Bad News For The Chevy Volt: British Study Finds Electric Cars Produce Higher Emissions Than Gas-Fueled Cars…
Eco-FAIL.
(The Australian) — Electric cars could produce higher emissions over their lifetimes than petrol equivalents because of the energy consumed in making their batteries, a study has found.
An electric car owner would have to drive at least 129,000km before producing a net saving in CO2. Many electric cars will not travel that far in their lifetime because they typically have a range of less than 145km on a single charge and are unsuitable for long trips. Even those driven 160,000km would save only about a tonne of CO2 over their lifetimes.
The British study, which is the first analysis of the full lifetime emissions of electric cars covering manufacturing, driving and disposal, undermines the case for tackling climate change by the rapid introduction of electric cars.
The Committee on Climate Change, the UK government watchdog, has called for the number of electric cars on Britain’s roads to increase from a few hundred now to 1.7 million by 2020.
Britain’s Department for Transport is spending $66 million over the next year giving up to 8,600 buyers of electric cars a grant of $7700 towards the purchase price. Ministers are considering extending the scheme.
The study was commissioned by the Low Carbon Vehicle Partnership, which is jointly funded by the British government and the car industry. It found that a mid-size electric car would produce 23.1 tonnes of CO2 over its lifetime, compared with 24 tonnes for a similar petrol car. Emissions from manufacturing electric cars are at least 50 per cent higher because batteries are made from materials such as lithium, copper and refined silicon, which require much energy to be processed.
Many electric cars are expected to need a replacement battery after a few years. Once the emissions from producing the second battery are added in, the total CO2 from producing an electric car rises to 12.6 tonnes, compared with 5.6 tonnes for a petrol car.
Posted by ZIP on Monday, June 13, 2011, at 2:33 pm | 
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Not even close on the eco-nuts holy grail of carbon…
Well….yeah…..but all that pollution will be over China…..where all the parts are made.
Everyone knows that only European and North American pollution is actually harmful. That’s why it’s so important for nations like the United States to curb it’s CO2 production, even though China is now the worlds largest energy consumer.
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If only there was some way we could’ve known that this was all bullshit before we invested trillions in it….
Go figure!
I wonder how much these cars are going to cost to charge up when electricity prices “necessarily skyrocket.”
I’ve said it before and I am saying it again. barry and his ilk need to go directly from the White House to the Federal Penitentiary. barry can practice his golf swing in his cell.
Another product of the biggest hoax in human history: global warming.
Wow, I have known this for years. The same pretty much goes for corn base fuel. Between the fertilizer to make it, the fuel to plant, harvest and process it you end up wasting about as much fossil fuel as you would just putting fossil fuel in you tank. I read an article not to long ago that compared our electrical grid to the rest of the world’s countries. Europe came out at about 80% efficient. Our grid is old and is estimated to be only 35% efficient. The same goes for you home. If you had a hybrid electrical system you could save a lot. Get a moderate sized battery bank, solar, and generator. You can recover the heat (hot water and home heating in the winter)from the generator so the efficiency goes way up because of this.
Oh my! We’ll just call this study “flawed” and make up some new ones… that’ll be just swell!
“Another product of the biggest hoax in human history: global warming.”
———–
Or to say the same thing another way:
Global Warming: the self-justifying prophecy.
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Thank you UK Captain Obvious! The numbers don’t work for electric cars or a multitude of other “feel Good” green inventions….. But commies and progressives don’t care about fact.
Government Motors
Future Headlines: Eco-terrorists burning Chevy Volts.
Next, the ‘Audacity of Hope’ crew will push plug-in electric vehicles. (that use the same battery)
……despite the fact that our power grid would be brought to it’s knees.
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that’s…..shocking…news about the….Volt…
ahahahhhahhahah.
someone needs to stop thinkin so much w/ their vagina and use their brain.
-President FFM
If only the government hadn’t spent all our money, we might be able to afford to clean up this mess.
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No, no, no. It’s like the mercury in those light bulbs. It Helps the environment. The Little Green Men told me so!
First off, any news article that doesn’t clearly cite the name and source of the study they are referencing DOESN’T PASS MUSTER. I searched in the Low Carbon Vehicle Partnership’s website for 10 min, and could not find the study this news story seems to be describing.
Secondly, if the energy required to produce the batteries for electric cars is being considered as part of the carbon cost, what about the energy required for smelting and casting the MASSIVE cast iron engine block for a petrol car? (Iron melts at a MUCH higher temperature than copper, lithium, or other metals used in battery construction). Is that fact also being factored in?
Compare apples to apples.
