There’s a lightness to your conscience when driving an electric car. While diesel utes and petrol-sipping SUVs emit tailpipe emissions, in an electric vehicle (EV), you’re cruising along, emitting nothing but good vibes – or are you?
Once they’ve sorted essentials such as where they’ll charge the car and new car insurance, many people enjoy EV ownership for its claimed environmental benefits.1 But what is the actual environmental impact of electric cars?
Are they truly the silver bullet to solving climate change and improving air quality – and are they actually sustainable? In this deep dive, we ask how good are electric cars really?
Electric cars and the environment – what are the benefits?
1. EVs produce fewer greenhouse gases
EVs create considerably fewer greenhouse gases, even when accounting for the sourcing of raw materials, as well as its manufacture, use and disposal.
An analysis by the International Energy Agency compared the 20-year, 200,000km life-cycle greenhouse gas emissions of a mid-size battery electric vehicle (BEV) and its internal combustion engine (ICE) equivalent. In the worst-case scenario, the BEV produced 21.1 tonnes of CO2 compared to 41.9 tonnes for the ICE.2 That’s significant.
2. They can be renewably recharged
While an electric car can be recharged using electricity generated by burning fossil fuels (such as coal or gas), it can also be recharged using power from renewables such as solar and wind.
Indeed, a home solar charging set-up, such as roof-top solar plus an EV charger, allows you to charge your car with what is essentially free energy.3
3. EVs are simply more efficient
Did you know your petrol-powered car is only about 30% efficient?4 Most of the energy in the petrol is converted to heat, which is then wastefully dissipated into the atmosphere.
By comparison, EVs are more than 77% efficient at converting energy into forward momentum.4 That means if your internal combustion car was as energy efficient as an EV, you could go more than twice as far using the same amount of petrol. Imagine that.
4. Batteries are very recyclable
US battery recycling company Redwood has demonstrated that more than 95% of EV battery metals can be recovered and recycled.5
Research also shows that battery recycling offers significant environmental benefits and potential for reduced greenhouse gas emissions. EV batteries also last a long time, retaining approximately 70-80% of their storage capacity after the average 15-year lifespan of the vehicles they power.6
How do electric cars negatively impact the environment?
1. Mining
The lithium-ion batteries that currently power almost every new EV require materials like lithium and cobalt.7 As more people buy EVs, more minerals are required, which inevitably means more mines to extract these elements.
Mining for EV production is already presenting major challenges. In Indonesia – which has one of the highest natural reserves of nickel in the world, a key component in EV production – mining has led to concerns over deforestation and air pollution, as well as labour rights.8
Mining for minerals related to EV production is also affecting the traditional lands of Indigenous people around the world. A study found that of 5,097 international mining projects connected to the 30 key minerals required for the energy transition, approximately 54% were located on or close to Indigenous lands.9
About 70% of the world’s cobalt is sourced from the Democratic Republic of Congo in Africa,10 where Amnesty International has highlighted human rights abuses, including child labour and hazardous conditions in mining processes.11
Mining for the rare earth elements used in EV production also results in a significant amount of toxic waste. For every tonne of rare earth elements extracted, more than 2,000 tonnes of toxic waste are produced.12
There is better news to come, however. John Rose, Neil Smith Research Chair in Sustainable Transport Futures at The University of Sydney, says evolving battery chemistries and technology mean the mining impact of EVs may not be a long-term problem.
“In 10 or 15 years’ time, the batteries we’re talking about today and the mining issues we’re talking about today will not exist,” Rose says.
“We’ll have completely different battery technology, and that will be the game changer. It’s coming, it’s just a function of when – and we just don’t know when.”
He adds that there has been a move away from nickel manganese cobalt (NMC) type batteries, which are connected to a lot of the modern-day slavery issues around cobalt.
“Lithium-ion phosphate (LFP) batteries are starting to dominate the market, and the good news is there’s a lot of research being done on what is called solid-state batteries, which is a completely different type of battery,” Rose says.
The environmental impact of mining for EV battery minerals must be balanced against the fact they are highly recyclable, while fossil fuels – currently extracted from the earth in vast quantities – are not.
2. EVs still produce harmful emissions
“It can be confidently concluded that EVs are not zero emission vehicles,” reads a 2022 study from the Ministry of Science and ICT South Korea.13 The study claims that EVs, being typically heavier than internal combustion equivalents, produce significantly more particulate matter emissions – tiny, harmful particles produced by the wear of brake pads and tyres.
However, the picture isn’t completely clear-cut. The researchers found that while these kinds of emissions are 10% higher in EVs than in ICE cars, this can be negated by using the EV’s regenerative braking on maximum.
