The Electric Vehicle Controversy: Now or Later?
Climate change is upon us. We need to decarbonize everything much faster than at present. We need to either work at home or live close to our places of work, learning, arts and play, so we can walk, bus or bike there. And give up the car. Public transport and protected bike trail systems aren’t yet in place to enable that and we can come up with a hundred other excuses for why we still need a car. Why you should get an EV (electric vehicle) now. It’s obvious, isn’t it?
The average fossil-fuelled car emits 45 metric tonnes of CO2 per year. An EV emits little, depending on the source of the electricity that charges it.
Every kilogram of the CO2 will stay in the atmosphere for centuries, leaving it to your kids and grandkids to suffer the consequences and work out how to get rid of it. Collectively petrol or diesel-fuelled vehicles are responsible for about 14% of global emissions. How can you bear to get in your car for one more day? Why you should not rush out the
door and get an EV right now. The petrol car you drive now produced 635 tonnes CO2 during its manufacture. The EV with which you’ll replace it probably produced more, largely due to its battery.
If we all switched quickly from fossil-fuelled cars to EVs, there would be a huge surge in EV car production, and a corresponding increase in carbon emissions from that source.
The discarded fossil-fuelled cars, not yet at the end of their useful lifespan, would still be driven by other owners, probably increasing car ownership, as these cars would now likely be cheaper than previously. Total carbon emissions from cars might go up rather than down, although that would be modulated by the impact of carbon pricing on the operational costs of fossil-fuelled cars.
So, think again about whether you really need a car, and if you do, whether you could share the car with others (thus cutting emissions in manufacturing cars) or share rides with others (thus cutting operational emissions.)
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