vehicle. This advantage has grown with a cleaner electrical grid and more efficient EV technology. And that advantage holds over the whole lifetime of the vehicle, from manufacture to driving to disposal.”
https://www.ucsusa.org/about/news/clean ... -emissions

10) New UCS study shows EVs are cleaner than ICE vehicles
A new Union of Concerned Scientists (UCS) study found that the average new battery electric vehicle produces over 50% less global warming pollution than comparable gasoline or diesel vehicles.
The analysis showed that the extra emissions from the manufacturing of EVs are practically erased after fewer than 21,000 miles driven for cars and 17,500 miles driven for trucks. Less than two years of average driving.
According to the UCS study which was published yesterday, “Based on the most recently available data on power plant emissions and EV sales, driving the average EV in the United States produces global warming emissions equal to a gasoline vehicle that gets 91 miles per gallon.”
https://www.teslarati.com/new-ucs-study ... -than-ice/

11) Electric Cars Are Cleaner Even When Powered by Coal
Electric cars are better for the environment than traditional gasoline models, and that benefit will grow as power generators shift away from coal.
BloombergNEF found carbon dioxide emissions from battery-powered vehicles were about 40 percent lower than for internal combustion engines last year. The difference was biggest in Britain and the U.K., which have large renewables industries.
“When an internal combustion vehicle rolls off the line its emissions per km are set, but for an EV they keep falling every year as the grid gets cleaner,”
The global share of zero-carbon electricity generation is set to increase from 38 percent last year to 63 percent by 2040."
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles ... ly-on-coal

13) "On the basis of recent studies, fossil-fuelled cars generally emit more than electric cars in all phases of a life cycle. The total life cycle emissions from a fossil-fuelled car and an electric car in Australia were 333g of CO₂ per km and 273g of CO₂ per km, respectively. That is, using average grid electricity, EVs come out about 18% better in terms of their carbon footprint.
Likewise, electric cars in New Zealand work out a lot better than fossil-fuelled cars in terms of emissions, with life-cycle emissions at about 333 g of CO₂ per km for fossil-fuelled cars and 128g of CO₂ per km for electric cars. In New Zealand, EVs perform about 62% better than fossil cars in carbon footprint terms."
https://theconversation.com/climate-exp ... ars-124762

14) Electric cars have much lower life cycle emissions
Today in the US market, a medium-sized battery EV already has 60–68 percent lower lifetime carbon emissions than a comparable car with an internal combustion engine. And the gap is only going to increase as we use more renewable electricity.”
https://arstechnica.com/cars/2021/07/el ... -confirms/

15) How many emissions are released in the manufacturing of electric and gas vehicles?
“About three-quarters of the life cycle emissions of gas-powered cars are through tailpipe emissions. Around 9% of life cycle emissions come from making the vehicles themselves.
In contrast, while all-electric vehicles produce less than half as much life cycle emissions, about 35% of total greenhouse gas emissions for all-electric vehicles are from either the battery manufacturing process or the manufacturing of the cars. This is due to the higher amounts of greenhouse gases created while mining for lithium needed for the batteries in all-electric vehicles. The remaining 65% of emissions are from electricity production.
While electric vehicles produce less than half as many life cycle emissions as gas-powered cars, the mining required to make the lithium-ion batteries used in electric vehicles produces large amounts of greenhouse gases. About 18% of total greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions created by electric vehicles are associated with the battery manufacturing process. About 17% of GHG emissions from electric cars comes from the rest of the manufacturing process. The proportions are significantly different for gas-powered cars. Only 9% of emissions come from the manufacturing process, 17% come from fuel production and distribution and 74% comes from tailpipe emissions during vehicle use.”
https://usafacts.org/articles/how-much- ... s-produce/

16) Research by global energy analysts BloombergNEF (BNEF) found that, “in all analysed cases”, EVs have consistently lower lifecycle emissions than ICE vehicles, a contrast that will only continue to grow as the decade progresses.
“For a driver in the US, they only need to travel 41,000km – or around two years of driving – while in China, the distance travelled increases to 118,000km, or around 10 years, due to the country’s fossil fuel-heavy grid.
For a BEV manufactured in 2030, BNEF predicts that a driver in the US will only need to travel around 21,000km to reach the breakeven point…”
https://thedriven.io/2024/03/27/evs-are ... are-dirty/

17) Are electric cars better for the environment than fuel-powered cars? Here's the verdict
Overall, every electric car will produce fewer emissions than its petrol equivalent, no matter where they are charged.
Even with an electricity grid that still uses some fossil fuels, electric cars have much lower overall carbon emissions, and that will continue to drop as the electricity gets greener.
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2024-05-27/ ... /103746132