Environment

Are electric cars ‘green’? The answer is yes, but it’s complicated

Published

4 years ago

July 26, 2021

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An electric vehicle charging point in Stoke-on-Trent, England.

Nathan Stirk | Getty Images News | Getty Images

The number of electric vehicles on the world’s roads is surging, hitting a record number last year.

That would seem to be good news, as the world tries to wean itself off fossil fuels that are wrecking the global climate. But as electric cars become more popular, some question just how environmentally friendly they are.

The batteries in electric vehicles, for example, charge on power that is coming straight off the electric grid — which is itself often powered by fossil fuels. And there are questions about how energy-intensive it is to build an EV or an EV battery, versus building a comparable traditional vehicle.

Are electric vehicles greener?

The short answer is yes — but their full green potential is still many years away.

Experts broadly agree that electric vehicles create a lower carbon footprint over the course of their lifetime than do cars and trucks that use traditional, internal combustion engines.

Last year, researchers from the universities of Cambridge, Exeter and Nijmegen in The Netherlands found that in 95% of the world, driving an electric car is better for the environment than driving a gasoline-powered car.

Electricity grids in most of the world are still powered by fossil fuels such as coal or oil, and EVs depend on that energy to get charged. Separately, EV battery production remains an energy-intensive process.

Producing electric vehicles leads to significantly more emissions than producing petrol cars … which is mostly from the battery production.

Florian Knobloch

Cambridge Centre for Environment, Energy and Natural Resource Governance

A study from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology Energy Initiative found that the battery and fuel production for an EV generates higher emissions than the manufacturing of an automobile. But those higher environmental costs are offset by EVs’ superior energy efficiency over time.

In short, the total emissions per mile for battery-powered cars are lower than comparable cars with internal combustion engines.

“If we are going to take a look at the current situation, in some countries, electric vehicles are better even with the current grid,” Sergey Paltsev, a senior research scientist at the MIT Energy Initiative and one of the study’s authors, told CNBC.

Paltsev explained that the full benefits of EVs will be realized only after the electricity sources become renewable, and it might take several decades for that to happen.

Batteries are the biggest emitter

EVs rely on rechargeable lithium-ion batteries to run. The process of making those batteries — from using mining raw materials like cobalt and lithium, to production in gigafactories and transportation — is energy-intensive, and one of the biggest sources of carbon emissions from EVs today, experts said.

Gigafactories are facilities that produce EV batteries on a large scale.

“Producing electric vehicles leads to significantly more emissions than producing petrol cars. Depending on the country of production, that’s between 30% to 40% extra in production emissions, which is mostly from the battery production,” said Florian Knobloch, a fellow at the Cambridge Centre for Environment, Energy and Natural Resource Governance.

Those higher production emission numbers are seen as “an initial investment, which pays off rather quickly due to the reduced lifetime emissions.”

China currently dominates battery production, with 93 gigafactories producing lithium-ion battery cells versus only four in the U.S., the Washington Post reported this year.

“I think the battery is the most complicated component in the EV, and has the most complex supply chain,” George Crabtree, director of the U.S. Department of Energy’s Joint Center for Energy Storage Research, told CNBC, adding that the energy source used in battery production makes a huge difference on the carbon footprint for EVs.

Batteries made in older gigafactories in China are usually powered by fossil fuels, because that was the trend five to 10 years ago, he explained. So, EVs that are built with batteries from existing factories

But that’s changing, he said, as “people have realized that’s a huge carbon footprint.”

Experts pointed to other considerations around battery production.

They include unethical and environmentally unsustainable mining practices, as well as a complex geopolitical nature of the supply chain, where countries do not want to rely on other nations for raw materials like cobalt and lithium, or the finished batteries.

Mining raw materials needed for battery production will likely be the last to get decarbonized, according to Crabtree.

Recycling and decarbonizing the grid

Today, very few of the spent battery cells are recycled.

Experts said that can change over time as raw materials needed for battery production are in limited supply, leaving firms with no choice but to recycle.

McKinsey’s Hannon outlined other reasons for companies to step by their recycling efforts. They include a regulatory environment where producers, by law, would have to deal with spent batteries — and disposing them could be more expensive.

“People who point to a lack of a recycling infrastructure as a problem aren’t recognizing that we don’t need extensive recycling infrastructure yet because the cars are so new, we’re not needing many back,” he said.

Most auto companies are already working to ensure they have significant recycling capacity in place before EVs start reaching the end of life over the next decade, he added.

It’s not silver bullet for climate change mitigation. Ideally, you also try to reduce the number of cars massively, and try to push things such as public transport

Florian Knobloch

Cambridge Centre for Environment, Energy and Natural Resource Governance

Knobloch from Cambridge University said a lot of research is going into improving battery technology, to make them more environmentally sustainable and less reliant on scarce raw materials. More efforts are also needed in decarbonizing the electricity grid, he added.

