UK Fleets can cut costs with a switch to EV.

Be Mindful Of Ev Manufacturing Myths

For over a decade now the most common objection to the uptake of EVs has been that while they obviously save CO2 during journeys on the road, their manufacture, and particularly the manufacture of their batteries, releases more CO2 than they ultimately save. Like all long-standing fallacies, there is an element of truth to this. According to the paper ‘Lifecycle Analysis of UK Road Vehicles’, a standard gasoline vehicle will be responsible for 5.6 tonnes of CO2 emissions during its production, while a battery EV will account for 8.8. Based on this fact alone, it could be asserted that EVs create a significantly greater amount of CO2 in the air than their standard automotive counterparts. However, this line of thinking falls apart when we look at the total lifetime CO2 emissions per vehicle: a standard vehicle will emit 24 tonnes during its lifetime (which the study defines as travelling 150,000 kilometres), while an EV will emit 19 (it follows that hybrids are somewhere in the middle with 21). This disparity has the potential to grow event greater: renewable power is making up an increasing percentage of the UK’s energy mix, so the amount of CO2 generated to produce power for EVs will gradually get cleaner and greener.

Nonetheless, it wouldn’t be correct to assert that the manufacture of EVs has utterly no impact upon the environment. The production of lithium batteries is extremely water-intensive and can cause toxic pollution in rivers. The batteries also break down over time and cannot be recycled easily – although it is very possible that this could change in the future.

The Additional Benefits Of Evs

Diesel engines have long been touted as producing less CO2 per kilometre than petrol, despite having a higher CO2 output per kilogram. However, CO2 is far from the only gas emitted by engines, and there are many that are in fact more immediately harmful. Nitrogen dioxide, nitrous oxide and nitric oxide are all produced by both diesel and petrol engines, whereas a petrol engine’s catalytic convertor will reduce nitrogen pollution by around 30%, and diesel vehicles can’t use this technology. This nitrogen pollution significantly increases the chance of respiratory disease and contribute to increased mortality.

Conventionally fuelled vehicles both produce particulate air pollution – tiny pieces of dust, soot and liquids in the air that can spread for miles beyond a vehicle. The larger particles can cause eye, nose and throat irritation, but the smaller particles can cause heart disease and cancer.

A study by the European Environmental Agency points to even less tangible reason to support the switch to EV, asserting: ‘chronic exposure to environmental noise significantly affects physical and mental health and wellbeing’. While electric vehicles could be virtually silent, they are required by law to emit a sound with a minimum frequency of 56 decibels. A traditional vehicle produces around 62dB when driving at 30mph and 70dB or more over 50mph – a motorbike can be as loud as 166dB. Those differences might not seem like much, but decibel levels ramp up quickly: a fridge runs at about 50dB, while a television or a coffee grinder runs at 70dB – most of us would be able to sleep in a room with a fridge, but few people could sleep well when a TV is on.

Noise has been steadily increasing over time, and noise pollution, as well as pollution in general, disproportionately affects those in urban and more built up areas. This only exacerbates existing problems: those living in poorer neighbourhoods could become less mentally and physically healthy. The costs of this will be borne by everyone. If 68% of the world is living in urban areas, as the UN predicts, then noise could be a serious factor in global suffering – unless the world adopts electric vehicles.

WHY SHOULD YOU MAKE THE EV SWITCH?

It goes without saying that working towards reducing CO2 emissions is still crucial, which is why so many governments globally, including the UK’s, continue to make the reduction of emissions a priority. It’s not the only reason to embrace EV, but on top of all the other good reasons, modern fleets and individual drivers would do well to make the switch sooner rather than later.