Are EVs really better for the climate?

Electric vehicles are rapidly growing in popularity as the number of different options has increased dramatically over the last couple of years and prices are beginning to move towards parity with internal combustion engine cars. But once all the carbon costs of extracting, processing and manufacturing are taken into account, how much lower is the overall lifetime carbon footprint of an EV compared to and ICE car? And for that matter, what's the carbon footprint of all the other types of transport we use in modern society?
Help support this channels independence at
/ justhaveathink
Or with a donation via Paypal by clicking here
www.paypal.com/cgi-bin/webscr...
You can also help keep my brain ticking over during the long hours of research and editing via the nice folks at BuyMeACoffee.com
www.buymeacoffee.com/justhave...
Video Transcripts available at our website
www.justhaveathink.com
Interested in mastering and remembering the concepts that I present in my videos? Check out the FREE Dive Deeper mini-courses offered by the Center for Behavior and Climate. These mini-courses teach the main concepts in select JHAT videos and go beyond to help you learn additional scientific or conservation concepts. The courses are great for teachers to use or for individual learning.climatechange.behaviordevelop...
Research Links
ICCT Research Paper
theicct.org/sites/default/fil...
Visual Capitalist
www.visualcapitalist.com/comp...
elements.visualcapitalist.com...
World Resources Institute report on China's decarbonisation
www.wri.org/insights/how-chin...
ICCT - 5 things you thought you knew about EVs that are not quite true
theicct.org/stack/explaining-...
China's new energy policies
theicct.org/wp-content/upload...
www.miit.gov.cn/jgsj/zbys/qcg...
en.ndrc.gov.cn/policies/20211...
Check out other KZbin Climate Communicators
zentouro:
/ zentouro
Climate Adam:
/ climateadam
Kurtis Baute:
/ scopeofscience
Levi Hildebrand:
/ the100lh
Simon Clark:
/ simonoxfphys
Sarah Karvner:
/ @sarahkarver
Rollie Williams / ClimateTown: / @climatetown
Jack Harries:
/ jacksgap
Beckisphere: / @beckisphere
Our Changing Climate :
/ @ourchangingclimate
Engineering With Rosie
/ engineeringwithrosie
Ella Gilbert
/ drgilbz

[@benpaynter]

I think the biggest point which was covered and I come across time and again is that when anti-ev people compare emissions they almost always look at mining of lithium, cobalt etc but then only include tailpipe emissions from ICE and totally ignore the oil extraction, processing and transport.

[@comboyneorchard8537]

Answered a lot of questions perfectly. One of my pet peeves in Australia is the running down of public transport, back in the day we all caught busses or trains to work. What happened, they were the original self driving vehicle.

[@deepphilip6971]

this channel is totally underrated for what it delivers...quality content 100%

[@extraincomesuz]

I road a bicycle (non-electric) to work 15 years ago when I lived in Denver which has amazing cycle paths. My coworkers thought I was crazy but after a while when they saw me slim down and very fit, they changed their tune. Now I ride a bike and a scooter in Malaysia (I can't wait until they get electric motorbikes here). Thank you for the great videos!

[@markpickering5133]

I love my car but recently on a visit to Basel Switzerland I was seriously impressed by the tram network. Many people use bikes and walk, and Basel is also part of the huge European rail network. Trains are expensive but if you don't have a car they are reasonable. If occasionally I need a car I can just hire one!

[@mattgruber3933]

have not driven in the past year. bicycle only. lowered my cholesterol to 135 from 196. i'm 70. need the exercise.

[@waynecartwright7276]

Having owned an EV for over 6 yrs my experience has highlighted to me the lower wear on brakes , the absence of waste engine oil , air , fuel & oil filters , and cam , alternator drive belt wear. as well as gearbox oils, and clutch wear, and spark plugs. Do we class the Exhaust system as a consumable too?

[@Takahanazawa]

I appreciate this so much. I keep seeing people argue with me that lithium mining or dirty grids mean that EVS aren't any better than gasoline vehicles and I'm glad I have such a comprehensive study to point them towards now

[@kateevans4892]

I've had an EV for 2 years now and apart from the obvious savings on fuel (I've got PV panels and a domestic battery; at the moment my electricity bill, including the car, is around £25.) even though it's only got a 100 mile range, I would NEVER go back to an ICE car, they are a joy to drive and as my son says, even mine will go 'like s***t off a shovel'. The charging infrastructure in the UK needs work and govmnt support, but thats another story. (See EVman's rants on the subject!) These figures simply confirm what I've been trying to tell people. Cars cost about the same to manufacture whether they're ICE or EV, and once you've taken this into account, there's no comparison! Thank you Dave for your always informative and unbiased work, you are the best on KZbin! Cheers Kate

[@nickmurphy7177]

One other good thing about electric car is at end of life, battery can be 98% recycled (at current technology). So future electric will have much less emissions due to no need to mine and refine battery materials.