“It’s very important that more renewable electricity generation capacity is added to the grid each year, than coal generation capacity,” Knobloch said.

“Nowadays, it’s much easier to build large scale solar or offshore wind compared to building new fossil fuel power plant. What we see is more renewable electricity coming into the grid all over the world.”

Still, he pointed out that generating electricity by using renewable sources will still emit greenhouse gases as there are emissions from producing the solar panels and wind turbines. “What we look at is how long will it take until the electricity grid is sufficiently decarbonized so that you see large benefit from electric vehicles,” Knobloch added.

Policies needed for societal change

Experts agree that a transition from gasoline-powered cars to EVs is not a panacea for the global fight against climate change.

It needs to go hand-in-hand with societal change that promotes greater use of public transportation and alternative modes of travel, including bicycles and walking.

Reducing the use of private vehicles requires plenty of funding and policy planning.

MIT’s Paltsev, who is also deputy director at the university’s joint program on the science and policy of global change, explained that there are currently about 1.2 billion fuel-powered cars on the road globally –that number is expected to increase to between 1.8 billion to 2 billion.

In comparison, there are only about 10 million electric vehicles currently.

People underestimate how many new cars have to be produced and how much materials will be needed to produce those electric vehicles, Paltsev said.

The International Energy Agency predicts that the number of electric cars, buses, vans and heavy trucks on roads is expected to hit 145 million by 2030.

Even if everyone drove EVs instead of gasoline-powered cars, there would still be plenty of emissions from the plug-in vehicles due to their sheer volume, according to Knobloch.

“So, it’s not silver bullet for climate change mitigation. Ideally, you also try to reduce the number of cars massively, and try to push things such as public transport,” he said. “Getting people away from individual car transport is as important.”

Environment

Eat Culver’s frozen custard + fast charge your EV in Wisconsin

Published

1 hour ago

September 17, 2025

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Eat Culver's frozen custard + fast charge your EV in Wisconsin

Zero 60, an EV charge point operator on the ChargePoint network, is bringing fast charging to a Culver’s in the Northwoods of Wisconsin. The company, founded by Faith Technologies Incorporated (FTI), will install a renewable-powered charging station in Rhinelander.

The new site sits along a state-designated Alternative Fuel Corridor at Culver’s on 620 W. Kemp St. It will feature four 160-kilowatt charging ports, giving EV drivers in northern Wisconsin reliable fast charging well beyond the state’s urban hubs.

The project is backed by the Wisconsin Department of Transportation’s first round of funding from the Wisconsin Electric Vehicle Infrastructure (WEVI) program. Wisconsin wants to ensure EV drivers can confidently travel north, knowing they won’t be stranded without chargers.

“Partnering with a well-known brand like Culver’s gives us a unique opportunity to combine Midwest hospitality with clean, convenient charging,” said Wade Leipold, executive vice president of FTI. “We’re proud to support Wisconsin’s efforts to build a robust, future-ready charging network that serves communities and travelers alike.”

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Zero6 Energy is financing, owning, and operating the station, while FTI is handling the engineering, design, installation, and ongoing maintenance. Zero 60 already operates nine charging sites and has plans for many more across the US, with the first wave of stations installed in New York, California, Colorado, and Wisconsin, and more currently being developed in other states.

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Environment

Tesla is trying to hide 3 Robotaxi accidents

Published

2 hours ago

September 17, 2025

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Tesla is trying to hide 3 Robotaxi accidents

Tesla is attempting to conceal the details of three separate accidents involving its Robotaxi service in Austin, Texas, despite having only two months of service with a small fleet.

Due to the Standing General Order 2021-01 (the “SGO”), automakers are required to report to NHTSA crashes involving their autonomous driving and advanced driver assistance systems within five days of being notified of them.

We have previously reported on Tesla leading crashes for level 2 driver assistance systems by thousands of reported crashes, but the automaker never reported any automated driving crashes because it never had any system that would qualify as a level 3-5 SAE automated driving system, despite the name of its “Full Self-Driving” software package.

This has changed with the launch of Tesla’s limited Robotaxi service in Austin, Texas.

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Now, Tesla has reported its first three accidents involving an “automated driving system” through its new Robotaxi effort:

Report ID	Same Incident ID	Model	Model Year	Incident Date	Incident Time	Roadway Type	Injury Severity*
13781-11507	346e79b6abcc2ca	Model Y	2026	JUL‑2025	03:45	Street	Property Damage. No Injured Reported
13781-11459	8578fbc6ef74c60	Model Y	2026	JUL‑2025	12:20	Street	Minor W/O Hospitalization
13781-11375	b5d3e7bb23a3388	Model Y	2026	JUL‑2025	15:15	Intersection	Property Damage. No Injured Reported

All the accidents happened in July, during Tesla’s first month of operating its Robotaxi service in Austin, Texas.

