Effect Of Technology: How Electric Cars Are Going To Harm The Environment

Leaf’s or Tesla’s electric cars are gaining popularity as eco-friendly alternatives to conventional car transport. They could still be dangerous, but that is not the case. Nissan’s Leaf claims it is an “100% electric” vehicle, which generates “zero emission-sions”.

However, Bjorn Lomborg wrote in a Wall Street Journal article on March 11, 2013. This is not correct.

1. The Journal of Industrial Ecology has published a comprehensive life-cycle analysis of electric cars in 2012. It found that nearly half of carbon-dioxide emitted from them come from their energy use, particularly for producing the batteries. Mining lithium is an example of a less-than-green activity. As soon as an electric vehicle leaves the factory, it already emits 30,000 pounds per year of carbon-dioxide. 2. However, 17% of the car’s lifetime carbon-dioxide emissions is spent on its manufacture. For a standard car, it costs 14,000 pounds.

3. According to life-cycle analysis, electric cars indirectly emit about six ounces per mile. It is still significantly lower than the 12 ounces of carbon-dioxide per mile for a comparable-sized conventional car. It is important to remember that electric cars already have large emis-sions. This means that they can travel approximately 80,000 m.

4. An electric car that is driven 50,000 times over its life expects to emit more carbon dioxide than a gasoline-powered equivalent car. The same goes for electric cars that are powered mostly by coal-fired power stations. They will produce almost 15 ounces carbon-dioxide per mile they drive, which is three times the amount of a comparable gas-powered car.

5. Even if the electric car has a 90,000 mile range and is not powered by coal, it will emit 24% more carbon dioxide per year than its counterpart. This is far from zero emissions. The electric car will emit 8.7 tons less carbon dioxide over its lifetime than a conventional car.

6. While 8.7 tons might sound large, it isn’t. The glob-al warming impact of one additional ton of CO2 is estimated at $5. The optimistic estimate of carbon-dioxide avoided by electric cars will result in a world saving of $44 billion. Credit for 8.7 Tons of Carbon-dioxide in Europe costs $48

7. The U.S. Federal Government subsidizes electric car buyers with as much as $7,500.

In addition, the federal government has given loans and grants of more than $5.5 million to electric-car producers. This is a terrible deal to taxpayers. David C. Holzman provides another explanation on why Electric Cars might not work best. Recently, the Chinese government announced that they would lift the 10% sales taxes on domestic electric cars. It will also waive government subsidies that total $19,000 per car. New estimates for China’s largest cities show that electric cars are more harmful than gasoline-powered ones, despite their positive reputation.

The study measured emissions per person kilometre traveled by the researchers. For example, if 15 people travel 10km each in a bus, then the bus would accumulate 150 person-km. They looked at five types of vehicle: gasoline, diesel, hybrids, electric and electric scooters (ebikes), gasoline and diesel cars, as well as diesel buses. They used peer-reviewed literature to calculate tailpipe emissions from gasoline and diesel cars. Electric vehicles don’t produce combustion emissions; rather, they are effected by the electricity produced by the power plants.

China has a large amount of coal-fired electricity, while the United States has less than half. Electric vehicle emissions do not come from gasoline or diesel. They are generated from coal, which is much lower than the 50 percent in the United States. Julian D. Marshall from the University of Minnesota, Minneapolis is coauthor of the report. He says that coal-fired electricity plants in China are comparatively more polluting than other sources. The lower-quality of coal used and fewer emission-control technology-using plants make it more likely that electric cars will cause 26 additional deaths per ten billion person-km. In Shanghai, however, there were only 9 extra deaths associated with gasoline cars. There were 90 extra deaths per 10 Billion person-km from diesel cars. Diesel buses are more polluting than diesel cars as they have higher emissions per person-km. However, 32 extra deaths were reported for each 10 billion people-km. E-bikes fared better, with 3 excess deaths per 10 million person-km.

These findings have varied implications for other nations, not surprising. Cherry states that Vietnam’s power-sector emissions of PM2.5 are 10% higher than in China. Accordingly, electric cars cause one-third more pollution than gasoline cars. He also stated that India’s average power-sector PM2.5 emissions are 10% higher than China’s, which causes more pollution per kilometer for each electric car. Anair says that the U.S. grid has cleaner emissions than China’s because of increased investment in clean-air regulations. According to Anair, the U.S. grid’s emission intensity (that is, how much power it produces) will improve as more older coal-fired plants retire.

UCS released an April 2012 report showing that greenhouse-gas emissions from electric cars are equal to those produced by gasoline vehicles that get 31-40mpg. The report didn’t address the mortality due to PM2.5 exposure. Electric cars are not the solution. Gasoline cars are safer and more environmentally friendly. They will be a necessity once there is no more Fossil Fuels. This graph shows:By 2061 MOST, all Gas-powered cars will be gone. By 2091, COAL-powered Factories and Machines must be replaced by something new. This data will need to be changed if we wish to see significant changes in the world. But, as it stands, these depletion date are likely to occur sooner than expected. The majority of coal mined is with power tools. However, the fuels are sometimes mixed with Oil or Gas. This causes more environmental damage.