Energy: an electric car will always be cleaner than a thermal one

A Tesla in front of Wellington's iconic wind turbine © Sigurd Magnusson

Despite a more carbon-intensive manufacturing than its thermal engine equivalent, the electric car remains cleaner. A study shows that even with electricity from coal, the advantage goes to “zero emissions”.

Among the arguments of the detractors of the electric car, the environmental cost of its manufacture often stands out. When it rolls, it is the origin of the electricity that is regularly debated. In both cases, these arguments are erroneous and the electric car is always cleaner than the most ecological thermal. This is what emerges from a study by Reuters on vehicle emissions over their entire life cycle.

The results of this analysis show that it will obviously take longer for a car whose electricity is produced by coal to become cleaner than a thermal one. But in the end, she will be no matter what. The study is based on a model created by the American laboratory Argonne, based in Chicago.

More polluting manufacturing due to batteries

The criticism that often comes up for electric cars is the pollution generated by their manufacture. Specifically, batteries produce the most emissions during manufacturing.

Analysis shows that a mid-size electric sedan generates an average of 8.1 tonnes of CO2 before hitting the road. This takes into account the extraction and production processes of the car and the battery. At the same time, a gasoline vehicle of the same size will generate 5.5 tons of CO2 during its manufacture. The average deficit of 2.6 tonnes of CO2 emitted between these two cars will therefore be offset on the road, to the advantage of “zero emissions”.

The question is obviously how long this compensation will take, and that only depends on one thing. Beyond the distance covered, it is the source of the electricity that determines it.

Electricity is greener in Norway

To calculate the pollution generated by an electric car and a car with a combustion engine, you have to count everything. This involves manufacturing, emissions while driving, but also polluting emissions due to energy sources.

The Argonne National Laboratory model opposes a Tesla Model 3 to the American version of the Toyota Corolla, a gasoline sedan weighing 1,340 kilos, whose real consumption amounts to 7.3 l/100 km.

Norway is the country that uses the most renewable electricity in the world. The simulation shows that the electric car would need 13,515 kilometers in this country to compensate for its additional pollution from manufacturing.

This is the most optimistic result found by this survey. This would give an electric vehicle about a year to become cleaner than its thermal equivalent.

Electricity from coal ten times more difficult to offset

Conversely, in the countries that rely the most on coal, it would be necessary to travel ten times as many kilometers to reverse this trend. In countries like China or Poland, the most dependent on coal, an electric car would take about 126,600 kilometers to compensate for its deficit. The modeling is based on a lifespan of 280,000 kilometers for the two cars.

In the United States, the Argonne calculation shows that it would take 21,725 ​​kilometers for an electric car to return to equilibrium. In France, where the energy mix is ​​currently mainly nuclear, it will probably take much less.

On these ACV calculations, other studies are however more pessimistic than that of Reuters. Damien Ernst, a researcher at the University of Liège, estimated that it would take between 67,000 and 151,000 km for an electric car to regain the advantage.