EVs Produce Fewer Greenhouse Gases As Gasoline Vehicles: Study

A study has been released by the International Council On Clean Transportation (ICCT) has revealed that electric cars that are charged using electricity from a grid powered by coal pollute less than gasoline cars based on the internal combustion engine. Constantly, there has been an argument in favour of traditional gasoline vehicles claiming that EVs are also indirectly powered by non-renewable sources of energy and they intern cause more environmental harm because of the mining of lithium for the production of batteries. This report by the ICCT provides conclusive evidence in favour of electric vehicles.

Electric vehicles don't have any tailpipe emissions, unlike gasoline cars, though they still pollute as often the energy sourced to charge their batteries come from non-renewable sources. But often there has been an argument in favour of electric vehicles as they are more efficient over their life cycle in terms of pollution and cost.

The ICCT study has done a global comparison of the life cycle of greenhouse gas emissions of a combustion engine and electric vehicles. The study looked at things like the sourcing of battery materials to the production of the vehicle -- for both battery-operated ones and internal combustion ones. It then compiled driving data from different markets which included Europe, the US, China and India to develop the average lifetime of emissions. The end result was clear in favour of electric vehicles.

The report reveals that electric vehicles are more efficient than gasoline-powered vehicles

"Results show that even for cars registered today, battery electric vehicles (BEVs) have by far the lowest life-cycle GHG emissions. As illustrated in the figure below, emissions over the lifetime of average medium-size BEVs registered today are already lower than comparable gasoline cars by 66%-69% in Europe, 60%-68% in the United States, 37%-45% in China, and 19%-34% in India. Additionally, as the electricity mix continues to decarbonise, the life-cycle emissions gap between BEVs and gasoline vehicles increases substantially when considering medium-size cars projected to be registered in 2030," claimed the report.

In the case of the US market, the report reveals EVs emit only a third of the amount of polluting gases as internal combustion vehicles. That number goes below 50 per cent in favour of China and environmentally even in India EVs help offset pollution minimum of 19 per cent. And this difference is improving all the time as there is wider adoption of renewable sources of energy en masse.