Over the past few months, the demand for electric vehicles has skyrocketed, as has the response of raw material suppliers, processors and manufacturers up and down the supply chain.

With an energy crisis set to reverberate throughout the supply chain for an indefinite period of time, many motorists are taking the opportunity to take advantage of grants, a wave of higher quality and lower cost cars, and a remarkably resilient energy market to make the switch to EVs.

For the most part, the justification is financial, which is unusual given that for nearly 20 years the main motivations for buying an EV have been either a fascination with the technology (especially in the case of Tesla vehicles) or an earnest desire to help the environment.

The latter case has been subject to many arguments over the years, often claiming that the reliance on rare earth metals and global supply chains means that an EV is worse for the environment throughout its life cycle than a petrol or diesel car.

This has led to a study by MIT, which has led to an unsurprising but relatively shocking result, but to explain why, it is important to understand the arguments being made for and against EVs.

 

Why Is There Even An EV Environmental Debate In The First Place?

There are various parts of the “EVs are bad for the environment” argument, but the three biggest and most coherent arguments revolve around the life cycle of an EV and the costs to refuel it.

 

Electric Vehicles Have Biggest Carbon Costs During Manufacturing

EVs require lithium, cobalt and other rare metals, which typically need to be mined (or extracted from brine) and then shipped to refining and manufacturing plants to be processed and turned into batteries.

Because battery production at scale is still in many respects a complex technical task, the argument is that the materials travel further and the zero emissions that come from the car once produced are offset.

This is undermined by the fact that many modern ICE cars also rely on rare earth minerals in production, so the differences are less pronounced.

 

Electric Vehicles Are Difficult To Scrap And Recycle

The concern is that the batteries are less than easy to recycle, although this is less a fundamental issue with EVs and more a difficulty in scaling up EV infrastructure.

As EV production methods become more standardised, so too do the ways to recycle batteries, swap them out or disassemble them and use as many of the valuable components as possible.

 

Electric Vehicles Use More Polluting Electricity Sources

The final case, and one that has been more regionally specific and difficult to entirely disprove, is that an electric vehicle is only as green as the source of electricity.

an EV using solar, wind or hydroelectric power emits practically no carbon at all, even counting the emissions used to produce the infrastructure, countries which rely on natural gas or coal-fired power stations can invite much starker questions when it comes to the true emissions caused by EVs.

This is particularly true with countries which use a merit order system for pricing electricity; as demand increases, greener sources of power are used, but the higher this demand, the greater the need for backup systems such as gas and coal.

However, whilst this means that EVs may not be completely emission-free throughout the supply chain, does that mean they are more polluting than petrol or diesel cars?

 

Are EVs More Polluting Than Petrol Or Diesel Cars?

The simple answer, according to the MIT study, is no.

According to the study and backed up by Jalopnik, there is no situation, no matter how extreme, where EVs are more harmful to the planet than petrol or diesel cars.

In most situations, EVs save between 40 and 60 per cent, but this can increase to as high as 90 per cent in urban areas due to energy supplies, charging behaviour, driving patterns and other factors.

The only exception where EVs may come close to the same level of emissions is in particularly cold winters, where EVs tend to rely on heating systems in order to minimise and mitigate the conditions and continue to generate power.

However, the worst-case scenario for this, which is a reduction of over 50 per cent efficiency, would require a winter temperature of minus 30 degrees Celsius, temperatures that are never seen in summer outside of the Arctic Circle and are almost never seen even in the dead of winter in the UK.

Whilst this is far from the first time that EVs have been demonstrably proven to be better for the environment, this recent study highlights just how strong the evidence is at this point and how increased sales and better infrastructure will only widen the gap.