Don’t get fooled: Electric vehicles really are better for the climate

7 comments

1. Better than gas vehicles, worse than biking or public transit.

2. Depending on the power grid, for some areas hybrids are better than electric. Hybrids are often more energy-efficient than electrics, and if your local power grid is mostly coal, the hybrid will have a smaller carbon footprint.

3. “electric cars are the future of cars, but cars aren’t the future of mobility”. Or something like that.

4. Incorrect, manufacturing electric cars is terrible for the environment. If we made an electric car for everyone who uses a gas car. The resulting CO2 would still be catastrophic.

5. I mean, eating a Big Mac for every meal is better than eating butter for every meal, but that doesn’t mean it’s healthy.

6. Cars are terrible for the environment in general, not just the climate. Also bad for society for many reasons.

7. Better for the climate in that less greenhouse gases are emitted over the product’s lifecycle. But maybe not better for the environment in general when considering drastically increased rubber and plastic micro particles from extra tire wear due to vehicle weight, and the necessary extra infrastructure repairs needed also due to increased vehicle weight. Are there any comprehensive studies that account for those factors? Maybe they don’t cancel out the lower GHG emissions, maybe they do.

   Regardless, it’s all a moot point anyways, because if we don’t get the majority of commuters in the western world out of their cars and onto transit, bikes, and sidewalks, while at the same time reversing the infrastructure sprawl that came with suburban and exurban expansion, we can’t expect to slow, stop or reverse climate change even if every single car in use was electric.

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