Are electric cars ‘cleaner’ than gasoline cars?

Buying an electric car is much more affordable than a gas or diesel car from an environmental perspective.
If to answer the question “Which vehicle is better for the Earth: Electric car or gas car” then the answer seems too obvious: Of course electric cars because they do not have exhaust pipes and does not emit greenhouse gases.

However, electric cars are not perfect and they come with their own pollution problems. Typically, their batteries contain ingredients such as lithium, which require a considerable amount of energy to source and extract.

However, making batteries is only part of the life cycle of electric vehicles. A 2014 study published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences looked at the entire emissions life cycle of an electric vehicle, from mining the metals needed for batteries to producing the electricity needed. to power them, then compare this to the average emissions of a gasoline car. The team found that when electric cars are charged with coal-fired electricity, they actually do more harm to the environment than conventional gasoline cars.

Buying an electric car is much more affordable than a gas or diesel from an environmental perspective. Illustration

But that is not a problem because today, in most countries around the world, the national grid is “clean” enough for electric cars to beat competitors running on gasoline.

There are very few countries in the world where the grid is entirely or mostly coal. China is one of them. In 2019, an estimated 58% of the country’s electricity supply comes from coal. China’s grid is improving, however, with more investments in renewables – for example, it has twice the capacity of wind power as the US and builds more solar panels than any other country. Every year, according to Nature.

Mr. Gordon Bauer, an electric vehicle researcher at the International Council for Clean Transport in San Francisco, USA, said the current improved grid model, with more renewable energy and less fossil fuels. , is a global model and helps improve the environmental quality of electric vehicles. “As the grid becomes” greener “, the use of electric vehicles will be more perfect,” he said.

In a study published this month in the journal Environmental Science and Technology, Colin Sheppard, a researcher in energy and transport systems engineering at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory in California, Work with Gordon Bauer to model a hypothetical future scenario where all cars are powered by electricity. “We want to understand the impact of energy, infrastructure and emissions if all passenger vehicles are electrified,” Sheppard told Live Science.

For example, Mr. Sheppard calculated that if all private vehicles in the United States were powered by electricity, the annual reduction in greenhouse gas emissions in the country would be 46% (0.5 gigatons of CO2) compared to cars. run on conventional gas.

This reduction could be further increased if the vehicles were subjected to so-called “controlled charging”, a technique also known as “smart charging”, in which the vehicles are recharged into Timing is selected to minimize the financial cost of electricity generation. (For example, charging at night is generally less expensive than during the day; this strategy also favors plants that produce more energy efficiently to generate cheaper electricity.) If all privately owned electric cars were charged in the same way, emissions savings could be increased by up to 49% annually.

In addition, electric vehicles are said to also emit CO2, but not during use, but when generating electricity – this is why many people believe that this car is not completely pure. Even the president of Toyota once harshly said that electric cars are being overblown.

In fact, electrochemical vehicles including Hybrid (HEV), Plug-in Hybrid (PHEV) still emit CO2 even when used (because there is still an internal combustion engine) and possibly when generating electricity, depending on how it is generated. electricity. While pure electric vehicles can only generate CO2 in the production process, not when used.

Depending on the source of electricity generation is hydroelectricity, wind power or thermal power, nuclear power … that the amount of CO2 generation will be different. If hydroelectricity, CO2 level is almost zero, while thermal power is too much CO2.

Research by Bloomberg NEF in Thailand shows that electric cars generate 60% of the CO2 equivalent of a gasoline equivalent vehicle. This source of CO2 comes entirely from production, because Thailand generates electricity mainly from natural gas. While internal combustion engine vehicles produce CO2 in an 80/20 ratio between use and production.

For example, if a gasoline car generates 100 g CO2 / km 80 g from use and 20 g from gas production. While a corresponding electric car model only generates 60 g of CO2 from use. As such, electric cars are still significantly cleaner than gasoline cars.

For countries with clean electricity generation sources such as Norway, up to 95% of electrical energy comes from hydroelectricity, CO2 emissions are even lower. The future of electric vehicles is becoming clearer as more automakers are involved in the production and research of electric vehicles. Users often do not care too much about CO2 emissions in production, but realize that when used, it will help where cars circulate with less pollution.

Ultimately, the conclusion is that buying an electric car is much more affordable than a gas or diesel car from an environmental perspective.

Thu Ha (Th)