Firstly, producing an electric vehicle contributes, on average, twice as much to global warming potential and uses double the amount of energy than producing a combustion engine car. This is mainly because of its battery. Battery production uses a lot of energy, from the extraction of raw materials to the electricity consumed in manufacture. The bigger the electric car and its range, the more battery cells are needed to power it, and consequently the more carbon produced.
https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2017/11/battery-batteries-electric-cars-carbon-sustainable-power-energy/Amid a rush by some countries to field electric cars and get gas and diesel cars off the road as soon as possible, not enough consideration is given to just how environmentally costly it will be to produce EV batteries for an all-electric future -- or where the electricity to power millions of electric cars will come from.
What's more, early studies of lithium-ion EV battery production are far from encouraging: Researchers are finding that battery production for electric cars ultimately produces more carbon dioxide -- up to 74 percent more -- than an efficient conventional car if those batteries are produced in a factory powered by fossil fuels, Bloomberg reports. As battery production scales up, so will emissions from factories producing the batteries in the first place, factories that themselves are relying on less-than-clean energy to churn out the batteries.
"It will come down to where is the battery made, how is it made and even where do we get our electric power from," Henrik Fisker, CEO of Fisker Inc., told Bloomberg.
One problem with current lithium-ion battery production -- a battery that weighs around 1,000 pounds and is the single most expensive component in an EV -- is that the metals to build the battery are mined in just a handful of countries, using methods that are far from environmentally friendly. Another major problem -- one that is not fully felt with the current number of EVs on the road -- is where the energy to build the batteries and EVs comes from.
Read more:
https://autoweek.com/article/green-cars/will-some-gas-and-diesel-cars-still-produce-less-pollution-evs#ixzz5f0nznSd4