E-Vehicles Are Environmentally-Friendly: Myth or Fact?

The bus stop that was located just a few feet away from our apartment in Mainz was Mainstraße/Bewegungszentrum Mainz. It was a very crowded one situated on the main Rheinallee street, the street that was right across the beautiful and scenic Rhine River. Every weekday, I used to ride the bus to Mainz Hauptbahnhof, the railway station for the city of Mainz in Rheinland-Palatinate state of Germany. My German language school was at a walking distance from Mainz Hauptbahnhof, so this was my regular chore for several weeks, but suddenly one day the bus ride seemed a little different. The ride was quieter and more zipping than usual. Later, I found out that it was an e-bus!

E-vehicles are vehicles i.e., cars, bikes, motorbikes, buses, and trucks that run on electricity. 

They are of various types. Some are all-electric while others are hybrid: 

Battery Electric Vehicles (BEVs) are all-electric, so they are completely powered by electricity obtaining energy from a large battery pack that can be charged by a power grid instead of obtaining energy from combustion fuels, petrol or diesel. They have a battery instead of a gasoline tank and electric motor instead of an internal combustion engine. BEVs are the most efficient amongst all types of electric vehicles. 

Hybrid Electric Vehicles (HEVs) have internal combustion engine as well as a battery-powered electric motor. The combustion engine is used to drive the vehicle and also to charge the battery on board rather than plugging it into a power grid. 

Plug-in Hybrid Electric Vehicles (PHEVs) use both an internal combustion engine and an electric motor which can be charged by a power grid through a plug. Unlike Hybrid Electric Vehicles (HEVs), Plug-in Hybrid Electric Vehicles (PHEVs) can be charged by electricity instead of a combustion engine, so this makes them more efficient than HEVs. 

Fuel-cell Electric Vehicles (FCEVs) run on electricity generated by combining of hydrogen and oxygen. The chemical energy is converted into electric energy needed to run the vehicles. 

Fossil fuels such as coal, oil, petroleum, crude oil are all finite and non-renewable resources that need to be saved from getting depleted. Coal is still used to meet electricity demands and to manufacture important items such as cement, plastic, dyes, drugs, perfumes, etc. Oil is still used in producing so many essential items such as soaps, nail polish, lipstick, crayons, waterpipes, shoes, boats, food preservatives, antihistamines, aspirin, crayons, toothbrushes, shaving cream, wheels, trash bags, etc., so decreasing our dependency on gasoline cars will preserve our fossil fuels that meet our essential needs. 

Climate change is another global crisis that we are facing presently. When we burn fossil fuels, we spew out carbon dioxide, methane, and other greenhouse gases into the atmosphere. The increase of carbon dioxide traps more heat in the atmosphere causing global warming. The consequences of global warming are devastating, far-reaching, and visible. We are losing our polar caps as the ice on high mountains is melting at a very rapid pace causing record-breaking floods and large-scale destruction. The melting of glaciers is also rising the water levels of the oceans and it can lead to a loss of many islands in future. 

Driving e-vehicles neither emits greenhouse gases that are damaging our planet’s climate nor emits air pollutants such as nitrogen oxide that is damaging our human health, so increasing the use of e-vehicles can make our cities cleaner and healthier to live in. 

But there is a problem: Lithium! 

Lithium is an important metal used to manufacture batteries for the electric vehicles. It is extracted from rocks and brines while contaminating the land, seawater, and freshwater bodies, and hence contributing toward more air and water pollution. Some people debate that manufacturing of an electric vehicle can generate more pollution than the manufacturing of a gasoline car therefore gasoline cars are environmentally friendlier. Research findings by Argonne National Laboratory show that even though the manufacturing and charging of electric vehicles emit more pollution, but the full life emissions by e-vehicles are still fewer than the full life emissions generated by vehicles run by gasoline vehicles. Scientists are now working toward producing cleaner lithium extractions to reduce the contamination and pollution that is generated in the process of manufacturing the e-vehicles. 

So overall, using e-vehicles for mobility is environmentally friendlier than using vehicles with internal combustion engines. Therefore, in order to reduce carbon emissions and reach climate neutrality, Germany is planning to have about 10-14 million electric cars and plug-in hybrid vehicles on the road by 2030.

After my first ride on that electric bus to reach my German language school, I always looked forward to having that same quiet and zipping ride each time I took a bus. It certainly would reduce the noise pollution in the overly crowded and noisy cities that we live in!

Reference:

United States Environment Protection Agency