

Electric Vehicles often much worse for the environment than Petrol Vehicles - TheMagicHorsey
https://www.economist.com/news/science-and-technology/21636715-why-electric-car-may-be-much-dirtier-petrol-one-cleaner-what

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diafygi
This is a great example of how the media often confuses the complexities of
environmental impact. Here's why:

1\. This study is limited to particulate matter pollution, not greenhouse gas
emissions. Most readers nowadays associate "environmental impact" with climate
change, so it's deceptive of the publisher to not specify that electric
vehicles cause less greenhouse gas emissions overall than petroleum vehicles.

2\. The particulate matter pollution in this study is a solvable problem, even
if you keep the coal plants. Equipment like bag houses and static
precipitators are already installed on a lot of coal generators to remove
particulate.

3\. We are currently in peak coal. Even China is starting to decrease the
amount of coal generators that they are building. So the argument that we
shouldn't switch to EVs because coal is dirty is pretty useless over the next
few decades.

Conclusion: The Economist knowingly published an article meant to deceive the
reader and discredit electric vehicles.

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TheMagicHorsey
I don't think you can label this article an EV hitjob.

You know everything that surfaces facts unfavorable to Tesla isn't some sort
of conspiracy. This is good information to know.

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chetanahuja
The quoted study _"...assumes for all cars that present and future emission-
control technologies will be more widely used in 2020, especially particulate
filters which have a marked effect on cleaning diesel exhausts."_

Why wouldn't you assume similarly optimistic scenarios for large scale power
generation. It's clearly easier to retrofit and regulate about a 100 power
station to trap particulate matter etc. than assuming that millions of
gasoline and diesel cars on the road will each individually have correctly
functioning filters.

Also, a large number of EV's on the road means that any future power plants'
improved cleaner nature instantly affects the pollution impact of all the cars
on the road.

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byoung2
Keep in mind that electric vehicles will get cleaner over time (as more
electricity is generated from renewable resources), whereas gas-powered cars
will not.

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greenyoda
Gas-powered cars have been getting cleaner on a steady basis: more efficient
engines, lighter materials, etc. improve gas mileage and thus lower emissions.

It's probably a lot easier to incrementally improve gas-powered automotive
technology than it is to replace the large percentage of electric capacity in
the U.S. that comes from coal-fired power plants. According to Wikipedia, this
was about 50% of the nation's capacity as of 2008: 2133 TWh from coal out of a
total of 4369 TWh.[1] That amount of industrial infrastructure is not likely
to be completely replaced any time soon.

[1]
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electricity_generation#List_of...](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electricity_generation#List_of_countries_with_source_of_electricity_2008)

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byoung2
What I meant is that a particular gas powered car cannot get more efficient
after manufacture, while a particular electric vehicle can.

