Why Electric Cars Aren't Always Eco-Friendly | Unveiled
Why Electric Cars Aren’t Always Eco-Friendly
With climate change threatening the future of our species, the race is on to find suitable, alternative energies… And, as they mostly run on fossil fuels, our vehicles represent a key area that needs drastically improving. Electric cars are often seen as the perfect solution, but could they also be indirectly harming our planet?
This is Unveiled, and today we’re uncovering the extraordinary reasons why electric cars aren’t always eco-friendly.
Electric cars actually have quite a long history. The earliest model car powered by an electric motor came about in 1828, while working, full-size electric vehicles in fact predate best-selling traditional cars like the famous Ford Model T. It was only when mass-produced, combustion engines gained their popularity, in the early 20th century, that the development of electric vehicles slowed down almost to a stop. Today, though, thanks to our growing understanding of the environmental impact of fossil fuels and emissions, the calls for electric - or at least hybrid - vehicles have grown louder and louder. Since the turn of the twenty-first century, electric cars have truly become a practical and reasonable alternative to traditional gas and diesel options. The range of electric vehicles is increasing, and the accessibility of charging stations is improving, too. Big-name specialist brands like Tesla have become household names, while established car companies are diversifying into the market, as well.
And, let’s not get it twisted, there are a lot of benefits to electric vehicles; the biggest and most obvious being that running them doesn’t require you to burn fossil fuels. This means that electric cars don’t pump out toxic CO2, meaning no more exhaust fumes and much less localised air pollution. Which is all good news! In terms of money, studies show that EVs are generally cheaper to run overall than their gas-guzzling counterparts, as well… and, while their reliability is still debated, electric engines should last a long time - meaning less need to upgrade your car once you buy one. In fact, some forecast that because electric cars should need replacing less, there will come a time when despite the increasing global population there will actually be fewer vehicles in existence!
Naturally, there are some downsides to electric vehicle ownership, too - including the extra time it takes to recharge electric batteries compared to filling a tank with gas… But, overall, the future looks bright for the EV industry. But that doesn’t mean that analysts aren’t already demanding improvements… with some questioning whether the technology’s greatest claim - that electric cars are eco-friendly - really rings true.
The biggest concerns surround the mining of lithium. Lithium is an abundant resource and one of the most important elements in the construction of electric car batteries, but it’s often gathered unsustainably to meet the growing demand. In Chile, which has some of the largest lithium deposits in the world in its salt flats, the price of lithium has skyrocketed as countries turn to electric vehicles as their saving grace against environmental catastrophe. With various countries - most notably China - pushing to electrify their transport in recent years, we’re in the midst of what’s been dubbed the “lithium rush” - and the element itself has even been nicknamed “white gold”. In the twenty-first century market, lithium is big, big business!
It’s a shame then that lithium mining practices often leave a lot to be desired. As well as ravaging the natural landscape, lithium mining has reportedly led to local water sources becoming contaminated… which not only has adverse effects for the humans who drink it, but also on farming and agriculture, leading to damaged, contaminated crops. The most damning criticisms claim that lithium mining could become just as problematic as drilling for oil. Thankfully, however, the current concerns could soon be phased out as there are other, far greener ways to obtain lithium, such as distilling it from seawater. It’s a more expensive process that will eat into the profit margins of companies making cars, phones, laptops, but it’s a more sustainable option in the long term.
Nevertheless, it’s not only lithium which causes an issue. Other elements needed to make batteries - like cobalt, for example - are rarer and arguably even more dangerous to extract than lithium. Almost all of the planet’s cobalt comes from central Africa (mostly from the Democratic Republic of the Congo), and lots is reportedly mined by hand by exploited laborers - including children. The grim reality of the cobalt trade is at times very far away from the green, ethical optimism that something like an electric car promises. And, because these elements are a finite resource, they’re also easily compared to the fossil fuels that - in making electric cars - we’re seemingly trying not to rely on. Someday, as with oil, we’ll run out of cobalt, meaning we’ll have to find an alternative, alternative resource. Throw into the equation that batteries are also particularly difficult to recycle - with discarded batteries leaking toxic chemicals which threaten ecosystems and public health, as well - and even the EV industry has itself plenty of problems that need solving. Of course, traditional gas-powered cars also require batteries to run… An EV remains a better, more environmentally friendly option, it’s just that it still takes many years for an electric car to cancel out its own carbon footprint since the way it’s manufactured can be so detrimental.
That said, companies are striving to find solutions, and sustainable production is a key goal for most EV manufacturers. Yet, say we did manage to develop completely sustainable batteries, the other major question-mark hangs over whether the electricity we’re using to power them is sustainable as well? While EVs might promise “100% renewable energy”, scale back from the car-charging ports themselves and is that entirely true? Because all the electricity generated by a utility company usually goes to the same place, an electrical grid that supplies a large region with power, often we’re getting electricity that’s been generated in all sorts of ways – and not all of them renewable. Typically, there’s no guarantee that the electricity used to power a green vehicle is all that green in itself.
However, the increasing demand for genuinely eco-friendly, renewable energy does mean that energy firms are having to take note and wanting to make their practices as sustainable as possible. If you’re installing a charge port at home, then you’re always doing the better thing for the environment by researching energy firms and shopping around - to make sure that the company you use shares in your goals for green, sustainable living. Being “environmentally savvy” hasn’t always been a mainstream concern, but it is now!
Take a step even further back, though, and some are beginning to question whether electricity is really our best bet for the future at all. It’s a step in the right direction, sure, but in the future might we see even greener vehicles powered by other means - like hydrogen. Plans for a mass roll-out of hydrogen cars are still at very early days, but on the face of it they’d be revolutionary because the only by-product of a hydrogen fuel system is water, which doesn’t pose a threat to the environment at all. Elsewhere, there have been proposals made to use biogas as vehicle fuel. Biogas is created from rotting sewage and waste, so using it would constitute the ultimate act of recycling. But the golden goose of alternative fuels is the same thing that’s currently causing all of our problems: carbon dioxide. We already have the technology to remove CO2 from the atmosphere, but it’s expensive and we don’t have an efficient way to recycle the siphoned carbon itself just yet. So, if we could find a way to turn it into a fuel source for cars, well, we’d be solving two problems at once: We’d have a green means of travel and we’d be scrubbing the atmosphere clean at the same time.
We could be decades away from that kind of technology but, since we’ve only had cars (period) for just over a century, there is hope that someday we’re bound to perfect them so that they’re 100% green machines. EVs are an important step toward that ultimate goal, and their use could well usher in new and improved methods of generating electricity across the board. While it’s true that electric cars aren’t always completely eco-friendly, they’re undoubtedly more eco-friendly than gas models. The history of the automobile is now at a crucial crossroads.
