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William Swink

Professor Malcom Campbell

UWRT 1104

November 9 2017

Are Electric Cars Worth Their Buzz?

Are electric cars really better for our environment than combustion engine cars? Are they

truly more affordable to the ecosystem than refueling every couple of weeks? Current research is

showing that combustion engines are not moving off the road anytime soon due to the negatives

of EVs. Electric vehicles are often touted as being more green than gas cars but this is not

wholly true. Evidence can prove this misinformation as I further explore this topic. While

reading it is important to think about the image that come to mind upon hearing electric car.

Think about how they are represented by media, companies, the consumers that buy them, and

even the government. It is important to consider these things due to potential increase in

pollution, use of tax payer money in the US, and higher costs to own. Electric cars have a lot to

prove.

Initially you may think without a doubt that electric vehicles are great for the

environment due to the lack of fossil fuel use. This is only true when you single out gas

consumption. When the only element being considered how much fossil fuel is being burned

then sure EVs are a cleaner option. However, this is not representative of the overall amount of
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pollution produced by battery powered cars. Electric cars are dependent on many variables in

order to have a smaller carbon footprint. Currently many issues derive from the type of energy

the EV owner charges their car with. Some problems consist of higher cost per mile on the

consumers side, more emissions per mile, and lack of reliable sources to charge outside of

home. These issues can change depending on the kind of energy production plant that the car

draws its current from. Renewable energy types such as wind, solar, and hydro tend to be more

viable for EVs to charge from because they then run cleanly with cleanly created energy. Maybe

the issue isnt that electric cars are BAD for the environment but rather that the world has yet to

make the proper infrastructure for them to be as clean as can be. As it is now many power plants

are non-renewable types of energy that produce more greenhouse gases than renewable ones.

There is an exception with nuclear energy. Nuclear energy while being non-renewable emits no

greenhouse gases. The EVs that use this type of energy should help create a very clean way of

driving. However, most non-renewable energies consist of burning some sort oil or gas that

create greenhouse gases and CO2. For instance, coal power plants are very efficient, but they are

not very clean and supplies are finite to an extent. I bring this up due to the higher demand of

electricity which would equal more pollution unless we use cleaner options as stated by the

NBER or National Bureau of Economic Research. They are the leading nonprofit economic

research organization and have earned 27 Nobel Prizes in economics. In a piece written by

Stephen P. Holland, Erin T. Mansur, Nicholas Z. Muller, and Andrew J. Yates they discuss how

EVs are not really zero emission vehicles and that 70 percent of electricity is generated by

burning coal or natural gas (70 percent statistic comes from US Department of Energy). This is

where the emissions of a battery-operated machine during run time turns from essentially zero

carbon footprint to a carbon footprint more harmful per mile compared to combustion engines.
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As it is now EVs do not top gas powered cars with regard to emissions per mile in all areas.

Some areas use cleaner energy and others use coals, oils and gases. Simply put, cars that are

electric yet charge off of a fossil fueled electric grid create about the same amount of pollution.

When you think about people buying cars they typically will not think about their local

powerplant but rather they will think that no gas means no pollution. In some areas electric cars

will be 3.3 cents cheaper per mile driven than normal gas cars. In an article written by Jason

Russell for the Washington Examiner he says Much depends on where the car is driven. Gas-

powered cars do worse in congested urban areas. In LA electric cars are 3.3 cents per mile better

for the environment compared to gas. Outside of metro areas EVs are 1.5 cents per mile worse

than gas powered. In Grand Forks, N.D. EVs are 3 cents worse per mile. He used information

from the same research mentioned above done by the NBER. This is real information showing

that EVs are on average less clean to power than combustion engines are. This is before taking in

the other aspects of EVs like pre-production, production, and end life. The type of power an EV

uses is very important to consider because with time will come cleaner and more efficient energy

that is not dependent on the Earths resources. This issue has a clear fix whereas the problem

with sustainability in EVs isnt as obvious. That fix means not using natural sources of gas, oils,

and coal and switching to cleaner options like wind, solar, hydroelectric, and nuclear. Something

to worry about with electric cars has yet to be proven and that is longevity.

