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No, the Tesla Model S Doesn't Pollute More Than an SUV
thecarchik writes "In an exhaustive 6,500-word article on the financial website Seeking Alpha, analyst Nathan Weiss lays out a case that the latest Tesla Model S actually has higher effective emissions than most large SUVs of both the greenhouse gas carbon dioxide and smog-producing pollutants like sulfur dioxide. This is absolutely false. Virtually all electric car advocates agree that when toting up the environmental pros and cons of electric cars, it's only fair to include powerplant emissions. When this has been done previously, the numbers have still favored electric cars. The Union of Concerned Scientists, for example, concluded in a 2012 report (PDF), 'Electric vehicles charged on the power grid have lower global warming emissions than the average gasoline-based vehicle sold today.' Working through every one of Weiss' conclusions may show a higher emissions rate than Tesla's published numbers, but in no way does a Model S pollute the amounts even close to an SUV."
5% to 7% of all CO2 emissions is quite a LARGE number
Yes, it would be, if it meant that you would cut the emissions by 100% by switching from gas to electrical. You don't. In Europe, where the vast majority of the population drive small to mid-sized cars, the difference between a Tesla and a regular car is negligeble. Apparently the Tesla emits about as much as a Honda Accord, which is a mid-sized car by Eurpean standards. So, if we are hugely optimistic and assume massive improvements in electrical cars, perhaps a Tesla would emit half of the CO2 of a regular car, in other words, about a 3% reduction. In reality it is probably significant less than this since the difference between an average car and a Tesla is not 50% by a long shot.
it took the collective effort of the world's governments to regulate and limit the use of CFCs
Yeah, but they worked on something that had a theoretical chance of actually having an effect. Electrical cars for personal use is not something that has a chance of actually making a difference.