[@adamd6972]

Hi Dave, good food for thought, thanks.

[@michaelwhite6461]

Fantastic presentation of the subject matter. I'm a brit living in Norway where the use of electric cars is extremely widespread, the charging network is pretty good and almost all the electricity is generated using hydro power (so all in all, a pretty unique situation looking at the global picture). I've owned a VW e-golf for the last 4 years, but I also have a diesel VW Touran for practicality purposes (big loads and it has 7 seats). As the Touran is getting old and the options are getting better, I'm on the verge of buying a larger electric vehicle to replace it. Last week I rented a VW ID4 to do a long journey within Norway (as my son is starting a year at University on the other side of the country) to take the opportunity to see how it would go using an electric car for long journeys. This was the first time I've ever done a journey more than 100 km in an electric car and the first time I've ever used a public charging station. The journey was roughly 360 km (220 miles) and was a reasonable overall increase in altitude (roughly 450m), but with a rough range of 500 km, I was fairly confident the ID4 would be able to do it on a single full charge. We stopped to charge anyway while having a bite to eat (speed limits and intercity roads in Norway are not what you would call ideal, so it's roughly a 6 - 7 hour journey). The 20-25 minutes it took us to eat was enough to put an extra 200 km range in the battery, so 'range anxiety' was never an issue. On the way back, I didn't even consider charging as the battery level hardly moved in the middle of the journey because of the regen keeping the battery topped up as I came down off of the highest point on the mountain roads (I would guess I got about 100 - 150 km 'free'). The whole experience was quite honestly, fantastic, with two exceptions -1 being something with the car and the other the charging network. The thing with the car is the touch sensitive controls for just about everything in the ID4 (irritating and temperamental - as documented on numerous reviews of the ID4). The thing with the charging network is the absolute insistence of the charging companies to require a mobile phone app to use the chargers!?!?!?! There are a few apps which cover multiple charging companies, but our experience was that there are various incompatibilities with certain phones (payment methods, android versions, Ios versions) which don't present themselves until you actually try to charge the car (they install ok initially, but can be fiddly with setting up payment methods - but may not ultimately work anyway). I had numerous problems with this on my Sony android phone (which is admittedly not the newest model, but it's also not ancient either) - with both the multi-company apps and the dedicated single company apps. Why oh why can there not be standard card reader payment on these chargers - just like a petrol/diesel pump?!?!?!? This is something that the government needs to step in on and state there has to be a standard card payment option on all public chargers, in my opinion. Fortunately, when I did get one of the apps to work on my phone, there were more than enough chargers available around the major routes and towns to travel around without any concerns. So, with more and more public charging stations popping up on a regular basis, there's no reason not to take the plunge (at least here in Norway) to going fully electric now that there are a number of vehicles with over a 400 km range.

[@piersdowell832]

Good timing Dave, Although I am the worlds biggest petrol head I personally can't wait to get an EV. I've been frustrated recently by all the myopic views and posts on social media recently so I'll link this video as a great response. Thanks again, keep up the good work.

[@dougowt]

As always a very fair and balanced look at the subject. The naysayers never factor in the fact that pumping and refining oil, uses colossal amounts of electricity, so the emissions of internal combustion vehicles are worse in the countries that burn a lot of coal for their electricity. And as Robert Lewellyn often says, show me a recycled litre of burnt diesel

[@fitzheadfriend]

Great as usual Dave. Good graphics, understandable and with your usual lovely style - laid back and open but authoritative and accurate. The only comment I wanted to make is on the short-haul flights being worse than any other form of transport - they are per km, but a long-haul flights uses a lot more kms, so the overall carbon is higher. Just important to point out so people don't think long-haul flights are somehow good things.

[@TTTzzzz]

It's not only about how you travel but also how far you must travel. North American suburbia types of housing force people to travel long distances just to do their basic shopping. These wastelands could be rebuilt to accommodate local shops, parks, train- and tram stations, schools, etc. Walking and cycling would also become viable means of transport.

[@ramblerandy2397]

As usual, an excellent , well presented video, Dave.

[@MattyP62618]

Finally someone setting the record straight on it. I recently took the plunge & got a 2nd hand EV & have to say, I'm never going back, they are fantastic. The amount of times ive had to explain to people how EV's are better, this video is goint to make my life so much easier since i can just show them this instead. Obviously I'd love to use public transport, but that's a bit lacking where I live since Dr Beaching ripped out all the railway lines in the 1960's

[@computerman790]

Great video! For the second report, comparing types of transportation side by side, are the transportation mediums (rails, roads, etc) factored in? I was surprised to see EVs so close to trains, etc.

[@SirStouk]

I'd love to buy an EV, it's just a shame the cost of buying one is just too high for the vast majority of people.