Quote:
Originally Posted by Rocksnap
EV’s are NOT cleaner than ICE vehicles. Many studies have been accomplished. When you add up the start to finish, EV’s at far dirtier than ICE. The mining of raw materials, shipping to process said raw materials for processing. More shipping of raw materials to the battery makers. More shipping to the car manufacturers. More shipping to the consumer. More shipping when the battery pack needs replacing. I didn’t even start with the electricity generation by most likely a coal fired plant. When ALL is added up, ICE emissions are drastically less over the life of a vehicle than an EV. EV’s “saving the planet” is a pipe dream. At least for the current technologies.
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Most (all?) those studies seem to envision a single EV being born in a mine and growing to adulthood through shipping materials around the world while an ICE vehicle simply springs into existence on a dealer's showroom floor. Realistically, ICE vehicles also begin in mines and require a lot of resources to machine the parts for the engine. I've not seen a realistic, apples-to-apples comparison.
I'm particularly interested in the fuel. The coal-fired plant is often mentioned but since only about 15% of electricity is generated from coal today, it is five times more likely that your electricity came from something other than coal. Regardless, it's the cost that interests me. From both the chatGPT table and what we actually pay, the gas to move a vehicle a given distance costs three times as much as the electricity used. Yes, there are gas taxes but there are also electricity fees and someone soon will point out the losses incurred in transporting electricity over a long distance. When everything is figured in, the difference must come down to the price of fuel used. So either electrical generation uses a very inexpensive fuel compared to gasoline or a power plant is much more fuel efficient than a car engine. My bet is the latter, that power plants are much more fuel efficient and therefore much cleaner than gasoline engines.
When ALL is added up, it isn't clear that EV and ICE engines have ever really been compared apples-to-apples and it sure isn't obvious that ICE vehicles have lower overall emissions.