Electric Vehicles Might Not Benefit the Environment After All

New submitter countach44 writes "From an article in IEEE's Spectrum magazine: 'Upon closer consideration, moving from petroleum-fueled vehicles to electric cars begins to look more and more like shifting from one brand of cigarettes to another. We wouldn't expect doctors to endorse such a thing. Should environmentally minded people really revere electric cars?' The author discusses the controversy and social issues behind electric car research and demonstrates what many of us have been thinking: are electric cars really more environmentally friendly than those based on internal combustion engines?" Reader Jah-Wren Ryel takes issue with one of the sources, and offers a criticism from Fast Company.

Comments

Re:Even if its electricity from fossil fuel...

[iggymanz]

you are forgetting the one thing that ruins the whole carbon offsetting business: battery manufacturing, replacement and recovery of materials. the carbon load for that is huge and totally destroys the advantage of electric vehicles.

add to that the massive subsidies electric cars currently enjoy, and they turn into an expensive way to not reduce pollution

http://www.instituteforenergyresearch.org/2011/07/22/second-thoughts-on-electric-vehicles/

Tired of this argument

[Anonymous Coward]

I am tired of people telling me that my electric car is not any better for the environment. There are no tail-pipe emissions and my energy is sourced from the solar panels on the roof of my house. Yet, I see post after post about how electric cars are no better than gas powered vehicles. Stop making the worst possible assumptions about my energy source when you have no valid data to back up that claim. It's more logical to think that owners of electric powered cars are also sourcing their energy responsibly. Not all owners have solar panels. Many are able to choose wind or hydroelectric power from their energy provider if they so choose.

Re:Depends on the energy source duh!

[BitZtream]

You do realize that solar power is another example of 'causes more pollution during production than it will ever save during its lifetime' right?

You also realize that gasoline burning cars are roughly an order of magnitude better for the environment (as measurable as you can make that number) than an electric powered by anything other than hydro or nuclear power ... right?