Why is powering an electric car via electric from fossil fuels better than powering a vehicle with fossil fuels directly?
In: Technology
Factoring in emissions from all sources over its life, an electric car’s carbon footprint is, on average, equivalent to a gasoline car that gets 80 miles per gallon. And in many parts of the world, fossil fuels are used for a smaller percentage of electricity production. In those places, an EV would have a much smaller footprint than even that
The way I see it is electric vehicles may not be much better for the environment now but it’s a shift that going to happen no matter what and in time they will become better for the environment just like gas powered cars have
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.
Because eletcric cars are significantly more energy-efficient than gas cars are. Whereas gas cars [manage about 12-30% tank-to-wheels efficiency, electric cars manage 77% grid-to-wheels efficiency](https://www.fueleconomy.gov/feg/evtech.shtml). While this metric is somewhat overstated because the losses in fuel conversion have already taken place before it reaches the grid, a caomparison of carbon intensity per mile [shows that electric vehicles still end up with a significantly lower per-mile carbon footprint](https://www.ucsusa.org/sites/default/files/attach/2015/11/Cleaner-Cars-from-Cradle-to-Grave-full-report.pdf).
Overall yes it is a drop in the bucket of emissions, but it does cut out a step that produces emissions. Gas stations recieve regular shipments of gasoline and diesel. Both are transported in large heavy trucks which themselves produce emissions. EV cuts out that step.
On top of that, charging cars (even if everyone has an EV) would barely increase the carbon footprint of a fossil fuel power plant.
It’s not. Personal science understanding tells me hydrogen cars are the future. Cleaner and no need for batteries. Lithium extraction, battery recycling and other things that EVs have as issues). But the hype for “environment friendly” isn’t always for the best choice.
For example EU just banned plastic straws while factories are producing a shit yon of plastic waste and doing nothing to stop them.
In countries that rely almost all the way on coal and gas for power, there’s less of a difference than compared to regular hybrid or some traditional ICE cars.
But, gas and coal are not the only sources of power. In countries that produce more solar, wind and nuclear power, the difference is very noticeable. And more and more countries and companies are shifting towards renewable sources.
One source of improvement is emissions. When fossil fuels are burned in one place then extravagant methods can be used to clean their harmful emissions as well as capture the CO2. Doing this in millions of cars at an affordable price is not feasible.
Another is the efficiency of energy conversion. Fossil fuels can be burned to power an turbine at much greater efficiency than an IC engine. In addition the turbine runs at constant speed where the IC engine runs at a range of speeds, many of which are even less efficient than its peak.
Whenever you stop a car with an IC engine you must throw all of the energy away in the brakes as well. Whenever an electric car brakes, much of the energy is reclaimed and stored back in the battery.
Also the transmission of the electricity is extremely efficient, especially compared to the transportation of fuel which requires burning some of that fuel to deliver it to furling stations.
And of course, much electrical energy is now provided by renewables rather than fossil fuels.
The list goes on and on.
A lot of people here are commenting about CO2 emissions, but there’s another big reason that people are missing: air quality. Bad air quality is a major public health issue that kills [100,000 Americans every year](https://www.usnews.com/news/national-news/articles/2019-04-08/100-000-americans-die-from-air-pollution-study-finds), and a big cause of air quality reduction in cities is vehicle emissions. It’s much better to generate all those emissions at big, centralized locations far away from population centers.
Imagine you’re charging a battery with a gas generator. The gas generator can run at a constant speed, at its most efficient setting, to fill up the battery. If directly powering the car, the gas engine has to idle and spike and drop to change the speed of the car. Once the battery is charged, it is also much more efficient since it can stop or slow down by recharging the battery, and consumes no power to idle.
Now also consider that gas is an inefficient energy source compared to others, and is primarily used for cars because it is convenient for refilling and is lightweight with high energy density.
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