Are Electric Cars Really Better for the Environment?

Key takeaways

• EVs are more expensive to buy and involve mining finite resources for the batteries
• But gas vehicles are far more harmful to the environment
• EVs will never be perfect, but overall they’re an improvement on gas vehicles

Electric vehicles, or EVs, are the talk of the town right now. With several major governments looking to introduce or establish net zero policies, EVs are a central part of the world transitioning to cleaner energy sources.

But is that strictly true? Naysayers would argue the environmental benefits of EVs are only marginal, with new issues popping up in place of chucking out gas vehicles. We’ve compiled the arguments below so you can make up your mind. Let’s get into it.

The case against EVs

The primary issue consumers will have with buying an EV is that they’re more expensive than their gas counterparts. The current average price of an EV is $64,000, compared to $35,000 for a traditional car.

There’s also no denying that EV batteries are fairly resource-intensive. They require lithium, cobalt and other minerals to run — which are natural resources that need to be mined and shipped across the world to their respective destinations. On average, an EV battery needs six times more materials than a traditional car.

That’s not to say EV batteries won’t continue to innovate, but they present an issue with future finite resources. Not that gas cars can talk — the oil, gas and coil industries extracted 15 billion metric tons of resources in 2019 alone. The 7 million tons of minerals the entire clean energy sector needed in 2020 is a drop in the ocean in comparison.

The case for EVs

But as it stands, the benefits outweigh the negatives. Based on the U.S. electricity grid, EVs emit less than a third of the emissions of a traditional gas vehicle. EVs also involve fewer parts, so there’s less maintenance and a lower cost of recharging for consumers.

As for supply chain issues, the Inflation Reduction Act passed last year incentivizes EV producers to use mineral supply chains in the U.S. or countries with which it has close ties.

And battery innovation is already happening. The latest EV batteries use six times less cobalt than before, while half of all Teslas sold in Q1 didn’t have any cobalt or nickel in the batteries.

Consumers also have life easier now that bigger companies are working together on charging infrastructure. Eight car manufacturers, including Ford and GM, signed up with Tesla to use its Supercharger network and have adopted the Tesla charger design, simplifying life for EV owners.

The bottom line

There will be issues with switching the entire planet from one type of vehicle to another — but it seems the problems with EVs are fairly easily remedied compared to the environmental harm continuing with gas vehicles means.

EVs will never be perfect, but the initial positives so far prove why the likes of Ford, GM and BMW, among others, are investing billions of dollars into becoming EV powerhouses.