EV as a “green” space: something to ponder upon

Electric cars are gaining momentum as a viable and sustainable alternative to traditional gasoline-powered vehicles. With growing concerns about climate change, they have emerged as a promising solution to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and combat air pollution.

However, how sustainable are they really?

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1. Energy is also used to manufacture the vehicle – and, in particular, the battery. Electric cars may not emit greenhouse gases from their tailpipes, but small emissions are created in the process, primarily through the creation of their large lithium-ion batteries.
2. Extracting minerals like lithium, cobalt, and nickel, which are very crucial for modern EV batteries, can be extremely energy intensive — leading to air and water pollution, degradation of land and potential groundwater contamination.
3. Miners need to process about 30,000 litres of brine lake water to produce 10 kg of lithium, as stated by Andrew Hodgkinson, Manager Process and Treatment Technology, Houston.
4. This situation is worsened by the disposal of batteries instead of re-using them.
5. There is also the issue of charging batteries. The electrical source for these batteries are still heavily dependent on non-renewable resources. Switching to clean and natural sources of energy is the obvious solution, to the above. However, while wind and solar power are efficient they are not always available, meaning demand can still outpace supply.

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That being said, in summary:

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Electric vehicles still are an important step in the right direction and represent a pivotal solution to address the pressing environmental challenges we face today.

However, to fully unlock the potential of EVs, continued efforts in infrastructure development, battery technology improvements, alternative sources of clean energy and supportive policies are imperative.

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Further reading:

• https://climate.mit.edu/ask-mit/are-electric-vehicles-definitely-better-climate-gas-powered-cars
• https://www.nytimes.com/2021/03/02/climate/electric-vehicles-environment.html
• https://www.advisian.com/en/global-perspectives/why-water-will-determine-the-future-of-battery-production#:~:text=Lithium%20miners%20need%20to%20process,lot%20of%20brine%20to%20process !