Through my research something I discovered about electric cars really stuck out. They

are produced in ways that use up Earths precious metals. This is due to the expensive process of

making batteries to power the motors. According to Lizzie Wades Teslas Electric Cars Arent

As Green As You Might Think these metals tend to come from mines in china that are gathered

through ways harmful to the Earth. The methods used to mine these metals themselves are very
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unclean for the environment. Methods used consist of blasting rock with explosives and using

harmful chemicals. The batteries that power these kinds of vehicles need to be made with

conductive metals and those metals arent cheap. Rare Earth metals are expensive and harder to

obtain than something like natural gas. This is a big aspect to consider. EVs should be held at a

standard that looks at the pollution from start to end. From production to end of product life they

can create more greenhouse gases than combustion based cars. These metals and resources used

by big batteries are very pricey at production and will likely not outlast an engine that just needs

fuel. These large batteries have to go somewhere after they are depleted. This may mean being

put into a landfill where overtime the chemicals in the battery leak into the Earth. Recycling is an

option however this is not wholly self-sustaining. Advancement of technology over time will

hopefully see the efficient reusing of batteries. I am not against electric cars by any means, I just

think people should know that they are not as green as they are touted to be. I very much

welcome EVs and hope that they improve over time to compete even more with fueled engines.

Another concern that comes to picking an EV or a commonly known fossil fueled car is cost.

Cars reliant on batteries are pricey. They are new and they are limited in numbers making

costs high. Before a government issued tax subsidy one of the cheapest consumer electric car

will run upwards of $30,000. This is the lower side of the spectrum for pricing. Companies like

Tesla are creating cars to forward the EV market but for a pretty penny. An $80,000 penny that

you can only drive a rough maximum of 350 miles before needing to charge. To find this info

simply look at Teslas shop page or any other EV car order page. They offer very little in terms

of range compared to gas cars. To most drivers these types of cars are too expensive to drive and

thus reduces the number of battery operated cars on the road. With slow adoption comes smaller

price tags. The public will not see significant drops in cost due to those heavy and expensive
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batteries for some time. While you wont have to spend as much money on gas it will drive your

electric bill up. Even though the power bill is higher it still saves money cutting out gas expenses

entirely. Once you drive a certain distance you need to refuel only taking a few minutes. To

recharge a battery, it will take hours of waiting and the cross country support is much smaller.

Think about how many gas pumps you have seen compared to the number of car charging

stations you have seen; a pretty big difference is apparent. Until there is a larger mass of

consumers with EVs the cost will remain too high for the average person that cares so much

about the environment to afford them.

Throughout my research I find that EVs have a long way to go, that doesnt mean they

are going nowhere. They are here to stay for some time and will challenge car buyers at time of

purchase. While they can be cleaner to run depending on their source of power they typically use

lots of expensive and non-renewable materials that make them less self-sustaining. The price of

battery powered cars is hard to vouch for when combustion engines can cost half as much as

their new competitor. With time and advancement, we will see the adoption of EVs as they

become more viable than fossil fueled cars. It may take time to get there but it is very likely to

happen in the not too distant future.

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Works Cited

Holland, Stephen P, et al. Environmental Benefits from Driving Electric Vehicles? NBER,

National Bureau Of Economic Research, 7 Nov. 2017, www.nber.org/papers/w21291.

Russell, Jason. Electric Cars May Be Worse For The Environment Than Gas-Powered.

WashingtonExaminer 23 Sep 2017. http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/new-study-

electric-cars-may-be-worse-for-the-environment-than-gas-powered/article/2566847

Accessed 10 Oct 2017

Wade, Lizzie. Teslas Electric Cars Arent as Green as You Might Think. Wired 31 March

2016. https://www.wired.com/2016/03/teslas-electric-cars-might-not-green-think/

Accessed 16 Oct 2017

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