How much do electric cars reduce CO2 emissions?

They are silent and emit little or no CO2. Electric cars are more and more numerous on the streets of large capitals. According to figures from the International Observatory of energy transitions, 6 million low-emission vehicles have been sold in 2021 in the world (including electric cars, with hydrogen or hybrids), which means an increase of 100% compared to the previous year. China prevails as the leader in the sector, followed by the European Union and the United States, which set goals to gradually eradicate thermal engines.

To reduce its CO2 emissions, the European Union decided, for example, to ban the sale of cars with gasoline or diesel engines by 2035. The same decision has been decreed by the State of California in the USA. Drastic decisions that respond to the goals reduction of CO2 emissions that are the main cause of global warming due to its greenhouse effect.

An electric car, however, even if it does not emit carbon dioxide, cannot always be described as ‘green’, ‘ecological’ or ‘clean’ as the manufacturers intend as part of a marketing strategy.

The French Ecological Transition Agency ADEME determined that only cars with small electric motors emit less CO2 than conventional vehicles.

And it is that the manufacture of batteries, from the extraction of minerals to industrial processes, generates CO2 emissions. So for a car to be considered green, it must meet several criteria.

“We know very well that the operation of the electric car, once manufactured, stops emitting CO2 if the energy with which we recharge it comes from totally ecological renewable sources,” recalls Oscar Pulido, an expert in fleet electrification for the environmental NGO Federación European transport and environment

Pulido concedes that “to date, there is no product that is completely free of CO2 in terms of manufacturing. So, we could not say that the electric car produces 0% emissions [de gases de efecto invernadero]. However, if we compare it with combustion and its effects on the environment, it is still much more ecological”, he clarifies. Above all, if you take the long-term carbon footprint of the vehicle.

Even in countries like Germany or Poland, where electricity comes largely from the combustion of gas or coal, riding in an electric vehicle recharged with fossil energy sources “is still cleaner than in a vehicle with a combustion engine,” says Pulido. .

This is due to “the efficiency of an electric motor, much higher than any combustion vehicle where we lose part of the energy in the thermal process,” indicates Pulido. “Then, the use it has, despite coming, for example, from gas, we can give the example of Germany, it is much more efficient in an electric vehicle. We will make better use of it”, insists the specialist.

On the other hand, Pulido, like other experts in energy transition, considers that hybrid cars that combine an electric battery and a thermal engine are no longer an ecological solution. “The user uses it more than anything with gasoline.”

As for cars with hydrogen, “we have to understand that to produce hydrogen you need to use energy,” recalls Oscar Pulido. “Then that hydrogen has to be compressed, it has to be transported under certain conditions and the simple fact of transporting it also requires energy. And maintaining hydrogen at gas stations requires energy. Hydrogen is a good solution when electricity cannot be obtained directly, say on a ship. But it’s a bit weird to use hydrogen when we have batteries where we can directly store the electricity made,” he concludes.

In Latin America, a slower transition to green transport

In this new boom in electric cars, Latin America could occupy a decisive place in the production chain. The region has the largest reserves of lithium, essential to manufacture batteries.

Several Latin American countries or cities have already slowly started their transition to green transport. Chile announced that 100% of vehicle sales will be electric by 2035. Mexico has set a more modest goal: by 2035 a third of vehicles sold will be electric. And for now, the transition covers mainly urban buses. “What happened in Latin America? That we gave the world a big surprise because electric buses from China began to be sold”, he observes Monica Araya, former climate negotiator for the Costa Rican government. Today, she is a specialist in sustainable mobility in the campaign for the electrification of transport at the Climate Works Foundation.

“Right now the region has around 3,000 electric buses. In Colombia alone there are already about 1,800. And there are 55 types of electrified vehicles in Costa Rica, of 23 brands that range from 19,000 to 50,000 dollars, which are new, others second-hand, because in 2018 the country approved the first law of electric mobility in the region. For this to work [en América latina]there has to be a public policy signal, as I see it in China, in Europe and now, in the United States”, says Araya to RFI.

In several European countries, governments offer direct subsidies or through tax reductions to citizens who buy a private electric car.

In Latin America, the transition to electric mobility is mainly driven by the metropolises. Mexico City, Bogotá or São Paulo are already renewing their urban bus fleets with the purchase of electric vehicles with positive effects on pollution and carbon emissions. “The International Energy Agency said that electrification with renewables is helping us to stop the carbon growth of carbon dioxide around 1 billion tons of carbon,” says Araya.

The challenge of a sustainable production chain

Some environmentalists, however, estimate that the transition to electric fleets will be insufficient to limit the human footprint on the planet. “Electric cars rely on batteries made from rare materials, like lithium or coltan. To extract these materials, it is necessary to intensify mining in natural areas of the planet”, he stresses. Greenpeace Mexico. ‘Transport must not only be electric, but electric, public and massive,’ indicates the NGO.

The challenge will then be to create a sustainable battery production chain.

The exploration ship Tara returned to land

The scientific exploration sailboat ‘Tara’ which sailed the waters of the South Atlantic for two years and finished its mission in October. On board, dozens of scientists worked to study ocean micro-organisms and protect them.

Federico Ibarbalz, an Argentine marine biologist from the National Council for Scientific and Technical Research (CONICET, Argentina) sailed on the sailboat Tara to collect coccolithophorid samples. Phytoplankton microorganisms that are the base of the aquatic food chain and regulate the concentration of CO2. In this podcast, he explains why they are of interest to the scientific community.

Interviewees:

>Mónica Araya, member of the Drive Electric global campaign of the Climate Works Foundation

>Oscar Pulido, responsible for the fleet electrification program for Spain. For Transport and Environnement or European Federation of Transport and Environment.

>Federico Ibarbalz, biologist, researcher at the National Council for Scientific and Technical Research (CONICET, Argentina).