If electric vehicles are the way to go to reduce emissions, wouldn’t charging them use up a lot of power, therefore still being costly and polluting? How does it work?

Question

I know very little about today’s climate actions despite routing for them, so I just want to take an opportunity to better understand them. How some things may just be temporary solutions or revolutionary ones.

I do not want climate change debates, I just want to know if powering electric cars has its trade offs or are really going to help.

In: Engineering

Answer 1

The dirtiest power grid (at least in the US) is about as clean as a gas car. Most grids are cleaner. Others, like WA where I live, are very clean (we have a lot of hydro power). I even have solar panels

And grids are getting cleaner and cleaner all the time, while gas cars only get minor efficiency gains.

Plus even if you’re burning gas and coal for electricity it’s still more efficient to do so I’m a single large plant away from the populace than in thousands of small engines running all around us.