No emissions. No guilt. That’s the idea behind buying electric vehicles. Electric vehicles are often praised as a clean alternative to gas-powered cars. With no emissions and the ability to run on renewable electricity, they are a clear win for the planet right?
Although EVs don’t continuously burn fossil fuels like gas-powered cars, their environmental impact doesn’t disappear, it just shifts somewhere else.
At the heart of every EV is a massive lithium-ion battery that requires rare metals like lithium, cobalt, and nickel: materials that don’t come without a cost. Mining for them can cause land degradation, contaminate water supplies, and also releases a significant amount of carbon dioxide. In fact, building an electric vehicle often creates more emissions than when building a traditional gas car.
So does that make electric cars worse?
While gas-powered cars continue polluting every time they hit the road, EVs get cleaner the longer they’re driven. An EV typically breaks even with a gas car after being driven about 17,500 to 21,300 miles. Considering that most cars in the U.S. are driven for nearly 200,000 miles in their lifetime, EVs typically offer much greater environmental benefits over the long term.
But even that depends on something we don’t often think about: where your EV’s electricity comes from. If an EV is charged using an electric grid powered with energy from coal or natural gas, the environmental benefits become less apparent. In areas with cleaner power grids, however, the benefit of EVs is far more significant.
Then there’s the battery problem. Traditional car batteries are recycled at rates near 99%, but only about 5% of EV batteries currently undergo recycling. However, companies are developing ways to repurpose used EV batteries and give them a second life. A single EV battery can be transformed into multiple smaller units that power equipment such as forklifts and e-bikes.
So are EVs enough to solve the pollution problem?
No. They’re better, but not enough.
Electric vehicles are not a perfect solution. But as battery recycling improves, mining becomes more sustainable, and power grids get cleaner, EVs represent a significant step toward reducing our reliance on fossil fuels and building a more sustainable future.
Sources: