Out of nostalgia for the first car, which lasted scarcely more 250,000 km, or through ignorance about how electric vehicles work, it is often suggested that vehicles with combustion engines have a better environmental footprint. Is it true?

• Even with coal-based electricity, electric vehicles are cleaner than combustion engines!
• How clean is the European electricity mix?
• As a new vehicle, the environmental footprint of an electric vehicle is worse than a vehicle with a combustion engine – but by the end of its life it is much better

There is an accusation that electric vehicles are not environmentally friendly because the energy footprint for their production turns out to be worse than vehicles with combustion engines. Critics like to lean on two arguments: Battery production is energy-intensive. If coal-based electricity is then still used for charging, the electric vehicle is actually more damaging to the environment than a vehicle with a diesel engine. A study by the independent institution ICCT (International Council on Clean Transportation) in the USA refutes this preconception.

Even with coal-based electricity, electric vehicles are cleaner than combustion engines!

The entire life cycle of an electric vehicle was taken into consideration for comparison of the CO2 footprint. This includes the extraction and processing of the raw materials, the production and supply of fuel or electricity and the greenhouse gas emissions which occur during operation and recycling. Data from the USA, China and India was used. At a 70 percent share of the global market, these are the largest markets for new vehicles.

The result: With the same lifetime driving performance, an electric vehicle is already significantly more environmentally friendly today than a vehicle with a combustion engine in all markets. In the USA, electric vehicles can provide a CO2 saving of between 60 and 68 percent. Surprisingly, electric vehicles are 19 to 34 percent greener even in India and are 37 to 45 percent greener in China. And there are still a lot of old coal-fired power plants which cause high emissions there.

How clean is the European electricity mix?

And in Europe? In 2020, the proportion of electricity generated from fossil fuels was between two percent in Sweden and 83 percent in Poland. On average, less than two fifths (39 percent) of European electricity comes from fossil fuels. The median is 37.5 percent. Since the proportion of coal has almost halved from 2015 to 2020, the electricity mix has become 29 percent cleaner in these five years. In 2020 alone, there was a ten percent reduction in CO2 per kilowatt hour of electricity. However, 43 percent of the coal has been replaced by gas.

Of course, there is still room for improvement for charging electricity. But when you consider that refining just one litre of petrol takes 1.5 kWh of electricity, it gives you pause for thought. An electric vehicle can drive between eight and twelve kilometres on this electricity alone. In light of the fact that the simplest Tesla currently requires 14.9 kWh for 100 km, we rapidly reach the conclusion that an electric vehicle can be driven just with the energy that is wasted on the extraction, transportation, refining and distribution of petrol. The energy contained within the oil itself is not included in this, so it can stay in the ground.

As a new vehicle, the environmental footprint of an electric vehicle is worse than a vehicle with a combustion engine – but by the end of its life it is much better

Regardless of how clean the electricity is: it must be stored in the battery. Battery production makes the biggest contribution to the embodied energy of an electric vehicle. That’s why an electric vehicle initially actually has higher CO2 emissions than a vehicle with a combustion engine. But after 80,000 kilometres at the latest – depending on the size of the vehicle – the electric vehicle has offset this disadvantage and is then more environmentally friendly on the road that a vehicle with another drive system. The good thing is: After their life as vehicle batteries, the batteries are then given a new lease of life as battery storage for the home and can subsequently be almost 100 percent recycled.

Summary

• Thanks to significantly fewer wear parts, an electric vehicle easily lasts more than three times as long as a vehicle with a combustion engine.
• Electric vehicles use 90 percent of the energy supplied for movement – for vehicles with combustion engines this is just 15 percent. The rest is turned into heat.
• The electricity for driving can be generated in a 100 percent CO2-neutral manner with water, wind and sun. Exhaust gases, oil which seeps into the groundwater, tanker accidents, fracking, embodied energy in crude oil transportation, disposal of waste oil and filters, and much more are no longer required.

All in all, with the European electricity mix an electric vehicle produces two thirds to half the emissions of a vehicle with a combustion engine. And the ecological benefits of electric vehicles will continue to increase in the future thanks to the increasing proportion of renewable energy.