A new study has looked into whether electric cars are really better for the environment than gas-powered cars. It turns out that this is indeed the case: after two years of use, EVs start reducing their total carbon footprint compared to gas cars.
That's from scientists at Duke University, who carried out research supported by the Albemarle Corporation – a North Carolina-based chemical manufacturing firm involved in the battery value chain for automakers. The peer-reviewed study has been published this week in the journal PLOS Climate.
Okay, so now we know where the findings are coming from. Let's look at what else the researchers observed. Their study confirms that building an EV starts off with about 30% higher CO2 emissions than a regular internal combustion engine (ICE) car. That can be attributed to largely to mining the lithium for the EV's battery, and manufacturing said battery.
But once you get this EV on the road, it begins to make up for its emissions pretty quickly, and wipes the slate clean after two years when compared to a gas car covering the same distance.
To arrive at this, the researchers used the Global Change Analysis Model (GCAM) – which helps examine how the world's energy, economy, and climate systems interact over long time periods – to evaluate air pollutant emissions across four scenarios of increasing EV adoption in the US through the year 2050. They looked at emissions from fuel production, battery manufacturing, vehicle assembly, and operation for both electric and gas-powered cars.
Beyond the reduction in CO2 emissions after the initial two years, as battery technologies improve over time, each additional kWh of an electric car's lithium-ion battery capacity is projected to lead to a reduction of about 485 lb (220 kg) of CO2 by 2030, and 280 lb (127 kg) of CO2 by the time 2050 rolls around.
The researchers also looked at the overall effects of both air pollution and climate change for both types of cars. They found the economic value of the damages attributable to gas-powered cars over their estimated lifetime of 18 years, amounted to 2 to 3.5 times that of EVs. That includes things like the social cost of healthcare for humans who suffer from conditions brought on by polluted air.
It's worth noting that these findings are derived from computer modeling and scenario simulation. The study also didn't account for a number of categories of emissions, including those associated with disposing or recycling components from both types of vehicles, and those that would be generated in the processing of setting up charging infrastructure for EVs.
Still, this does help inform the discourse around just how green EVs can be, and how we think about the benefits of moving away from gas-powered vehicles as technologies, infrastructure, and public policies in countries around the world continue to evolve.
Source: PLOS Climate
