Are we putting too much faith into electric vehicles? - The Climate Question, BBC World Service

Billions of dollars are being invested in electric vehicles in the name of fighting climate change - so how well do they stack up against their petrol and diesel counterparts?
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World leaders are backing electric vehicles as the green fix for our burgeoning road transport emissions. But when you factor in the carbon emissions that come from manufacturing EVs, how well do they stack up against their petrol and diesel counterparts? If all the cars on the road became EVs, could we meet our climate targets?
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[@msspears8915]

Worse expensive decision. Someone is getting big money and it isn't the planet or people.

[@Daniel-fl5oq]

I am in China, we have the most electric cars around the world,and the number is still increasing very very fast. Our electricity is under pressure. We drop oil and pick up battery, Does we have enough power plants to support such high demand of electricity? I don't think so. In China, more than half of power plants are use coal. So Are we really clean to use electric cars? Even the batteries are making more pollutants ..so

[@phil20_20]

Public Transit is more important. Nuclear produced hydrogen burned in ICEs without nitrogen gas are the future for cars. They need to work on the oxygen concentrators to remove the nitrogen.

[@gorgeouslady5612]

The Battery is too Expensive!. What if a Cellphone battery were to cost $1500!.

[@velokernow3696]

Cars, anti social selfish means of getting around.

[@gorgeouslady5612]

Futuristic Mode of Transportation!. People are not ready for this change!.

[@lisahuynh3528]

Can I have the transcription of this video

[@rafsanayan7443]

please make more videos😢It helps me a lot in improving listening

[@CUMBICA1970]

Deep down we all know it's a losing battle. Then again as Steve Jobs said, life itself is a losing battle because in the end we're all gonna die. The flipside is you have nothing to lose so live your life as best as you can.

[@QAYWSXEDCCXYDSAEWQ]

I think you'll see the biggest change when fleet buyers start getting in EVs.

[@sophmore90]

I had this argument with a friend who said that more greenhouse gases are being produced making an electric car versus a combustion engine. I wasn't aware of this but so I didn't argue against it. I then asked him, how much green house gases are produced making and running an EV versus making and running a ICE over the lifetime of the vehicle. He didn't know the answer. I theorized that more greenhouse gases would be produced by ICE compared to EVs and this video is just one source that confirms my hypothesis.

[@ThePmfatima]

It's a false dilemma. We have to do this transition along with every other effort that we can come up with to cut emissions and capture carbon. And pray it will be enough, though knowing present generations won't probably live to see the benefits.

[@rickebuschcatherine2729]

Thanks for that, because, yes, if we give up eletricity produiced by carbone and if we clean the mining process for the production of battery, it's one of the solution, not the only one, but certainly the one the most full of hope... for transport...

[@wind-leader_jp]

The following is a general idea, excluding countries with a high proportion of nuclear power generation and Norway, which has abundant hydropower. In the first place, it is difficult to imagine that electric cars can reduce CO2 emissions. They emit a lot of CO2 during manufacturing, and if many people charge at night when solar power generation is not effective, it is thought that even on a 10-year average, they will emit twice as much CO2 as gasoline-powered cars. In fact, the United Nations announced that last year's CO2 emissions were the highest on record, and stated that we only have two years left to stop global warming. As always, humans are making major oversights that are causing damage to the Earth. Nowadays, we are limited in what we can do, so each of us needs to save as much energy as possible. Anyone can definitely reduce CO2 emissions by referring to my products or opening the windows early in the morning in summer to cool the room a little. It's already getting hot so I'd like you to try it.

[@JimmyTimmy-wh8dz]

Are we??not me!

[@vasps7472]

Electricity is producing from Coal whoch is more than threat from Petrol vehicles for greenhouse gases for environment.

[@fdk7014]

No. There have been tons of studies on this, from the Union of Concerned scientists for example and even the worst scenario - where coal is almost exclusively used for electricity generation - EVs are at worst on par with the most efficient fossil cars. Coal is going away though, it's being replaced by natural gas which is still fossil but much cleaner and then the natural gas will be replaced by renewables.

[@JimmyTimmy-wh8dz]

I've got a climate question..how come I can't see any polar bears outside my window!?

[@MrCSutton]

The mammoths ate them.

[@Shiro99King]

3:49

[@rickebuschcatherine2729]

The real question about electric car, it's how people workless buy a car... could you talk about that, because in the North, there are more people in these case than yoou imagine... people that everyone don't want them to work never the less how hard they work without salary!

[@kamiyachikako1361]

With government subsidies? Are EVs really needed by people? I think this is against the capitalism.

[@katyg3873]

Electric vehicles are not fit for purpose! They’re horrible for the environment. Wake up.

[@biafrawatch9604]

how i wish this EV story is represented in real life for must countries where the materials are mined from

[@peterdollins3610]

The batteries are not good enough yet and the materials to be dug up & produced are hardly practical. Better to go to walking, bicycles & Public Transport that then might be practical to put those in as EVs. In general the renewables are still not good enough but they are improving. Probably without Nuclear Power it cannot be done before we destroy the climate so human civilisation. See Peter Zehein on the materials problems and limitations of renewables unless they get a lot better.

[@fdk7014]

Confusing video. The argument "only 1% of cars globally" is nothing but gaslighting. It's irrelevant how many there are now at this instant, of course there are going to be relatively few cars in the beginning of the change. Look instead at how the market is developing, electric car sales are exploding at the expense of fossil car sales. Yes in the rich countries, unfortunately they are not cheap enough for the 3rd world yet but they will be eventually. All major car manufacturers are now saying they will stop manufacturing fossil cars completely in 10-15 years or less, they know it's a dead end. By around 2030 it's going to be very difficult to sell a fossil car, at least in the western world. EVs will have far superior performance (they already do really) and charging will be a non-issue (it mostly is already today). There is so much money pouring into development of EVs, batteries and charging technologies already, this will have a huge effect in 5-10 years.

[@MrCSutton]

Where's the electricity going to come from to charge them? In the UK for example, we certainly haven't got either the generating capacity or the infrastructure to support them. They're the Betamax of future transportation. I don't know what the VHS will be though.

[@fdk7014]

@@MrCSutton from power plants of course. The vast majority of EVs charge at night whether there is plenty of spare capacity

[@rajaRaja-bj3tz]

Sure Electric vehicles are the real alternat for fozzil fuel vehicles also noise less means protect the environment from noise pollution and smoke less Like a lot of benefit for future generations