The point is that without even being able to locate, access and evaluate the study referenced by the above “story”, the story is meaningless to me.
I remain completely unconvinced that the central point of the story (that electric cars produce higher emissions than gas cars) is even true.
Iron is not toxic. It is the main component of our blood.
Too much copper can kill. Too much lithium can kill. And it’s not just humans that it kills. These two heavy metals have an impact on the entire ecosystem they contaminate.
And a higher melting point doesn’t always mean that more energy was expended to smelt it. The construction of high energy batteries requires a much cleaner environment to keep the product consistent.
Then there is the issue of the electrolyte in the batteries. How much energy is expended purely on the handling of these toxic substances?
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Well that news is just priceless. Where are they going to go from here? I think the internal- combustion engine has won the fight.
The Ford Escape uses a battery that is rated for 340 volts DC (before the converter). A bad connection from an ‘impure’ component can create a dangerous situation. (think ‘arc-welding’)
I’ve been around these things for a while. Since the mid-1990′s.
Trust me when i tell you that once an electric, or hybrid-electric vehicle catches fire, the fire department is reluctant to put it out. There is simply no way for them to predict what that strange collection of burning chemicals will do if you sprayed water on them.
I was working at a automotive prototype shop sometime around 1998 when one day……..something happened that the engineers couldn’t predict. (but that’s why they build prototypes; to reveal the unknown)
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I’m working on a patent for a car that runs on Hope and Change.
My $12,000,000,000,000.00 grant is just about all spent and I need a little more VC. Anybody?
Honestly, I could care a less about my CO2 emissions (much like every petrol car driver out there). The only green that really concerns me is all the green (cash) staying in my pocket not having to pay those high gas prices. Electric car is not about saving the earth but saving vs. gas prices. My leaf is great, put 2700 miles in 7 weeks. I don’t even pay attention to gas prices anymore. Now that is priceless.
tow a trailer with that leaf and see how it goes.
lets see how these hybrids heat and run in -25f weather.
One of these clunkers caught fire and burned down a garage here in CT. That story went away real quick.
More on the flaming Volt. btw, GM took over the investigation,nothing more need be said.
http://jacksharkey.blogspot.com/2011/04/chevy-volt-burns-down-garage.html
This is a very very very poorly worded article. I can not even begin to discuss the discrepancies, it’s just too far off. You point the finger at the Chevy Volt as if it is and has been the only battery operated car on the planet. You mentions that the batteries last only a couple years… WRONG!!! I just read a story about a 2004 Toyota Prius owner that has 250,000 miles on his original batteries… just one example of durability.
love how bad this statement is: “An electric car owner would have to drive at least 129,000km before producing a net saving in CO2. Many electric cars will not travel that far in their lifetime because they typically have a range of less than 145km on a single charge and are unsuitable for long trips.”
Really? you believe that the car will cease to exist after 80,o00 miles! LOL Even at 10,000 miles per year… that would be eclipsed within 8 years… and how many hundreds of thousands of Prii are on the road even after 8 years…. 99% of them, and I bet you that a ton of them have over 100k….
Your article is lame, and half-baked… you should be shot for the context of the content. GROW THE FUNK UP!
@ecobiker:
Whats the matter, that eco bike seat giving you a rash? Don’t ride it near me hon,wouldn’t want the exhaust from my BIG 4 X 4 mussing up your makeup.
It really isn’t about saving energy or the environment. It’s about the government bleeding the taxpayers dry and distributing your hard earned dollars to the obama loyalists.
Hey rs
I found the info immediately on a google search. Curious why you had a problem.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Committee_on_Climate_Change
The Greenie Movement – what a scam!
“I just read a story about a 2004 Toyota Prius owner that has 250,000 miles on his original batteries… just one example of durability.”
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I just read a story that said that your story was fake.
I know exactly how the technology works. Ford Motor company provided me with training so that i could support prototype vehicle testing.
All hybrid vehicle manufacturers use a similar technology, both electrical and mechanical. In many cases, the battery manufacturer is THE SAME supplier as their rivals use.
Those batteries DO NOT last forever.
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While Barry oppresses the sources of America’s energy sources, Israel is happily yelling “Drill, Baby. Drill!!!”
http://israelmatzav.blogspot.com/2011/06/israel-becoming-new-petro-state.html#links
Goes to show that if there is a market for a product, it will not have to be forced upon the people, the people will be clamoring for it. So, get our of our way big brother!
I just learned today that GM will Warrant the VOLT’s batteries for 8 years.
If yours fail before 8 years are up, you don’t get new batteries…
you get pro-rated batteries that will reasonably last for the remainder of your 8-year-Warranty.
