What if... we all drove electric?

You might have spotted stories in the press lately stating that electric vehicles are worse for the environment than conventional ones. This isn’t what we've been led to believe. So is it true? And if so, what would happen if we all switched to electric cars tomorrow?

The reports stemmed from a study by the Norwegian University of Science and Technology that looked at the lifecycle impacts of electric cars against conventional ones. Lifecycle analyses look at stages in a cars life, from manufacture to disposal, and calculates the environmental impact in each. Impact includes both greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and environmental contamination from toxic materials released into the environment.

Globally 13% of GHG emissions are from transport of which 6% are from road vehicles

Source: IPCC 2007 Assessment report

This is a blog about climate change so I don’t want to dwell on environmental contamination issues which, whilst I would never suggest are unimportant, are a separate issue to the greenhouse gas emissions that warm the globe. In short, electric vehicles were found to cause much more contamination of freshwater and ecosystems due to the higher concentrations of copper and aluminum involved in their manufacture... Bad news.

But what about climate change? The report found that the global warming impact of manufacturing electric vehicles was roughly twice that calculated in previous reports.  But by far the biggest source of greenhouse gas emissions in an electric car's lifetime come from driving it (the usage phase).

This is counter-intuitive. Electric cars, which have no exhaust, should perform much better here. But if the electricity used to power the cars comes from fossil fuels, then each unit of electricity used driving will have associated GHG emissions.

Electric car manufacturers Tesla claim their Roadster model has zero emissions. But does it really?

In Europe, where use of renewables is comparatively high, electric cars have a 10% - 24% lower global warming impact than conventional cars over the average lifetime distance of 150,000km. Use the car for longer and the reduction increases. The opposite is true for shorter distances.

But if all the electricity to power the car comes from coal, the situation changes. Suddenly electric cars have a 17% - 27% bigger global warming impact. In a world where 64% of electricity is produced from fossil fuels (compared with 50% in Europe), if we all switched to electric cars tomorrow, the impact on GHG emissions would be much smaller than one might expect.

So if you live in China, I wouldn't run out and buy an electric car. But you might consider it if you're from the EU. And as the global energy mix becomes more reliant on renewables in the future, investing in an electric car will become increasingly sensible. The Smith School, a University of Oxford research centre founded by ex-chief government scientist David King recently published a future transport roadmap stating that electric vehicles should play a vital role in reducing future GHG emissions from transport. And the UK government's chief climate change advisory group, the Committee on Climate Change, state that it will be impossible to meet emissions targets from road vehicles without using electric cars.

Might be time to start browsing those showrooms.