The Sustainability of Electric Vehicles
Lucia Zhang ’25
Christine Wu ’25
Electric Vehicles (EVs) are commonly known as environmentally friendly vehicles that run on electricity from batteries or fuel cells as an alternative to gasoline and diesel. Over the past decade, EVs have drastically increased in popularity among drivers and continue to rise in markets. Despite their reliance on electricity, EVs have unsustainable aspects such as battery production and electricity generation. With both its benefits and drawbacks in mind, a commonly debated question is: are EVs more sustainable than traditional gasoline and diesel cars?
One major issue with electric vehicles is their significant production of greenhouse gasses when generating electricity. Although this production rate depends on the type of electricity used, there will be greenhouse gasses no matter what, augmenting climate change. Location is also significant, as different places have varying levels of clean electricity. For example, if one were to drive an EV in California, one of the states with the cleanest electricity, only 100 grams of greenhouse gas pollution would be produced per mile (Biello, 2016). On the other hand, in a state heavily dependent on fossil fuels like Minnesota, around 300 grams are produced per mile. With 200% more greenhouse gasses produced per mile than when using a regular gas-dependent vehicle, it would be more harmful to use an electric car in Minnesota. The timing of charging an EV is another element to consider. In states such as Ohio and Delaware, utilities usually operate coal-fired power plants for electricity at night. With this, more pollution is released into the air when charging an EV at night. To combat such problems, the US strives to subside its use of burning coal by using cleaner natural gas and producing less CO2.
With the methods for a car’s production contributing to its sustainability, the manufacturing process of most electric vehicles is detrimental to the environment. The procedure contributes to climate change due to the chemical reactions from refining metal necessary for batteries. These batteries are composed of metals such as nickel, lithium, and other rare Earth metals because of their efficiency in producing energy. Instead of implementing sustainable methods and recycling batteries, most car companies are profit and efficiency-oriented. Mining the metals required for the batteries implements open-pit horizontal mining. Used in Chile, this mining method implements involves the use of fossil fuels, a contributor to climate change.
Despite all of this, a recent study conducted by universities, including Cambridge University, concluded that electric cars are overall more environmentally friendly than traditional vehicles in 95% of the world, with the remaining 5% being countries like Poland, where electricity comes from coal-fired power plants (Heberling, 2022). With Bloomberg New Energy Finance’s estimate that 58% of passenger vehicle sales will be from EVs by 2040 and California’s plan to ban all non-EVs in 2050, EVs are on the trajectory to dominate the car industry (Kopestinsky, n.d.) To conclude, while electric vehicles have both advantages and drawbacks, they are more beneficial to the environment than gas-powered vehicles.
References
Biello, D. (2016, May 11). Electric Cars Are Not Necessarily Clean. Scientific American.
https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/electric-cars-are-not-necessarily-clean/
Heberling, M. (2022, April 7). The Environmental Downside of Electric Vehicles. Foundation for Economic
Education. https://fee.org/articles/the-environmental-downside-of-electric-vehicles/
Scott, M. (2020, March 30). Yes, Electric Cars Are Cleaner, Even When The Power Comes From Coal. Forbes.
Akbar, G. (2022, February 15). Disadvantages Of Electric Cars On The Environment 2022. Gakbar4052.
https://bestelectriccars.us/disadvantages-of-electric-cars-on-the-environment/
Kopestinsky, Alex. “Electric Car Statistics and Facts 2021: Policy Advice.” Electric Car
Statistics and Facts 2021 | Policy Advice | Policy Advice, https://policyadvice.net/insurance/insights/electric-car-statistics/
