Engineering Explained
5 HN recommenders · recommended in 14 months, 2018–2023
13:47 · 2.2M views · Oct 31, 2018
Engineering Explained works through whether electric cars are really worse for the environment than gasoline cars. It covers battery production emissions, the electricity mix used to charge, and how long an EV takes to break even on lifetime emissions.
HN commenters link it repeatedly as a clear, number-based rebuttal to the claim that EVs are worse for the climate than gas cars.
16 comments from Hacker News
The article doesn't talk about greenhouse gas emissions, so the power grid and fuel source isn't really relevant to the point, especially since oil is an extremely small part of the energy mixture in most places.[1] If they were talking about greenhouse gases, then the answer seems to be that it depends on where you live and how/what you drive, but an electric vehicle almost always produces less emissions than an equivalent gas powered one. [2] does a decent job explaining though I feel he leaves a few parts out for the sake of clarity. For example, driving a P100D isn't the equivalent of driving the average car. It's more like driving a sports sedan (like a BMW M5), so those sorts of vehicles would probably be a more fair comparison. In the same vane, the whole US car fleet includes lots of SUVs and other trucks, which if there were equivalent electric models, would obviously not go as far as a Leaf. It would be great if there was a US calculator that worked like [3] does for the UK so that we could do the same sort of comparison based on the mix where we live. [1] [LINK] [2] this video [3] [LINK]
Nobody thinks that EVs have a zero carbon footprint. But over the lifetime of the car, they have a lower footprint than ICE. Yes, they have a higher footprint than ICE to manufacture, but even if you get your power from coal, over the long term their carbon footprint is lower. And if your power comes from a renewable source, then the break-even point is less than two years. Engineering Explained did a good video doing the math behind the carbon footprints of ICE versus EV over the life of the car: this video
Here's a video I liked on the carbon costs associated w/ gas & electric cars. Check out video's sources for further reading. this video -- "Are Electric Cars Worse For The Environment? Myth Busted" -- Engineering Explained
Yes, it takes more energy to build a BEV than an ICE car. It's not massively different and the lifetime emissions of a BEV are still lower than an ICE car even on a pretty dirty grid. good breakdown: this video
Citation needed. The literature I've seen suggests that an electric vehicle easily makes back any deficit quite early in its life. An easily digestable version of this calculation is here: this video