For example, if your batteries fail after 5 years, GM will replace them with reconditioned batteries with a life expectancy of 3 more years.
So, if your batteries fail after 7 years, you’ll get batteries calculated to last just one more year…THEN you pay $5,000 (for real) for a new set of batteries.
Of course, your VOLT and house will most likely burn to the ground before the batteries fail.
The 21st Century’s EDSEL.
Just like the ‘green’ paper cups, the Volt is clear evidence that the Left is genetically incapable of rational thought.
I’ve been saying this for years, too bad the media never believes the obvious until some researcher publishes a paper pointing it out. Case in point: the media continue to characterize the Chevy Volt as an “Electric Car” even though it is an electric/gasoline hybrid. The text above about CO2 emissions ignores the fact that for all those long trips that true electric cars can’t make due to limited range, the Chevy Volt will be burning gasoline (or petrol, if you prefer) to generate the power for its propulsion. Cars like the Volt are worse than pure electrics or gasoline cars, as you get the worst of both (eco-unfriendly batteries PLUS carbon emissions)…but hey, they do save the owner some $$$ on gas…
Carbon dioxide in the atmosphere. Every plant I talked to thought that MORE was a GOOD idea, and every one had GREEN chlorophyl in their bodies.
Totally missed figuring in the problem with disposal of the toxic chemicals that are part of a used up battery. And unlike CO2, this stuf actually IS bad for the environment.
The result described in the study actually has very little to do with electric cars, and everything to do with our overall existing energy needs primarily being met by burning fossil fuels. The electric car is but one piece of the puzzle, but it’s potential cannot be fully realized if all of the systems that make it possible are still powered by fossil fuels.
And that isn’t even counting the problems when you pop the hood to fix the d*mn thing.
Has anyone even heard of a repair manual for a volt.
I want to see the milage at night in the cold rain with your
aftermarket getto blaster jamming.
I can believe the prius story though, it just runs on the engine, doesn’t have to hold a charge on the batteries at all.
I still have not gotten an answer on how you get the engine to run on a volt so you can get your emission sticker in VA.
If VA exempts them, then I can see dropping a small block in one
to get the best of both worlds.
No one ever seems to compare that to people. When a single person inhales, the CO2 is only about 0.3 percent by weight, but when a person exhales, it is 3 percent by weight on average. Given the number of breaths a person takes a year, that adds up to a net increase in CO2 from just one person of about 150 tons of CO2 a year.
A few thousand pounds for a few tons over the lifetime is absolutely meaningless in the scheme of things.
Irrelevant. It’s irrelevant because the goal of environmentalism is not to save CO2 but to guilt and shame people into supporting a central planning socialist government.
So no CO2 is saved? Who cares? CO2 is just a tool by which environmentalists scare people. Had they chosen to scare people into believing too many internal combustion engines will awaken the dead and lead to a zombie invasion they would have said it. Then their puny little electric cars with their zombie-safe quiet engines could be given the credit for solving a problem that never existed in the first place.
Likewise, man-made CO2 is not warming the planet but it’s been a great boogey man for scaring the public. If electric vehicles were responsible for producing 10 or 1000 times the amount of CO2 over a traditional vehicle it would be irrelevant because Global Warming is a fictitious problem and its intensity of this problem is directly controlled by how bad the socialists in the media tell us it is.
@ecobiker – “WRONG!!! I just read a story about a 2004 Toyota Prius owner that has 250,000 miles on his original batteries… just one example of durability.”
The Prius doesn’t use the battery as extensively as the Volt. One of the big selling points of the Volt over the Prius is that you can charge up the battery by plugging it into a charging station. The Prius (especially one old enough to have 240K miles) only charges its battery with spare energy from the engine that was not needed for propelling the car.
Does it make sense to your ecological mind that batteries last longer the less they are used?
Hey Ecobiker – to drive a Prius 250,000 Miles since 2004 would mean he drove about 40K miles/year, (mostly on GAS) the average person drive only 10-15K/yr.
I can’t wait for the ‘only allowed’ mercury light bulbs to poison our landfills. Great job enviro’Mentalists’
Owl Gore is gonna be mad at you. Maybe not as mad as he was when his Chicago Carbon Trading Business went bankrupt, but really mad never-the less. The question is: If an OWL GORE lightbulb falls on the far side of his 24,000 sq. foot house, can the hazmat team driving a diesel fire-truck hear it?
@gastograb:
Though I don’t dispute your general premise, it’s inaccurate to characterize lithium as a heavy metal. It’s actually a very light element. Don’t ruin a good argument with flawed physics.