A legitimate study has proven that EVs emit far less emissions than gasoline and diesel cars.
In 2020, global policy subsidies to the fossil fuel industry were $5.4 trillion, according to the International Monetary Organization Fund (IMF). Among them, China has the most subsidies, about 2.19 trillion US dollars; the United States is 64.6 million US dollars; Russia is 44.5 million US dollars; India is 23 million US dollars. Fossil fuel companies and oil companies wonder how environmentally friendly electric vehicles (EVs) are? Traditional auto giants such as General Motors have pledged to have 30 new electric vehicles in 2025 and will only offer electric vehicles in 2035. Oil companies know that time passes and all they can do is slow down the electrification process so that more money will flow in.
One false story that has received a lot of attention refers to indirect emissions caused in the supply chain of vehicle components, particularly battery packs, and the fuel used to power the electricity used to charge the vehicle. These indirect emissions add up to enough to keep a conventional internal combustion engine (ICE) vehicle cleaner over its lifetime. Although this has been repeatedly debunked by peer-reviewed studies from various sources, misinformation continues to spread.
Electric cars are much better
"It's surprising how much lower emissions from electric vehicles are," Stephanie Weber, a postdoctoral researcher at Yale University, said in an interview. The Yale School of the Environment (YSE) study, published in Nature Communications, found that Compared with fossil fuel vehicles, total indirect emissions from electric vehicles are negligible. The supply chain for combustion vehicles is so 'dirty' that even accounting for indirect emissions, EVs are still unbeatable.
The study shows that, in addition to the direct emissions from burning fossil fuels, electric vehicles have advantages over conventional vehicles in terms of emissions, whether from the tailpipes of conventional cars or the stacks of power plants.
The research team combined energy economics and industrial ecology concepts such as carbon pricing, life cycle assessment, and energy system modeling to discover whether carbon emissions are still decreasing when indirect emissions from the EV supply chain are considered.
Specific manifestations of carbon
Ken Gillingham, a professor of economics at the Yale School of the Environment and one of the leaders of the study, said: "A major problem with electric vehicles is the supply chain, including the extraction and processing of raw materials and battery manufacturing, which is not clean. So if we were pricing the carbon involved in these processes, the price one would expect for electric vehicles could be ridiculously expensive. However, this is not the case; if that were fair by pricing carbon in the fossil fuel vehicle supply chain Competition, electric vehicle sales will actually increase.”
The study also took into account future technological updates, such as the decarbonisation of electricity supply, and found that this would reinforce the dominance of EVs when indirect supply chain emissions are considered.
The research team collected data using the National Energy Modeling System (NEMS), created by the U.S. Energy Information Administration, which uses details of the current domestic energy system and forecasts for the future of electric systems to model the entire U.S. energy system. modeling. An assessment that provides a lifecycle of indirect emissions outputs will be plugged into the modelling system to understand how a carbon tax on these indirect emissions will change consumer and manufacturer behaviour.
According to Wolfram, the study shows that "the elephant in the house is like the supply chain for fossil fuel-powered vehicles, not the supply chain for electric vehicles." He points out that the sooner we achieve electric vehicle adoption, at least for electric vehicles like the U.S. It is more beneficial for countries that supply fully decarbonized.