Electric vehicles are worse for the environment than gas cars because of battery production.

Question

Largely speaking, the claim that electric vehicles are worse for the environment in comparison to gas cars is untrue. While it is true that the production of EVs and their batteries contribute to more carbon emissions upfront compared to gas powered cars, there are multiple scientific studies that show that over a course of a car’s lifetime EVs emit substantially lower greenhouse gases.

This misconception is likely rooted in the manufacturing phase of cars, as battery production involves mining and refining resources leading to large environmental consequences. The MIT Climate Panel stats that, “building the 80 kWh lithium-ion battery … creates between 2.5 and 16 metric tons of CO₂ … This intensive battery manufacturing means that building a new EV can produce around 80% more emissions than building a comparable gas-powered car”. However, this is just one part of the larger view, because once on the road, EVs generate literally no tailpipe emissions. According to the International Council on Clean Transportation, “emissions over the lifetime of average medium-size BEVs [battery electric vehicles] registered today are already lower than comparable gasoline cars by 66%–69% in Europe, 60%–68% in the United States, 37%–45% in China, and 19%–34% in India”.

Furthermore, EVs have a break-even point wherein their operational emissions outweigh their manufacturing, as cited by Reuters, “drive another 13,500 miles (21,725 km) before you're doing less harm to the environment than a gas-guzzling saloon”.

Thus, the claim is unfounded and overall, an EV is better for the environment compared to a gas-powered car.

Answer 1

No, through the entire life of a vehicle, electric vehicles are not worse for the environment than gas cars even including battery production. In the article written by NPR, it discusses the large amount of fossil fuels burned up front to mine the lithium. However, with new technology they are finding cleaner ways to extract the lithium and are also recycling the minerals within the batteries used in electric cars. This is backed up by the article written by the Advanced Power Alliance which mentions that previous studies show throughout a car’s lifetime, EV’s produce 60-70% less emissions compared to a gas powered vehicle. Even though electric vehicles start off their life with more emissions produced because of their batteries, gas powered cars quickly pass them in emitting more emissions during their life. On top of their lifetime, EV’s also use their energy more efficiently. 79-81% of the battery goes to propel the vehicle while gas powered cars are only able to convert less than a third of that amount.

Sources: 

https://www.npr.org/2024/05/09/1250212212/ev-batteries-environmental-impact

https://poweralliance.org/2024/11/21/no-electric-vehicles-are-not-worse-for-the-environment-than-gas-powered-cars-theyre-much-cleaner/

Answer 2

I did some digging into the idea that electric vehicles (EVs) might actually be worse for the environment than gas cars due to battery production. There is some truth to this, but it's not the whole picture. Making EV batteries, particularly lithium-ion ones, does come with a hefty environmental price tag. According to Earth.org (2024), producing just one electric car releases nearly 4 tonnes of CO₂, and the car needs to be driven for at least 8 years to balance out those emissions. Plus, mining for materials like lithium, cobalt, and nickel uses a lot of water and pollutes the areas where mining takes place. But recent studies indicate that the environmental impact of EVs improves over time, especially as the energy grid gets cleaner and recycling methods get better. Rahman and Canter (2023) found that recycling cut the climate impacts of battery electric vehicles (BEVs) by about 8.3%, and using renewable energy for charging led to a 9.4% reduction. So, while battery production is resource heavy right now, advances in recycling, renewable energy usage, and more efficient manufacturing are making EVs a cleaner option than gas cars over their lifetime.

Earth.org. (2024, March 19). The environmental impact of battery production for electric vehicles. https://earth.org/environmental-impact-of-battery-production/

Rahman, M. M., & Canter, C. (2023). Life cycle assessment of battery electric vehicles considering battery refurbishment and recycling under future electricity sector changes. Journal of Cleaner Production, 422, 138568. https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC9171403/ 

Answer 3

That's not quite right. Yes, manufacturing electric cars mostly the batteries can run up more carbon emissions than building a gasoline car from the start. Mining and getting the materials that are used in car batteries can be very high on emissions. But if you add up the entire lifetime of a car, EVs are far cleaner than gas cars. Studies from the EPA and reports like NPR show that once you drive an EV, its zero emissions quickly outweigh the extra emissions from manufacturing the car. Depending on how far you drive, an EV is usually cleaner than a gas car after just over 10,000 miles.

