Riders of the Sun

Electric Vehicles are good only if the electricity they use is clean

During the last Paris Motor Show (? Mondial de l’automobile ?, in French in the text), the new hype has certainly been Electric Vehicles (EVs).

Among the major car manufacturers, both Renault-Nissan and WW have clearly stated their future was to be electric, trying to follow the new kid on the block, Tesla, which is kind of an UFO in the car industry so far. 

I would love this move to be motivated by the environmental impact of using less fossil energy, but I’m afraid all of this is purely a matter of profit. When the fashion is to go electric, when soon governments will start to ban traditional gas vehicles, the EV market will grow fast and the demand for new beautiful and supposedly clean cars will rise exponentially as the profits of car producers.

On the other hand, as a client, what are the reasons to switch to electric?

Today, the financial aspects are not a reason to change yet: EVs are far more expensive to buy especially when the current ranges are not enough for a family to own only one EV. Of course things are moving fast: people start to go for leasing and sharing, governments are giving financial incentives to EV owners… but is will be quite long before we see “low-cost” EVs on the market.

But what marketing is really selling you is the fact that you will reduce your CO2 emissions by going electric thus helping our grey world to turn green.

Well, in that space, and this is the very same for other “clean” vehicles like those using hydrogen, the one million dollars question is and always will be where the energy (in electric format here) is coming from.

When most of the electricity is produced using coal as in the US, or nuclear as in France, I personally consider the environmental gain is not obvious.

The overall environmental impact is also damaged by the usage of chemical batteries that are today quite polluting lacking a proper recycling ecosystem. But the technology is evolving quickly and things are getting better in that space, making the impact of building and recycling EVs similar to gas cars.

Fortunately, there are of course some pro’s replacing gas vehicles, especially in urban areas where the gas engines’ emissions and pollution (not CO2 but dangerous combustion products) is killing people TODAY. 

But from a (true) renewable energy standpoint, EVs are not much cleaner than gas vehicles: electricity has just been used as a way to move energy from dirty coal or nuclear power plants to your car engine.

Once again, things are also moving fast here as many countries have embraced energy transition policies by adding renewable energy sources in their electricity mix. But we have to be careful here: the electricity industry is no more controlled by governments: private companies like EDF, Engie or Total (the French biggies I know) are playing in a capitalistic world where the margin is much more important than the planet’s health.

So when the massive number of EVs will make the electricity demand grow again, I’m not sure the renewable sources will remain priority one for them.

Anyway, there are ways to make your EV choice a good one as long as you take care of the origin of electricity.

The first and simple idea is to contract with a true “green” grid provider. True means each electron you will use (for your domestic needs including your EV) will correspond to another one your electricity provider has produced using renewable energy sources. In France we have such provider named Enercoop (https://www.dhirubhai.net/company/enercoop). If the provider has in addition a local strategy, it’s even better: their production will be spread into regional units across the country reducing virtually the need for electricity transportation (where there are losses). This is also what Enercoop does by having a regional organization.

And then, what about your producing your electricity for your needs?

You can very easily turn your home into a small production unit that you can use to charge-up your EV. By the way having an EV is a very good idea when you have a photovoltaic installation. Your solar modules will produce quite a lot midday when you may not need such energy. Your EV’s battery will charge-up nicely thus using the most of your configuration and helping its ROI. Don’t forget also that your vehicles usage cost have dropped going electric: the electricity cost is way smaller than your former gas cost. If part of the electricity cost is cut thanks to your self-production, not only your environmental gain is real, your financial one starts to get better (because you leverage your overall photovoltaic investment adding the EV to the rest of the home’s needs).

Of course real life is not so simple: you may not be at home midday everyday so you will certainly miss the opportunity to turn the solar peak hours into a free EV charging time. Well, the electricity prosumer approach could expand to your company as well: if the corresponding building is producing its electricity, you will be able to charge-up your EV at lunchtime.

In my very case, I own an electric bike, a wonderful Zero Motorcycles DS 12.5 (https://www.dhirubhai.net/company/zero-motorcyles-inc) I use on a daily basis. The range is around 180 km per full charge for me (driving habits… and around 100 kg to move…) with a 12.5 kWh “tank” (in reality 11 kWh of true usage capacity). I don’t drive such a distance every day. I can use the weekends to fully recharge but also lunchtime during the week for partial filling as I sometime go back home for lunch. 

10000 km a year would cost me around 700€ in gas with a regular gas bike. The corresponding electricity need is a bit more than 600 kWh a year which is around 100€ with Enercoop. As I produce roughly half of that thanks to my solar rooftop, it’s only 50€ per year compared to the 700€ my former Honda NCS700 would have cost me. 

But what I really like using my Zero is the fact I’m riding from the sun, in silence with the feeling I have tried to make something at my level to help the world.

And you can start “smaller” if you want: a small home PV system of 1.5 or 2 kWc plus a power assisted bicycle (400-500 Watt battery) will make you a happy green rider.