wattmatters
Solar Wizard
Zjohn could have said:
Due to the high lifetime emissions from vehicle ownership (be they mostly embedded emissions in EVs or expelled emissions from ICEVs), then reducing the number of vehicles overall is the aim. In essence it's about consuming less overall.
We can personally help with that by:
- where possible don't replace your car at all, nor buy one (EV or ICE) to begin with
- find and use alternative lower carbon emission transport options like the active (cycle, walk) and public transport options already mentioned on this thread
- if you do need to use a vehicle, then instead of owning one then hire/borrow/share/taxi/uber, helping to reduce the number of vehicles overall
- if a multi-car household then drop to a single car household, if a zero-car household isn't feasible for you
- have your old car(s) disposed of in an environmentally sensitive way
But of course these suggestions are not options open to everyone as clearly vehicles are required for many to perform their work, e.g. tradespeople, or live in locations where alternative options are not viable/practical/available as well as various other factors.
So if you do require a vehicle then:
- choose a smaller, more efficient vehicle
- if it's an EV then choose one with a smaller battery (accept a lower range and plan accordingly)
- use low carbon/renewable sources of energy to charge
The embedded carbon cost of EVs is definitely an issue, mainly the battery which is very emissions intensive to manufacture. So much so that an EV very well may have significantly higher lifetime emissions compared with an ICEV. But it can also be lower. It's dependent on many things.
Unfortunately it is not quite so straightforward to know which applies to an individual case.
As a rule of thumb, the more km driven per kWh of EV battery where the energy supply is low carbon, the greater the chance it is going to be of net carbon benefit compared to an ICEV, but having a vehicle in the first place (EV or ICEV) = big carbon cost to be avoided if possible.
Due to the high lifetime emissions from vehicle ownership (be they mostly embedded emissions in EVs or expelled emissions from ICEVs), then reducing the number of vehicles overall is the aim. In essence it's about consuming less overall.
We can personally help with that by:
- where possible don't replace your car at all, nor buy one (EV or ICE) to begin with
- find and use alternative lower carbon emission transport options like the active (cycle, walk) and public transport options already mentioned on this thread
- if you do need to use a vehicle, then instead of owning one then hire/borrow/share/taxi/uber, helping to reduce the number of vehicles overall
- if a multi-car household then drop to a single car household, if a zero-car household isn't feasible for you
- have your old car(s) disposed of in an environmentally sensitive way
But of course these suggestions are not options open to everyone as clearly vehicles are required for many to perform their work, e.g. tradespeople, or live in locations where alternative options are not viable/practical/available as well as various other factors.
So if you do require a vehicle then:
- choose a smaller, more efficient vehicle
- if it's an EV then choose one with a smaller battery (accept a lower range and plan accordingly)
- use low carbon/renewable sources of energy to charge
The embedded carbon cost of EVs is definitely an issue, mainly the battery which is very emissions intensive to manufacture. So much so that an EV very well may have significantly higher lifetime emissions compared with an ICEV. But it can also be lower. It's dependent on many things.
Unfortunately it is not quite so straightforward to know which applies to an individual case.
As a rule of thumb, the more km driven per kWh of EV battery where the energy supply is low carbon, the greater the chance it is going to be of net carbon benefit compared to an ICEV, but having a vehicle in the first place (EV or ICEV) = big carbon cost to be avoided if possible.