Fact: Over the full life cycle of the vehicle, electric cars are cleaner and greener
Myth: Producing EVs is worse for the climate than producing cars with internal combustion engines.
Explanation: When looking at the full life cycle of the vehicle, electric cars are cleaner and greener than their conventional gasoline-burning counterparts. While true that building an electric car produces more emissions than a conventional car, mostly because of battery production, these emissions are dwarfed by those saved over the driving life of the EV. In fact, they are offset in most cases in the first year of driving by emissions reductions from normal operation and use of the vehicle.
For proof, we turn to the Union of Concerned Scientists’s life cycle analysis: “the average EV in the U.S. produces less global warming emissions than the average gasoline vehicle. The peer-reviewed literature largely agrees: EVs produce more pollution than gas vehicles in the production of the vehicle, but then save emissions while driving which results in a net savings within the first couple years of driving.”
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Feature image: Union of Concerned Scientists