Don’t get me wrong. I know the vehicle itself will have way lower emissions and than a regular gas or diesel vehicle, but what I’m confused on is that they will have to mine to get the raw materials to make these batteries and then once the battery is done it’s lifespan they will need to find a way to dispose or recycle these batteries. Imagine doing that capacity when the whole world has transitioned to EV.
In: 374
Too complex for eli5.
[Full ICCT report](https://theicct.org/sites/default/files/publications/Global-LCA-passenger-cars-jul2021_0.pdf)
In short thermal engines are in average only 20-30% efficient, which means that most of the energy gets converted to heat, noise and vibration, instead of actualy moving the car. Even part of the usefull work is lost during braking.
EVs are 90% efficient, and recover energy during braking.
Also power plants are much more efficient than ICE engines, even if they burn fossil fuel, by a factor of 2x, even 3x if heat is used for district home heating. All this without even considering that energy can be partially green.
Battery manufacturing consumes significant energy, but not as much as people think, and that gets recovered pretty fast during the vehicle life cycle. Also a big part of energy is actually electricity, and that’s why it matters a lot where the battery is actually manufactured.
Also, EVs move polution out of the city, which is very good for health, and provide energy independence for countries which don’t have oil.
Latest Answers