The trend of automakers introducing electric vehicles is going viral at the moment. It is believed that car manufacturers are planning to invest approximately up to $90 billion in the development of EVs [6]. The main reasons why people go “electric” is because they think electric cars are 100% environmentally-friendly, cheaper to maintain and refuel. Moreover, many countries are planning to ban the sales and manufacturing of new, gas-powered cars. India plans to ban new conventional cars by 2030, the UK by 2050 and France by 2040 [4]. However, are electric cars are the answer to fighting climate change? Are they 100% “clean” as most of the consumers think? Let’s find out.
Electric vehicles are seen as an eco-friendly solution for fighting global warming. Last year over 3 million electric autos were sold and this is figure predicted to rise in the future [2]. Although, EVs do not generate any pollution while being driven the way they are produced should not be forgotten. The batteries of electric cars are dependent on the following raw-materials: cobalt, lithium, aluminum, manganese and many more [5]. To extract these metals companies are using extensive amounts of clean water, which further promotes harm to the environment [2]. Besides, bringing the harm to the environment the extraction of the mentioned above metals is done in the third-world countries. There were several instances when the extraction included illegal child labor and non-compliance to the work safety regulations when operating with these bio-hazardous metals [2]. Moreover, these resources are scarce as well as oil and no safe way was found in recycling the lithium-ion batteries [3]. A recent investigation in China has shown that an average fossil-powered vehicle would result in 10.5 tonnes of CO2 emissions. On the other hand, single electric vehicle results in the 13 tonnes of CO2 emissions, including battery production [5]. However, of course, if we are talking about the long-term perspective, for example, 150,000 km of mileage electric cars would produce around 20% fewer emissions than the conventional car [5]. Alongside, with the battle between electric cars and conventional ones, there has been a player that hasn’t still received wide recognition, them being hydrogen-powered or fuel-cell vehicles. These cars use hydrogen gas to generate electricity and convert it into movement. These cars are 100% emission-free releasing only pure water from their exhaust pipe [1]. However, as with electric cars, hydrogen-fueled autos cannot find a clean development solution, as today the technology depends on fossil fuels to produce the wanted fuel cell [1].
Summing up, the future of transportation is pretty vague at the moment. Although, to some extent electric cars allow us to reduce the amount of CO2 produced it does not resolve the problem completely. As of today, we cannot find a 100% pure-clean way to the CO2 issue. Currently, it can be said that the best way to reduce the number of greenhouse gases escaping to the atmosphere is by taking public transport or car-sharing [7]. Although sometimes these ways of transportation do not seem like the best options to take, I strongly believe that technology will help us to discover a fully eco-friendly way of commuting in the near upcoming future.
Work Cited
- Baxter, E. (2011, April 25). 10 Possible Transportation Pollution Solutions. Retrieved November 24, 2019, from https://science.howstuffworks.com/environmental/green-science/10-transportation-pollution-solutions1.htm.
- Broom, D. (2019, March 27). The dirty secret of electric vehicles. Retrieved November 24, 2019, from https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2019/03/the-dirty-secret-of-electric-vehicles/.
- Brueckner, M. (2018, April 17). Not so fast: why the electric vehicle revolution will bring problems of its own. Retrieved November 24, 2019, from https://theconversation.com/not-so-fast-why-the-electric-vehicle-revolution-will-bring-problems-of-its-own-94980.
- Coren, M. J. (2018, August 7). Nine countries say they’ll ban internal combustion engines. So far, it’s just words. Retrieved November 24, 2019, from https://qz.com/1341155/nine-countries-say-they-will-ban-internal-combustion-engines-none-have-a-law-to-do-so/.
- Hasan, A., & Chapman, R. B. (2019, October 15). Climate explained: the environmental footprint of electric versus fossil cars. Retrieved November 24, 2019, from https://theconversation.com/climate-explained-the-environmental-footprint-of-electric-versus-fossil-cars-124762.
- Lienert, P. (2018, January 15). Global carmakers to invest at least $90 billion in electric vehicles. Retrieved November 24, 2019, from https://www.reuters.com/article/us-autoshow-detroit-electric/global-carmakers-to-invest-at-least-90-billion-in-electric-vehicles-idUSKBN1F42NW.
- Transport emissions. (n.d.). Retrieved November 24, 2019, from https://ec.europa.eu/clima/policies/transport_en.