Will electric cars actually reduce emissions?

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Frequently Asked Questions » Common EV Related Questions

Q. Will electric cars actually reduce emissions?

A. Short answer: Yes.

Longer answer: Yes, because electric cars use energy so much more effieicently than gas cars do, even if an electric car is charged from electricity coming 100% from a coal-power plant, the overall resulting CO2 is less. Plus, you get the huge benefit of clean air in urban enviroments.

Very long answer showing stats and math to back this up: Visit http://www.pluginamerica.org/learn-about-plug-ins/frequently-asked-questions.html#Q2 and be sure to click the "read the summary" link.

:created by Bo and last updated by Bo on 2009-08-14 04:53:05 - viewed 821 times

Comments

Bob Barnes
Free Access

BobBarnes said on Wednesday, August 19th 2009 @ 1:20 PM:

The study cited refers to energy not to pollution: (1) even if charged by off-peak generation, incremental coal consumption will be required leading to substantively more CO2 and other pollutants from existing power plants and (2) battery manufacture will require large amounts of lithium and other metals to be mined and refined in countries not currently possessing clean technology! Your answer is incomplete.

Bo Bennett
Tuesday Host
Group Administrator

Bo said on Wednesday, August 19th 2009 @ 10:02 PM:

Sorry Bob, the study referenced does specifically address CO2 -- in great detail. Be sure you download the PDF linked in Plug In America Study. (1) true, but the reduction in CO2 from burning gasoline is significantly greater and (2) this too is incremental and will be far offset by the reduction in drilling for oil, refining, transportation of gas, etc.