Originally Posted by
Mesabah
The premise of the electric vehicle is that someday we will invent a battery technology that doesn't pollute more than gas. Right now, a Tesla has to be driven for more than 8 years to have a break even carbon footprint over a gasser, then it starts saving the environment
. Green tech isn't green, it's setting up an infrastructure that could be green some day, if we can go around the laws of thermodynamics.
Yea, electric vehicles have a higher carbon foot print to manufacturer, but produce less carbon over its life span, but is recouped rather quickly.
I'd be curious to see the source of your 8 year break even.
http://www.ucsusa.org/sites/default/...ull-report.pdf
Page 22
For a full-size 265-mile-range BEV, on average, the extra manufacturing emissions are o set within 19,000 miles, or in about 16 months of driving, based on the sales-weighted elec- tricity emissions of where EVs are sold today (assuming a 265-mile-range BEV travels the same rst-year mileage as the typical new gasoline car). When driving a BEV recharged from the cleanest regional grids in the United States, these extra manufacturing emissions are o set within the rst 15,000 miles of driving, or in just under one year for the aver- age driver. On the dirtiest grid they are o set within 39,000 miles, or in less than three years for the typical vehicle owner.
Page 21
For a full-size 265-mile-range BEV, manufacturing emis- sions are approximately 68 percent, or 6 tons of CO2e higher than a comparable conventional gasoline vehicle. Total global warming emissions of the full-size BEV, when powered by the electricity grid mix representative of where BEVs are sold today, are 53 percent lower than the comparable full-size gasoline car, thereby saving 54 tons of CO2e. The global warming emissions from manufacturing a full-size BEV are about 33 percent of its lifetime global warming emissions; the remaining 67 percent come from driving it.