Motor Mouth: A few more inconvenient truths about EV CO2 emissions
The article sites a study from U. of Michigan that expresses the CO2 emission of EVs in terms of mpg equivalent of ICE cars, different numbers depending on the generating source of the electrical energy, which comes out to roughly 29 mpg for coal-powered EV, 350 mpg for solar, 2300 mpg for nuclear and 5100 mpg for hydro.
Well, of course, the problem is that they are comparing tail-pipe emission of an ICE to well-to-wheel emission of an EV. If they added the emissions of the ICE for crude oil extraction, transportation of crude oil and gasoline and the refinement of gasoline, then the comparison would be very different and much more favorable to the EV.
Then the article author goes on to complain about the CO2 emission of battery production -- again assuming the energy comes from the dirtiest possible sources of course, not considering the possibility of solar-powered factory. On the other hand they do not consider the CO2 emission cost of the ICE production at all.
I hate these inconvenient FUD articles!
The article sites a study from U. of Michigan that expresses the CO2 emission of EVs in terms of mpg equivalent of ICE cars, different numbers depending on the generating source of the electrical energy, which comes out to roughly 29 mpg for coal-powered EV, 350 mpg for solar, 2300 mpg for nuclear and 5100 mpg for hydro.
Well, of course, the problem is that they are comparing tail-pipe emission of an ICE to well-to-wheel emission of an EV. If they added the emissions of the ICE for crude oil extraction, transportation of crude oil and gasoline and the refinement of gasoline, then the comparison would be very different and much more favorable to the EV.
Then the article author goes on to complain about the CO2 emission of battery production -- again assuming the energy comes from the dirtiest possible sources of course, not considering the possibility of solar-powered factory. On the other hand they do not consider the CO2 emission cost of the ICE production at all.
I hate these inconvenient FUD articles!