TEDx Talks
3 HN mentions · mentioned in 3 months, 2022
13:59 · 4.1M views · Jan 31, 2020
A TEDx talk arguing that battery electric vehicles are not as environmentally friendly as commonly believed and that the rush to adopt them is misguided. TED flagged it as containing claims that lack scientific support.
Mentioned only occasionally as a contrarian argument for hybrids over EVs, with no real endorsement.
3 comments from Hacker News
> Every claim you make is false Every claim I made is not false. For example I said "electricity is MOST LIKELY not carbon free". If that were false, then are you suggesting that most electricity is carbon free? Are we only talking about vehicles operating in Costa Rica or something? I think it is easy to verify that your statement is incorrect. The comment I was responding to was one sided and without sourced information. I provided an argument for the other side without sourced information as well. I'm not sure that anything I said is wildly false , and I thought it would provide balance. If you're curious, have a look at this TedX [talk]. I just happened across it yesterday so those arguments were top of mind. It's another example of a whole bunch of "facts" being presented with no source so I don't give it much weight but it's a good presentation. [talk]: this video
At present the turbines are not recyclable. [LINK] EVs are probably really worse than hybrids. this video Solar panels are pretty toxic. Present recycling produces all sorts of toxic waste that might be poorly handled. [LINK] Batteries are often sourced from slave labor. [LINK] Lithium miners often continue exploration of indigenous peoples. [LINK] Lithium mining often poisons the environment. [LINK] The list goes on.
I am convinced EV will be the future, but given how electricity is produced and how batteries are built the most sustainable technology is hybrid this video