Good News for Electric Cars
Pushing back against electric car skeptics ...
It’s abundantly clear that the World needs to move away from flames (they all produce CO2), and in particular our reliance on the internal combustion engine. But there are doubting Thomases about the environmental friendliness of electric cars. In Saturday’s Otago Daily Times, there were two welcome pieces of news relating to the necessary migration to them.
First, the impressive on-line CarbonCounter tool, which enables you to compare the cost and lifetime carbon footprint of a wide range of cars in the USA. The graph shown in the paper was too small to read (at least for old eyes like mine). Hopefully this is better. If it’s still too small, check it out on the website.
Only a few cars (those below the dotted lines) have emissions consistent with meeting even the less ambitious target of 2 C warming that was set by the Paris Agreement. The upper and lower lines are the estimated per vehicle emissions targets needed to comply in 2030 and 2040 respectively. You’ll see that I’ve selected two cars (one electric and one plug-in hybrid) that meet both targets, one (a hybrid) that meets only the 2030 target, and a comparable conventional internal combustion engine vehicle that doesn’t reach either target. In fact, no conventional cars will be compliant.
CarbonCounter’s detailed comparison between the four selected cars is shown below
The left plot is less relevant for New Zealand. Because there are no price incentives, the cost of the Tesla (darkest bar) would be greater. But fuel costs are also more, which would raise that bar (dark red) in the others.
My main interest, is in the plot to the right that compares the carbon footprints. The overall carbon footprint is lowest for the electric cars, highest for internal combustion engines, and intermediate for hybrids. According to the tool, the lifetime carbon footprint for the Tesla is about one third of that from a comparable internal combustion engine (for default settings). And the Toyota Prius Prime is less than half.
In the example above, I’ve selected California, which is the state with the highest proportion of renewable electric energy: about 70 percent. But New Zealand, with 80 percent renewable, is even better. For us, the carbon footprint of the Tesla is about four times lower than a conventional car of the same size, and the Prius prime is lower by nearly a factor of three.
The second piece of good news is that large manufacturers like General Motors are taking recycling of lithium ion batteries that are used in their electric cars seriously in America (as well as in Asia).
That’s two good reasons to celebrate.
Your best private-vehicle solution depends on your personal circumstances. If you live in a city, perhaps public transport is best. But for me, living in an isolated region, that’s not an option. Although our electricity is relatively expensive (and getting worse), we have spare capacity from the 2kW solar of PV generation on my sunny roof. Maybe the Toyota Prius Prime (PHEV)? The Hyundai Ionic, Mini Cooper and Nissan Leaf all have slightly lower footprints and comparable prices but are limited by range and/or size.
Of course, I’d really much prefer a Tesla ☹. Their carbon footprint is slightly better than the Prius Prime (according to this tool); and with just twenty moving parts or less compared with hundreds in a conventional car, the maintenance costs have to be lower. Sadly, their up-front purchase price in New Zealand is way too high at present. For me it would have to wait until incentives are there. In our location, I’d need the long range version that costs close to NZ$100k. And for some reason the insurance companies are running scared. It would cost me about NZ$2k per year. Finally, I’d need to test drive one to see if it gets up our steep drive without bottoming out. (Are there any Tesla owners out there who want to visit us for a free coffee?)
Of course I’d still need to convince she-who-must-be-obeyed (if you’ll allow such an old fashioned expression). When we were first married in 1973, we agreed (he lied) that she’d make all the day-to-day decisions and leave the big ones to me. I’ve just realised that after 48 years marriage we’ve never had to make ANY big decisions 😊.
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