Aren so-called “Zero Emission Vehicles” really just “Elsewhere Emission Vehicles” that move pollution from the tailpipe to a power plant somewhere?
Well, it’s possible to use renewable energy to power a ZEV, say by using wind or solar electricity to recharge the battery of an electric vehicle (EV); but most of the power for such applications these days comes from burning fossil fuels, so it is true that there are some “upstream emissions” from a ZEV. However, battery EVs are very efficient, and so is modern electrical generation and transmission, so overall you burn less fuel to go the same distance than you would in a gasoline vehicle; the generating plants are carefully maintained, so they run more consistently clean than vehicle engines that just get an occasional tune-up; and ZEVs are not subject to catastrophic failures of emissions-control equipment, so they can’t become “gross polluters.” The upshot of all this is that a battery electric vehicle recharging from the California utility power mix will produce about 98% less pollution than an average 2002 model car over their respective lifetimes, and 95% less pollution than ev
Related Questions
- Aren so-called "Zero Emission Vehicles" really just "Elsewhere Emission Vehicles" that move pollution from the tailpipe to a power plant somewhere?
- Are EVs really cleaner, or are they simply shifting emissions from the tailpipe to the power generating plant?
- Isn an electric car simply trading a tailpipe for a smokestack? What about pollution from the power plants?
