Whether you drive an electric car or are considering making the switch, you've probably been drawn into a discussion about whether they are really better for the climate.
To compare cars, we've chosen an average medium SUV, the sort of car you commonly see on Australian roads. Batteries produced in China have higher emissions than those produced in Europe, and as most Australian electric cars currently have Chinese-made batteries, that's what's used here. "The fuel energy cycle is normally the most important part of the life-cycle assessment that includes on-road driving, the maintenance, and of course, the production of the energy," Professor Smit said.
"When you look at fossil fuels, they need to be extracted, processed, and then transported to service stations, for example, to make them available. So there's a greenhouse gas emission costs associated with that," Professor Smit said. Electric cars are powered by electricity but how that electricity is created makes a huge difference to the overall emissions profile of EVs.rise while the electric car's life-cycle emissions curve is flattening. That's because the composition of our electricity grid is rapidly changing and more renewables are coming online.
A car that's charged off a grid with lots of fossil fuels produces much higher emissions than a car charged somewhere with mostly renewable energy. It can be used as a backup household battery, for example. Some car companies like Tesla are already using old car batteries to power their factories.Overall, every electric car will produce fewer emissions than its petrol equivalent, no matter where they are charged.