Are Electric Cars Really Green? | 5 Minute Video

Are electric cars greener than conventional gasoline cars? If so, how much greener? What about the CO2 emissions produced during electric cars' production? And where does the electricity that powers electric cars come from? Environmental economist Bjorn Lomborg, director of the Copenhagen Consensus Center, examines how environmentally friendly electric cars really are.

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Script:

Do electric cars really help the environment? President Obama thinks so. So does Leonardo DiCaprio. And many others.

The argument goes like this:

Regular cars run on gasoline, a fossil fuel that pumps CO2 straight out of the tailpipe and into the atmosphere. Electric cars run on electricity. They don’t burn any gasoline at all. No gas; no CO2. In fact, electric cars are often advertised as creating “zero emissions.” But do they really? Let’s take a closer look.

First, there’s the energy needed to produce the car. More than a third of the lifetime carbon-dioxide emissions from an electric car comes from the energy used make the car itself, especially the battery. The mining of lithium, for instance, is not a green activity. When an electric car rolls off the production line, it’s already been responsible for more than 25,000 pounds of carbon-dioxide emission. The amount for making a conventional car: just 16,000 pounds.

But that’s not the end of the CO2 emissions. Because while it’s true that electric cars don’t run on gasoline, they do run on electricity, which, in the U.S. is often produced by another fossil fuel -- coal. As green venture capitalist Vinod Khosla likes to point out, "Electric cars are coal-powered cars."

The most popular electric car, the Nissan Leaf, over a 90,000-mile lifetime will emit 31 metric tons of CO2, based on emissions from its production, its electricity consumption at average U.S. fuel mix and its ultimate scrapping.

A comparable Mercedes CDI A160 over a similar lifetime will emit just 3 tons more across its production, diesel consumption and ultimate scrapping. The results are similar for a top-line Tesla, the king of electric cars. It emits about 44 tons, which is only 5 tons less than a similar Audi A7 Quattro.

So throughout the full life of an electric car, it will emit just three to five tons less CO2. In Europe, on its European Trading System, it currently costs $7 to cut one ton of CO2. So the entire climate benefit of an electric car is about $35. Yet the U.S. federal government essentially provides electric car buyers with a subsidy of up to $7,500.

Paying $7,500 for something you could get for $35 is a very poor deal. And that doesn’t include the billions more in federal and state grants, loans and tax write-offs that go directly to battery and electric-car makers

The other main benefit from electric cars is supposed to be lower pollution. But remember Vinod Khosla’s observation "Electric cars are coal-powered cars."

Yes, it might be powered by coal, proponents will say, but unlike the regular car, coal plant emissions are far away from the city centers where most people live and where damage from air pollution is greatest. However, new research in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences found that while gasoline cars pollute closer to home, coal-fired power actually pollutes more -- a lot more.

[kgg]

Well, here in Norway, almost all the electricity is produced through water-power, which then will make it much better for the envirement

[KaranSingh-oryy]

*_Start making nuclear fusion power plant._*

[Dwohman]

It's like my father always told me, there's no free lunch. Everything has a trade off!

[beng]

Leonardo DiCaprio: "Electric cars are great! Now, excuse me while I fly in my huge plane to my huge lot. Yes, the rules don't apply to me."

[curtisreaves]

Easy fix: Make the electricity cleaner, this ad was paid by the oil companies.

[MuhammadKeita]

Okay so should we just continue buying cars that aren't electric? Or should we find better way to create electricity?

[philmessenger]

Often overlooked in "green vehicles" is the manufacturing procces of toxic chemicals for batteries, and motors as well as parts used in regular cars. No they're not "green" at all

[pradeep]

You have failed to include the CO2 emissions from crude oil production. 8% of the total CO2 emission in the world is from crude oil production.

[JRWolfe-gdcr]

I’ve done a little research on energy production. Almost every electric plant on planet earth is based of a single mechanism: the wheel. All the differences are just what way you’re turning said wheel. The reason we use coal is because as of right now, wind and solar power simply isn’t as reliable. Wind speeds determine how much energy their turbines produce, and solar panels become next to useless over half the time of a full day, and weather has a severe effect on its production. Coal is reliable so long as we have enough to burn. Once that source goes away, we’ll need to find other ways to “turn the wheel”

[thepaladinpup]

The main reason I like the shift towards electric cars is because of the increased versatility. Sure you *could* use coal to power it. You could also use nuclear, or water, or wind, or solar, or any other method of producing electricity. With gas cars, you just have gas. The switch to electric cars gives us the option to switch to better ways of producing electricity, rather than being stuck with what we got.

[chicosquelloran]

I watch Prageru videos every single day and I believe most of them make a lot of sense, but this one somehow does not.
The fact that electric cars generate more pollution is not the car itself, but rather the way electricity is generated in the US. Just change the godamn coal and use natural gas, or solar panels, or nuclear plants and that's it.
Also the higher amount of emissions involved in the car's manufacturing between an electric and a regular car is compensated by the lower emissions of an electric car during its lifetime, considering that we have moved to a cleaner way of creating energy.
Edit: Of course I understand we need a gradual change though, we can't replace fossil fuels in a single day.

[Slaktrax]

Think of how stupid the average person is, and then realize that half of them are more stupid than that.” – George Carlin

[cindymananzalamartinez]

We should just make Flintstones-powered cars, then.

[ehwored]

well than the Problem lies within the power Generation in the US, not the car. dumbest Video in this channel

[LucidDreamer]

I produce electricity for my car by rubbing my cat on the carpet.

[michaelsharon]

But electricity can be theoretically produced from renewables / nudlear, therefore these cars can be run on 100% clean fuel...

[minhucovu]

The costs of gasoline production and distribution are conveniently missing XD

[tedbishop]

We need to generate all electricity with nuclear power plants.

[y]

The most obvious error in his calculations is using 90, 000 miles as the useful life of the vehicles. Automobiles, both gas and electric, have a much longer useful life than 90K miles.

[ctenos]

We’ll said Bjorn. As a retired chemist, I have had several private debates with green friends of mine, and have always thought that they ignore everything except the actual CO2 emitted while a car is being used. You provided the data that makes my day. It really follows the cost/benefit approach you mention in your books. Thanks much for your efforts.