One of the biggest marketing tool that car manufacturers and EV enthusiast would say about EV was; “Electric vehicle is a game changer for environment”, “it saves the environment”, “it saves the mother earth”. There were also equal amount of anti-EV movements giving statements that the power generated to charge the EV was powered by coal, it’s equal or worse than a petrol vehicle. So how true was that?
But EV Charging Is Powered by Coal!
This is controversial. On one hand, EV critics are right to say that a charging powered by coal is not as clean. On another hand, even if that was right, coal-powered grid was carried over by “grids”. You don’t need to ferry the coal to your charger to charge your car, as opposed to a petrol/gasoline station where you would need constant petrol lorry/truck (depending if you’re US or UK) to refuel the petrol station in order for every commoner like you and me to pump the petrol. The energy consumed by the truck to carry the oil from one end to the petrol station isn’t very green and environmental friendly. Do note of the typical internal combustion efficiency of 20% give or take another 3%.
Elon Musk read my mind and he explains it well.This is further corroborated by a study by Exeter and Cambridge in the UK and Nijmegen in the Netherlands. Even if electric cars are charged with coal-producing grid power, or any substantial amounts of fossil fuel. Driving an EV is better for climate than conventional internal combustion engine cars in 95% of the world. The study finds, reference here.
Again from the study, “Average lifetime emissions from electric cars are up to 70% lower than petrol cars in countries like Sweden and France (which get most of their electricity from renewables and nuclear), and around 30% lower in the UK. In a few years, even inefficient electric cars will be less emission-intensive than most new petrol cars in most countries, as electricity generation is expected to be less carbon-intensive than today.”
But You Are Missing The Bigger Picture
If you fall to the group of EV enthusiast. And if you think EV is the saviour for our mother earth. You are not far from the anti-EV groups.
EV or the electric vehicle, was only part of the smaller factor that would help reduce carbon emission.
I’ve seen EV enthusiasts in some Facebook groups (like the infamous MyEvoc). These so called “mother nature” saviour or so they think, would promote EV just for the sake of the green-cause, whilst, at the same time, staying in some big houses that could easily fit in 10 medium-sized families. Big houses is the antithesis towards saving the earth. Not to mention the vast electricity spent on powering up the house day and night.
But they were all missing the bigger picture.
But Does EV Really Saves The Environment?
Yes it does. But little to negligible impact if other activities weren’t done nor taken into considerations. Converting to an EV doesn’t reduce that by a huge margin if you’re being wasteful and consuming resources that would produce high carbon emission, for example, unsustainable palm oil products. It still does play its role in reducing carbon emission, but it was only so slightly smaller from the overall bigger picture.
To reduce carbon emission, these are what must be done together :
- Recycling
- Reduce wastage; food, electricity, water
- Shop sources from sustainable resource
- Volunteer and educate people around you
- Drive less (yes, that includes electric vehicle)
- Take public transport or ride a bike instead
- Walk more, it improves your health too
- Vote for leaders that would champion the green-cause
This is a non-exhaustive list. If every EV enthusiast could start promoting and educating their surroundings like how enthusiastic they were in promoting an EV, this would definitely be a game-changer in saving our Earth.
In summary, what can you do to reduce carbon emission and save the earth? Regardless if you’re an EV or non EV user, start by the low hanging fruit; recycle and reduce waste on food, electricity and water!