Do EVs really help save the planet?

THAT DEPENDS WHERE YOU GET YOUR ELECTRICITY FROM… Zero emissions means no pollution from the car, and a reduction in the associated health risks, not least nitrogen oxide and the nasty things it can do to your lungs. Scale the answer from local to global and the answer’s trickier. Carbon dioxide is proving a fairly catastrophic agent of change with regard to atmospheric conditions. A W12 Bentley emits 317g of CO2 per kilometre driven, a Mazda 3 just 142g and an electric car precisely none.

But that doesn’t mean your electric car will be CO2-neutral. It has to be manufactured, an energy-intensive operation for any car (and particularly a battery-electric car) and, once built, its CO2 footprint is inextricably linked to the way in which your electricity’s generated.

‘If you use a Mercedes EQC in China at this point in time you’ll actually increase your emission footprint – based on the coal [to generate the electricity] – and the fact that the cells also have a relatively high CO2 footprint,’ outgoing Mercedes CEO Dieter Zetsche told CAR. ‘But this is improving fast. In Germany, the CO2 footprint is something like 40 per cent better [than a combustion-engined car] over the lifetime of the car – and the next generation will be better.’

Until all of the UK’s energy is generated from renewable sources (don’t hold your breath), EVs will be far from CO2-free. Demand for raw materials and electricity (to liberate the raw materials and power the cars) will soar as the UK goes electric. If the UK switched to EVs overnight, the grid would have to increase its output by 20 per cent. In terms of raw materials, that switch would require 207,900 tonnes of cobalt, 264,600 tonnes of lithium carbonate and 2,362,500 tonnes of copper. Huge numbers when you consider a single tonne of cobalt production requires 8000 kilowatt hours of electricity.

So, progress in some ways. But Greenpeace would still rather you got on your bike.