Regenerative braking is a process that allows an EV to harvest kinetic energy that would otherwise be lost during braking and return it to the car’s battery.14
Do electric cars improve air quality?
Even despite their slightly higher particulate emissions, EVs are a better choice for air quality. Air pollution from fossil fuel vehicles accounts for more than 1,700 deaths in Australia each year – more than those caused by road crashes.15
Also, EVs don’t produce any tailpipe emissions.16 That means cleaner towns and cities – and fresher air.
Do electric cars actually reduce greenhouse gases – and my carbon footprint?
EVs definitely reduce both greenhouse gas emissions and your carbon footprint.
Lifetime emissions for average medium-size battery EVs registered today are already lower than comparable petrol cars by 66-69% in Europe, 60-68% in the US, 37-45% in China and 19-34% in India.17 Plus, as more electricity comes from renewable energy sources, the emissions advantage of EVs over ICE vehicles will only grow further.
Is battery recycling a thing?
Battery recycling is real – and it’s becoming a massive industry.18 Partially depleted EV batteries could enjoy a second life in residential and commercial settings before going on to be recycled into brand-new EV batteries.19
Is the electricity grid ready for mass EV adoption?
Australia’s electricity grid is on track to be ready for mass adoption of EVs – even accounting for the expanded charging infrastructure this will require.
The Electric Vehicle Council claims that if every car on our roads today was to become electric, this would result in a modest increase of around 15% in overall electricity demand.20
There’s also the prospect of ‘vehicle-to-grid’, in which excess energy stored in homes or carried around in car batteries is released back into the grid at peak times, further reducing the pressure of demand.21
In summary: How good are electric cars for the environment?
Let’s break this down into simple bits. Climate change – the existential threat posed to humanity – is caused by an excess of greenhouse gas emissions such as carbon dioxide. One of the principal sources of greenhouse gas emissions is transportation – such as cars.
The science is in: electric cars have a significantly lower carbon footprint than internal combustion equivalents over their lifetime. So that means if you buy an EV, you’ll be making a contribution to reducing greenhouse gas emissions and doing your bit to beat man-made climate change.22
Are you an EV driver looking for insurance cover that suits your needs? Start a quote with Youi today.
1 Source: Griffith University – Who is buying electric vehicles in Australia?, July 2021
2 Source: International Energy Agency – The Role of Critical Minerals in Clean Energy Transitions, May 2021
3 Source: Vic Government – Charging your electric vehicle
4 Source: US Department of Energy – All-Electric Vehicles
5 Source: Electrek – Tesla cofounder’s Redwood shows 95% efficiency in battery recycling pilot, March 2023
6 Source: International Council on Clean Transportation – Scaling up reuse and recycling of electric vehicle batteries: Assessing challenges and policy approaches, February 2023
7 Source: MIT Technology Review – What’s next for batteries, January 2023
8 Source: ABC News – ‘What's the point of a boat if there are no fish?’, October 2023
9 Source: Nature Sustainability – Energy transition minerals and their intersection with land-connected peoples, December 2022
10 Source: US Geological Survey – Mineral Commodity Summaries, Cobalt, January 2023
11 Source: Amnesty International – Democratic Republic of Congo: “This is what we die for”: Human rights abuses in the Democratic Republic of the Congo power the global trade in cobalt, January 2016
12 Source: Harvard International Review – Not So “Green” Technology: The Complicated Legacy of Rare Earth Mining, August 2021
13 Source: Science of the Total Environment – Comparison of total PM emissions emitted from electric and internal combustion engine vehicles: An experimental analysis, October 2022
14 Source: What Car? – What is regenerative braking and how does it work?, February 2024
15 Source: National Environmental Science Programme – Submission on the “Better fuel for cleaner air” discussion paper, March 2017
16 Source: Green Vehicle Guide – Electric Vehicles
17 Source: The International Council on Clean Transportation – A global comparison of the life-cycle greenhouse gas emissions of combustion engine and electric passenger cars, July 2021
18 Source: McKinsey & Company – Battery recycling takes the driver’s seat, March 2023
19 Source: Electric Vehicle Council – Can EV batteries be recycled?
20 Source: Electric Vehicle Council – Can the current energy grid handle the increasing number of electric vehicles on the road?
21 Source: ABC News – The EV boom will drive electricity demand and big batteries are a risk, but also opportunity for the power grid, August 2024
22 Source: ABC News – Are electric cars better for the environment than fuel-powered cars? Here’s the verdict, May 2024
