The German online
Business Insider
concludes that e-cars
in Germany are
“far from being
climate friendly”.
Electricity in Germany
is mainly produced
by fossil fuels.
So electric cars
leave a large
carbon footprint.
Plus the mining
of raw materials
elsewhere,
and the massive
amounts of energy
needed to produce
tbatteries elsewhere,
release lots of CO2
outside of Germany !
Other electric car
disadvantages
include long charging
times, a high vehicle
purchase price, and
a low driving range.
The claim that
electric cars
in Germany
protect the climate
is based on a
“great miscalculation,”
Kiel Institute for the
World Economy finds.
A new study,
by Ulrich Schmidt,
researcher at the
Kiel Institute, concluded
that electric cars do NOT
contribute to climate
protection in Germany.
They “
actually
exacerbate
global warming
if the current
electricity mix
is taken
as a basis.”
The study found
the point when
electric mobility
can contribute to
climate protection
is still ”far off”,
given Germany’s
current power
supply mix,
which still relies
heavily on coal.
Business
Insider
writes:
"As Schmidt
points out
in his study,
a complete
switch to
e-mobility
would increase
electricity
demand by
almost 20 percent
in the German
automotive
sector alone.
This, in turn,
would require
more electricity
generation from
fossil fuels.
Provided that
availability is the
same in both cases.
This would
considerably worsen
the climate balance
of e-cars.”
Schmidt adds:
“Regardless of what
you fill up your
electric car with;
from a
macroeconomic
perspective,
it runs de facto
on 100 percent
electricity
(mainly) from
fossil fuels ...
This means that
electric cars do not
contribute to climate
protection, but actually
make global warming
worse.”
Schmidt says
this will
remain true
as long as
the share
of fossil fuels
in the
electricity mix
remains above
20 percent.
Business Insider
points out that
even the
“EU Commission
estimates that the
share of fossil fuels
will still be around
40 percent in 2050.”
Note:
A Canadian engineer
recently ran the numbers
involved in the switchover
to electric vehicles
and concluded that
to match the
maximum
2,000 cars
that a gasoline
filling station
can service in
a busy 12 hours,
... for 2,000
electric cars,
an electric
charging station
would require
600 fifty watt
chargers at an
estimated cost
of $24 million and
a supply of
30 megawatts
of power from the grid
( which would be enough
to power 20,000 homes ).
Unlike home
recharging stations,
recharging at night,
these public charging
stations would be
operating at peak
usage hours when
the electric rates
are the highest.