Environmental Impact of Electric Vehicles: Green Vehicles Articles: Eco20/20

Environmental Impact of Electric Vehicles

With all the talk about climate change these days, electric vehicles are being touted as the best way to reduce our environmental impact with respect to our personal transportation choices. But is that really the case?

It is obvious that, with spiking oil consumption and increasing greenhouse gas emissions, the internal combustion engine is negatively impacting the climate. The burning or combustion of gasoline releases harmful pollutants into the atmosphere, which not only contribute to the problem of climate change, but pose a great human health problem with regard to respiratory issues. This doesn't even take into account that well over half the energy originally available in the gasoline is lost during the combustion process - it is easy to see that this is a horribly inefficient use of fuel. However, with current electric motor and battery technology, electric vehicles do waste less, though not a significant amount. On base comparison though, the electric vehicle is more efficient in its use of energy than the internal combustion engine.

This relative inefficiency in the energy usage of the electric vehicle is being tackled by attempts to increase the efficiency of the electric motor. As the improvements come about, we will see the efficiency ratings improve, leaving the internal combustion engine even farther in the rear view. The electric vehicle is also far superior to the internal combustion engine in that there are no direct emissions from the driving of an electric vehicle. But that is DIRECT emissions and we have to look at the complete picture for a fair and accurate comparison.

We have to consider where the energy that charges the batteries in our electric vehicles comes from. If we were, say, to switch our entire fleet of cars in the United States over to electric vehicles, without changing the sources of electricity power generation in this country, you might not see a significant impact in the reduction of emissions. This is easy to see when you think that this would essentially mean we all go from burning gasoline directly in our engines, to burning more coal to produce the electricity to charge the batteries of our electric vehicles.

With that said, clean coal technology and the increasing production of alternative sources of electricity can reduce this impact immensely, making the electric vehicle a very attractive and environmentally friendly choice for conscious consumers.

Many have questioned the environmental impact the production and disposal of the batteries, currently often Lithium-Ion, would have, but thus far, it appears that the impact of the battery production is mild to moderate, and nothing in comparison with all the pitfalls of the internal combustion engine. With appropriate recycling facilities and disposal practices, we can mitigate these impacts even more.

In conclusion, while it is apparent that the electric vehicle is not perfect and is currently not the panacea to all the world's problems, it carries a much smaller environmental impact than traditional internal combustion engine vehicles. With improved motor technology and an increasing reliance on alternative, renewable energy sources with which to charge the batteries that power the electric vehicles, these vehicles are the obvious winners in the environmental impact challenge.