HOW CLEAN IS EV MOTORING?

They say every little bit helps. But does it? Techtalk in the September 2021 issue had an insert article enquiring how clean EV motoring is.

The article indicated carbon dioxide emissions for electric vehicles for five major types of electricity-generating sources being used throughout the world. Yes, many people still think by buying their zeroemissions electric car, they are doing their bit, not realising they have merely moved the carbon-emitting source from their EV to the source, the power station that charges their cars.

Yes, your EV still emits carbon dioxide. By glancing through the passenger-car details at the end of every CAR magazine, it seems the average emission figure for a passenger car is about 170 g/km.

Remember, we’re not talking about commercial vehicles and their emissions here. From that average emission figure, the concern is that only countries that are using low-carbon or fossil-light power sources to produce their electricity makes EVS beneficial for the environment. These countries and their vehicles make up a small portion of the world. So, the concerted effort must rather be to first replace all coal, fossil-heavy and broad mix power stations before building new environmentally friendly power stations. That is near impossible to do quickly. However, the article brings forth the disturbing realisation that in South Africa, an EV adds more to carbon dioxide pollution. It is greener to drive your old-fashioned, fossil-fuel passenger car, emitting carbon dioxide at 170 g/km, than an electric vehicle that uses an equivalent 318 g/km to charge that vehicle … COENRAAD OOSTHUYSEN Roodepoort

[Hi Coenraad, you make an excellent point. Our role as South Africa’s oldest and most respected motoring title is to provide realworld insight and input with regard to EVS and how they’ll apply to the South African landscape. While we have huge gaps to bridge at home for cleaner energy sources, the reality is we need to have a gameplan sooner rather than later as electric will play a role in the future for global brands – editor]