WHO KNEW that Transitioning to Electric Vehicles (EVs) and Away from Gas Powered Vehicles Is Critical to Avoiding the Devastating Effects of Climate Change?

Although EVs create more carbon emissions in their manufacture than combustion engines due to the large lithium-ion batteries, EVs are still a better bet for the environment. According to the EPA, electric vehicles are clearly a lower-emissions option than vehicles with internal combustion engines. Over the course of their driving lifetimes, EVs will create fewer carbon emissions than gasoline-burning vehicles. EVs have no carbon emissions from tailpipes.

Although EV batteries contain cobalt, lithium, manganese and nickel and impact the environment in the mining process, battery manufacturers are working to figure out how to produce a battery that is less harmful to us and the environment. According to Elliott Negin, a Senior Writer for the Union of Concerned Scientists, scientists are working on “reducing reliance on some of these metals and devising ways to recycle and repurpose batteries to minimize the need for new raw materials altogether.” Batteries that scientists are trying to develop include a lithium-sulfur battery that could quintuple EV ranges, sodium-ion batteries that use more readily available minerals, and a solid-state battery that can lead to longer EV range per charge and use fewer metals than they do now.

Future EVs will be even better for the environment than they are today.