Tuesday, June 14, 2011

Electric Vehicles, Not So Green

The Obama administration is seriously considering throwing billions of dollars to the auto industry to develop and build electric and low emission vehicles like the Chevy Volt. There are already incentives being given to purchasers of the Volt to the tune of $7,500.00. There are countless other green technology projects going on around the country that are centered around a vehicle that supposedly will be a key factor from saving us from non-existent man-caused global warming/climate change.


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-sized electric car would produce 23.1 tonnes of CO2 over its lifetime, compared with 24 tonnes for similar petrol car.  Emission from manufacturing electric cars are at least 50 per cent higher because batteries are made from material such as lithium, copper and refined silicon, which require much energy to produce.

Many electric cars are expected to need a replacement battery after a few years. Once the emission form producing the second battery are added in, the total CO2 from producing an electric car rises to 12.6 tonnes, compared with 5.6 tones for a petrol car.  Disposal also produces double the emission because of the energy consumed in recovering and recycling metals in the battery. The study also took into account carbon admitted to generate the grid electricity consumed. (Source: The Australian / h/t Doug Powers at Michelle Malkin)

As I have said many times before, the technology is not there yet for us to make the switch. The power grid is not ready for the demands and may take over $1T to prepare it. Charging stations are few and far between. Charges only last a few miles in many cases, turning a routine trip into an ordeal. And global warming was a money making scheme hatched by OwlGore to make money over his Internet.

1 comment:

  1. The greenie lefties won't want to hear about how non-green electric cars are. They will have doubts about the validity of the study, so this study must be repeated before it will sink in. The greens cling to the electric car thing. Oh man.

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