I would say the claim is false and Misleading. EVs have a bigger footprint at the outset, but over time they are cleaner than gas cars.

Sorces 

https://www.epa.gov/greenvehicles/electric-vehicle-myths 

https://www.npr.org/2024/05/09/1250212212/ev-batteries-environmental-impact

Answer 4

The claim that electric vehicles are worse for the environment than gas cars because of battery production is false. The US environmental protection agency states that electric vehicles tend to have a smaller carbon footprint compared to gas cars, even when putting charging into consideration. In addition, they are more efficient than gas cars in terms of energy usage. They still create carbon pollution, it is less than compared to gas cars. Even in terms of battery production, the greenhouse gas emissions are less than gas cars in the long run, on average.

https://www.epa.gov/greenvehicles/electric-vehicle-myths#Myth3

NPR states that the production of electric vehicles produces more of a carbon footprint than the production of gas cars. But, as soon as it starts running, the electric vehicle is better than the gas car, even when including the production of them. Every car is a little bit different and therefore the impacts they have on the climate are a little bit different, but there is an overall trend that electric vehicles have less of a carbon footprint.

https://www.npr.org/2024/05/09/1250212212/ev-batteries-environmental-impact

Answer 5

Looking deeper into the claim  “Electric vehicles are worse for the environment than gas cars because of battery production.”Checking the NPR article linked below, this claim looks to me to be quite false. What is true is that making Electric vehicles batteries uses a lot of energy and raw materials for example cobalt,  and lithium. This can harm the environment during mining. But once those cars get on the road, they put out far fewer emissions than gas cars over their full lifetime. Gas cars continue to pollute every mile they drive, while electric vehicles only have that one big hit upfront.

This article broke everything down to a T. Building a battery is a one time cost, but burning gas is a cost that will never stop. That stuck with me. Electric vehicles start “dirty,” but they quickly catch up and pass gas cars in terms of total carbon output after just a few years of use. Researchers from the International Council on Clean Transportation backed that up too, showing that EVs overall cut emissions significantly compared to traditional cars.

I think this claim spreads because I will admit it sounds believable at first glance, after seeing it personally I wasn’t sure weather it was true or false. People see stories about lithium mining and assume the whole EV industry is bad, but that ignores how much worse fossil fuel extraction and burning really are. Learning to go more into depth like this made me realize how quick online debates skip over context. I actually liked using News Detective for this one.  It made it easier to see how facts and fake news get mixed together online and how slowing down to verify details changes your whole view of a topic.

https://www.npr.org/2024/05/09/1250212212/ev-batteries-environmental-impact

Answer 6

The claim that electric vehicles are worse for the environment than gas vehicles is in fact false. Though creating an EV vehicle does emit much more CO2 into the atmosphere than a gas vehicle does, over the lifespans of the cars the EV is still much better for the environment. Once an electric vehicle is constructed its carbon emotions are near 0 for the rest of its lifetime. Depending on where the battery is getting charged, it reaches its break-even point in its carbon emissions in as few as 8,400 miles, however that is in Norway where nearly all energy comes from a renewable source. Even in other countries where a majority of the energy isn't renewable, electric cars still reach their breakeven point much quicker than previously thought, around 78,000 miles according to a study run by Reuters. The Reuters analysis also stated that “Even in the worst case scenario where an EV is charged only from a coal-fired grid, it would generate an extra 4.1 million grams of carbon a year while a comparable gasoline car would produce over 4.6 million grams.” Another common thought around EV vehicles is that the batteries have to get replaced often, however that is not true either. Since the introduction of EV vehicles, every year the amount of battery replacements due to malfunction has gone down. As of 2023 about .1% of EV vehicles have to get their battery replaced due to malfunction according to the United States Environmental Protection Agency.  

