Why is powering an electric car via electric from fossil fuels better than powering a vehicle with fossil fuels directly?
In: Technology
This is one that I don’t know enough about to ELI5, but I’ve considered buying a pure electric vehicle that has solar panels that can give around 20 miles of range per day if it’s sunny, but on a full charge up to a 1000 mile range. (They’ve made vehicles before, but the crash of 2008 crushed the companies financing, but they have reformed and are starting to push for production again.)
So, while gas powered cars give off emissions, natural gas powered cars are the same, but less… you still have to deal with petroleum drilling, and that can be very dirty. Noxious gases come out with the natural gas and crude oil. It is sometimes just burned off as it comes out. Hydrogen cells may be even cleaner than electric if they take off since the only emission is water vapor.
That’s because electric cars still have a carbon footprint. As others have pointed out, in areas that use coal to create electricity, electric cars have a slightly higher carbon footprint than gasoline powered cars.
The big issue that concerns me ecologically is the Batteries for electric vehicles. Lithium ion batteries are not great for the environment. The mining process used 500,000 gallons of water per ton of lithium mined. Mining can contaminate groundwater with arsenic as well as poisoning the surrounding soil. Not only is it environmentally damaging to mine, if not properly recycled, it can do massive damage if the Lithium cells are left to rot or are punctured.
Currently, the lithium battery recycling, plus new mined lithium will not be enough to keep up with the projected demand for lithium batteries as soon as 2030.
With an estimated 10 year life span, batteries made just 2 years ago will be out of service by 2030.
Also, as of an article dated Feb 2020, China controls 51% of the global total of chemical lithium, 62% of chemical cobalt and 100% of spherical graphite — the major components of lithium-ion batteries.
I read during the pandemic that China was using their supply of medical supplies to negotiate for more mineral rights for rare earth elements. That’s going to be a major issue as well since they will be able to price gouge or completely cut off production for any and all countries at will.
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