There was at least one injury reported for one of the crashes, but Tesla lists it as “minor”. None of the accidents is being investigated by authorities based on the information Tesla has released.

Tesla hasn’t released many details about its Robotaxi effort, but the automaker is estimated to have only about 12 vehicles in its Robotaxi fleet in Austin as of July, and it was offering rides to only a limited group of users, mostly Tesla influencers and shareholders who are disincentivized from criticizing the company.

As it does with its ADAS crash reporting, Tesla is hiding most details about the crashes. Unlike its competitors, which openly release narrative information about the incidents, Tesla is redacting all the narrative for all its crash reporting to NHTSA:

It makes it hard to get any context about the accident and assess the level of responsibility for the automated driving system.

Unlike competitors, such as Waymo, Tesla’s Robotaxi still uses a “safety monitor” who sits in the front seat with a finger on a kill switch ready to stop the vehicle. Despite this added level of safety, Tesla is evidently still experiencing crashes.

CEO Elon Musk has claimed that Tesla would remove the safety monitor by the end of the year and deliver on its “full self-driving” promises to customers, but he has never shared any data proving that Tesla’s automated driving system is reliable enough to achieve that.

NTHSA is also investigating Tesla for misreporting its crash data.

Electrek’s Take

The facts are that Tesla has never released any significant data to prove that its system is reliable. Never.

The only data Tesla has shared is the cumulative mileage driven by the fleet on Autopilot and Full Self-Driving, but that’s with a human driver at the wheel at all times.

Tesla never shared disengagement data despite publicly claiming multiple factors of improvement in miles between disengagements.

How can you trust a company that operates like that?

Furthermore, it redacts the most critical details of crashes involving its driver-assist and automated driving systems.

That’s not the type of opacity I want to see from a company deploying potentially dangerous, yet also potentially lifesaving, technology.

Unfortunately, I’ve lost hope of regulators doing anything about this any time soon. It will likely take more tragic accidents for them to act.

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Environment

Toyota’s new app rewards EV and PHEV drivers for charging, since it doesn’t happen enough

Published

2 hours ago

September 17, 2025

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Toyota's new app rewards EV and PHEV drivers for charging, since it doesn't happen enough

Toyota introduced a new “science-backed” app that rewards EV and plug-in hybrid (PHEV) drivers for charging their vehicles. Why? Because, according to Toyota’s own research, PHEV drivers don’t plug in often enough.

Toyota develops an app to reward EV drivers for charging

Hybrid vehicles and Toyota are nearly synonymous at this point. Toyota launched the Prius, the first mass-produced hybrid vehicle, back in 1997.

Just under three decades later, the Prius is now in its fifth generation, and Toyota offers over 16 hybrid vehicles, two PHEVs, and one all-electric model in the US (two, if you include the Lexus RZ).

Although Toyota is committed to offering vehicles across all powertrain options (EV, PHEV, and hybrid), the company believes it has found another way to cut emissions.

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The Toyota Research Institute’s Human-Centered Artificial Intelligence (HCAI) division developed an app, Charge Minder, that “applies behavioral science to EV charging.” It basically turns the charging experience into a game with rewards for charging streaks and “encouraging messages.”

The app also includes education quizzes to teach you more about your vehicle and when the best time is to charge up for maximum cost savings.

Toyota-PHEV-charging-app — Toyota’s new ChargeMinder app rewards EV and PHEV drivers for charging (Source: Toyota)

Toyota’s research found that, in the US, “behavioral interventions increased charging by 10% for plug-in hybrid vehicle (PHEV) drivers.” Satisfaction among the PHEV drivers rose 16 percentage points, bringing it to 100%

In Japan, PHEV and EV drivers shifted to charge during peak renewable charge times by 59%, which Toyota said added nearly 30 hours of daytime charging per vehicle, per day.

“This research and development shows how science-based behavioral interventions can both help us reduce carbon emissions as much as possible, as soon as possible, and increase customer satisfaction,” Dr Gill Pratt, chief scientist and CEO of the Toyota Research Institute, said.

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Toyota’s app (ChargeMinder) integrates over a dozen science-backed “interventions” that are designed to promote better charging habits.

Electrek’s Take

It’s no secret that Toyota is sticking to its roots and will continue to offer PHEVs and hybrids, alongside all-electric vehicles, for the foreseeable future.

Most PHEVs nowadays offer between 20 and 50 miles of electric driving range, which is plenty for most daily commutes. However, there’s one issue. PHEV drivers are not plugging in as they should and are primarily using them as traditional gas-powered vehicles.

A report from the European Commission last year found that PHEVs pollute more than they are promoted, largely because drivers are not plugging them in.

New findings from earlier this month revealed that carmakers are misleading buyers about PHEVs, with real-world emissions that are multiple times higher than what they are documented to be.

Can Toyota’s app really help cut emissions? Maybe a little, but battery electric vehicles EVs are still the most effective way to truly make a difference and pave the way for sustainable transportation.

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