Are Electric Vehicles Greener?

Electric Car V/s Gasoline Cars

The fundamental difference between conventional cars and electric cars is the process of converting the stored potential energy into kinetic energy.  In thermal cars, this energy is stored in a chemical form and is released through a chemical reaction inside the engine.

On the other hand, the electric cars release it electrochemically without any kind of combustion, thanks to lithium-ion batteries. This means that there is no fuel being burned and therefore no air pollution through Carbon dioxide happening while driving. They are also more efficient than fossil cars. 

So is this a clear win for the electric movement? 

Are electric cars and vehicles greener?

Not necessarily. Or better said, not always. If the source of energy to power these cars doesn’t come from solar panels, wind turbines or even nuclear or hydroelectric, their carbon dioxide emissions will be much higher. For instance, if the electricity used to charge cars comes from the burning of fossil fuels, it doesn’t matter if the electric cars are not polluting while being driven, as this pollution was already released in some distant power plant.

This means that if you’re driving an electric car in the United States, where fossil fuels accounted 62.7% of the country’s energy production in 2017, you’ll probably release more Carbon dioxide into the atmosphere than if you’re driving it in Iceland, that runs almost entirely on hydro, geothermal and solar energy.

So, who wins?

Thus we can conclude that the vital piece of this puzzle is the energy source. Electric cars have to be coupled with green energy production. Only then, we can look forward to a greener future.