Virtues and value of electric cars overstated

Move over motherhood and apple pie, you’re being joined by another icon.

Electric cars are taking their place on the pedestal of all that’s good and holy, with scant evidence they belong.

In recent years these vehicles have become a symbol of living a wholesome life. “Look, there goes a Tesla. That guy must be an environmentalist.”

Electric cars aren’t new. They’ve been around since Thomas Edison produced one in 1911. However, they’re beginning to gain ground in the public conscience, in part because of environmentalists who deal more with emotion than facts.

Although electric cars claim only an infinitesimal share of the market, they have become an ubiquitous topic of conversation.

They even overtook past squabbles and the history of questionable characters in a small gathering of family members in Alberta this summer.

You’d think there’d be something more interesting to talk about. It’s only going to get worse. Many electric car aficionados extol the virtues and low costs and quiet trips at every opportunity.

The U.K. has announced a ban on gasoline and diesel vehicles starting in 2040. And on, and on.

Electric cars are supposed to be all about reducing pollution and saving our environment. It might be wise to remember that wind turbines to produce power were supposed to move us towards the same goals, but evidence to support that rosy picture is sketchy at best.

The Montreal Economic Institute recently concluded that there is no hope electric cars will be any more successful than the aforementioned windmills in slowing climate change.

That report isn’t kind to government programs to subsidize electric vehicles. In Ontario, certain vehicles are eligible for subsidies as high as $14,000.

The economic institute suggests it’s all a waste — high cost to taxpayers for little or no gain.

The first issue is the lithium batteries most commonly used in these cars. A lot of them come from Bolivia, a country with at least questionable commitment to environmental issues.

The lithium is shipped from here to there via gasoline and diesel vehicles until they reach the factories where the batteries are made. Then the batteries take similar rides, again aboard vehicles powered by fossil fuels.

In one car plant such batteries are placed inside high temp bake ovens for up to two weeks at a time before they are judged fit to be installed in cars. Greenhouse gases anyone?

A report in the Guardian suggests the zero emissions claims for electric cars are questionable when you consider the manufacturing process for both the batteries and the cars.

Scientific American had this to say: Cars and trucks are responsible for roughly 24 per cent of U.S. greenhouse gas pollution — nearly 1.7 billion metric tons per year.

Some smokestacks at U.S. power plants that supply electricity to charge electric cars are still attached to coal-fired power plants, the singlelargest source of greenhouse gas pollution in the U.S.

“As it stands, a conventional Toyota Prius hybrid vehicle, which burns gasoline when its batteries are not engaged, and the all-electric Nissan Leaf produce roughly the same amount of greenhouse gas pollution: 200 grams per mile, according to data from the U.S. Department of Energy.”

Perhaps with these kinds of issues hanging out there, our governments should be looking for better ways to deal with climate change, instead of playing the fife and drums in the electric car parade.

These might include concentrated efforts to ease urban congestion by making public transit more efficient and attractive.