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by maeln 2493 days ago
Just the battery production can take 2-4 years to offset compare to a gasoline car[1]. Then you also have to take into account that battery have to be replaced regularly and the overall production of the car pollution.

It would be more ecological friendly to just use you gasoline car until it die and then only make the switch to electric. And even then, buying a used car and also running it until it dies might still be more ecological.

The technology will get better, on production level and on the car level. But right now, its very far from a clear cut to say if electric car are more 'green' than gazoline car (that are already produced).

Overall, the main issue is personal transportation. If you really want to be ecological, you should use mass transportation (excluding planes for short travel) whenever possible and use car sharing when you really need a personal transportation. The idea of all having a car sitting idle 90% of the time is fundamentally incompatible with ecology and electric car won't solve this.

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Environmental_aspects_of_the_e...

2 comments

Excerpt from the source parent cites [1]:

Full life cycle assessment (well-to-wheels) comparison of four different power train technologies for production and usage. It is unclear if the usage value includes replacements and recycling. Values are in tonnes CO2 equivalent. Sorted from most to least CO2e consumed. Battery is second!

Standard gasoline engine: 5.6 + 24 = 29.6

Battery electric vehicle 8.8 + 19 = 27.8

Hybrid: 6,5 + 21 = 27.5

Plug-In Hybrid 6.7 + 19 = 25.7

edit: formatting

I am sure we have enough time for discussion as there's : ~ 1.2 billion cars in the world ~ and only 5.6milion electric cars

Even if US and EU will be fast in adoption there's still a lot of work ahead.