In conclusion we can see that electric cars overall are worse for the environment than their gas counterparts. Despite the production of batteries emitting more CO2, and charging of those batteries also emitting CO2, it is still significantly better than gas power vehicles.

Answer 7

Materials like lithium, cobalt, and nickel must be mined intensively for the production of EV batteries, especially lithium-ion ones. These extraction methods use a lot of water, produce a lot of carbon emissions, and frequently pollute the soil and water. According to the article, even if EVs don't emit any exhaust, the environmental costs associated with making and discarding their batteries can partially outweigh the climatic benefits of EVs, particularly when nonrenewable energy sources are utilized to power charging.

Answer 8

This claim that "Electric Vehicles (EV) are worse for the environment than gas cars because of battery production" is somewhat true, but it is overall misleading. In terms of manufacturing EVs, to be specific, the batteries do cause higher initial emissions than making a gasoline vehicle. Studies show that by just battery production alone can cause up to 4tonnes of CO2 per car, and even in some cases, the EV manufacturers can emit almost 80% more than building a gas-powered car. The battery supply industry also has big environmental effects; things such as water use and mineral extraction have terrible setbacks to our planet. We know this from referencing Earth.org, the MIT Climate Portal, and a ScienceDirect study that looked at battery supply chains and their details on production.

On the other hand, the lifetime environmental impact that EVs have is significantly lower than gas car. This is a complete undermining of the claim when considering its full life cycle. Life-cycle analyses from the International Council on Clean Transportation and VisualCapitalist reveal to the audience that despite a higher production of emissions, EVs produce a noticeable difference in fewer greenhouse gases, looking at their lifespan-- In specifics 73% lower in Europe. Meta-analyses also show us that electricity grids become greener and battery production scales will decrease emissions further.

Soruces!
https://earth.org/environmental-impact-of-battery-production/
https://climate.mit.edu/ask-mit/are-electric-vehicles-definitely-better-climate-gas-powered-cars/
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1364032123010341/
https://theicct.org/publication/electric-cars-life-cycle-analysis-emissions-europe-jul25/
https://www.visualcapitalist.com/life-cycle-emissions-evs-vs-combustion-engine-vehicles/https://www.epa.gov/greenvehicles/electric-vehicle-myths/

Answer 9

No, emissions from electric vehicle battery production are not worse than gas cars. I fact-checked this using an article from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency that explained that, although the emissions from making an electric car are worse than the emissions of making a gas car, once the gas car begins driving the emissions quickly catch up to the electric car. This is also backed up by an article from NPR.

Sources:

https://www.epa.gov/greenvehicles/electric-vehicle-myths  

https://www.npr.org/2024/05/09/1250212212/ev-batteries-environmental-impact

Answer 10

That claim is false after doing research.

 It is true there is generally a greater environmental impact when looking at the front end of the entire life cycle of the vehicle. Extracting the minerals for the battery and the manufacturing process generate greater carbon emissions than making a comparable gas engine vehicle. However, that is only part of the claim. As pointed out by Reuters (2021), "Most EV drivers reportedly make up the additional carbon output from production within 15,000 to 20,000 miles of driving. In fact, throughout the remainder of the vehicle’s life, EVs emit far fewer emissions than a comparable gas automobile." And, as mentioned via Earth.org, while yes, battery manufacturing is a process which takes a lot of resources, from the time the EV is on the road, EVs emit so much less CO2 especially if the electricity which is used for charging is cleaner electricity like wind or solar. So, yes, the process of developing the vehicles is undoubtedly worse for the environment at the front end, but the vehicle can become more sustainable then the impacts of a comparable gas vehicle over time; while EVs may appear as though they will hurt the environment, they are actually creating a future for less emissions and pollution. Ultimately, the claim of electric vehicles are worse for the environment than gas cars because of battery production is false. 

sources 

https://www.reuters.com/business/autos-transportation/when-do-electric-vehicles-become-cleaner-than-gasoline-cars-2021-06-29/

https://earth.org/environmental-impact-of-battery-production/