Obviously, we exaggerate. Not about green cars not being green, but about red faces in the Obama administration. This bunch proved long ago that they are beyond being embarrassed by any of their actions.
But let’s get back to the green car myth with The Australian:
Electric cars could produce higher emissions over their lifetimes than petrol equivalents because of the energy consumed in making their batteries, a study has found.
How is that possible? We’ve been told that electric cars would cure all our ills.
An electric car owner would have to drive at least 129,000km before producing a net saving in CO2. Many electric cars will not travel that far in their lifetime because they typically have a range of less than 145km on a single charge and are unsuitable for long trips. Even those driven 160,000km would save only about a tonne of CO2 over their lifetimes…
The study was commissioned by the Low Carbon Vehicle Partnership, which is jointly funded by the British government and the car industry. It found that a mid-size electric car would produce 23.1 tonnes of CO2 over its lifetime, compared with 24 tonnes for a similar petrol car. Emissions from manufacturing electric cars are at least 50 per cent higher because batteries are made from materials such as lithium, copper and refined silicon, which require much energy to be processed.
Electric cars. The vehicles we’ll all drive on the road to ruin.
H/T: The Australian
