Are They Really Better? Pedro P. Bonilla, Tech Editor
You hear it all the time: “EVs (Electric Vehicles) are significantly better for the environment because they produce zero emissions compared to conventional ICE (Internal Combustion Engine) vehicles and make a lasting positive impact on our planet.” But are they really better? As an engineer, I need to analyze the pros and cons to make a determination. Join me in this search and analysis. Since it’s been globally decided that all cars are bad, this is the new thinking about our future: The best carrelated innovation we have is not to improve the car but eliminate the need to drive it everywhere we go. That’s the mantra. Cars are our modern-day dinosaurs and are soon to be extinct. If you have a nice ICE machine, hold on to it! Let’s analyze: EV PRO - You can save a lot of money. This is a false claim, in my opinion, and here’s why: An electric vehicle uses electricity to charge its batteries and power its electric motor(s). A conservative rule of thumb is that an EV gets 3.5 miles per kWh. The US average cost of a kWh is $0.13. So, driving 10,000 miles per year will need 2,857 kWh, which at $0.13 each will come out to $372 in kWh/year. Driving a 30 mpg ICE vehicle 10,000 miles per year at $4.00/gallon will cost $1,333 in fuel/year. The EV owner gets a savings here of $961/year. Also, the EV owner will save an average of $400/year in maintenance versus the ICE vehicle since EVs do not need oil changes and have far fewer parts than ICE vehicles. But look closely at the actual cost of the vehicles (ICE vs. EV): The ICE version of the 2021 Toyota Rav4, with options comparable to the Rav4EV, is $27,800. The 2021 Rav4EV starts at $49,800 – but for this vehicle, you need to add $1,300 for the LII home charging station and the installation cost of $1,500. So the Rav4EV cost actually comes to $52,600. The difference is $24,800 in favor of the ICE vehicle (and that difference exists with all brands offering both versions of a particular model.) There are tax incentives that you get if you pay cash for the vehicle. Let’s say you do pay cash deduct these incentives from the cost: $52,600 - $7,500 = $45,100. That’s still a difference of $17,300 in favor of ICE.
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Die Porsche Kassette
| June 2022
Looking at the annual cost of ownership (fuel/electricity and maintenance): Rav4 (ICE): $1,333 (fuel) + $400 (maintenance) = $1,733. Rav4 (EV): $372 (electricity) + $0.00 (maintenance) = $372. The difference is $1361. In order to break even, you would have to keep the car for almost 13 years ($17,300/year divided by $1,733 = 12.71 years). This doesn’t even take into account insurance costs for the EV which are higher than the ICE version simply because of the replacement value of the car. The counter is: But they are way better for the environment! Are they? Really? The 1,000-pound batteries that power EVs have a life of 10 years. What happens after those 10 years? They must be replaced – and they won’t be recycled! The only reason batteries are recycled today is because of the cobalt content. But as batteries convert to non-cobalt content, such as lithium, recycling becomes more expensive than mining, and dumpsites will be a more economical way to dispose of them. Imagine when millions and millions of batteries run their life and are not recycled. Where do they go? Can you say toxic waste dump? Is this better for the environment?
But even worse is the fact that this technology is being touted as renewable energy when in reality, no energy system is actually renewable since all machines require continual mining and processing of primary materials and the disposal of hardware that eventually wears out.
