Are EVs Really the tool to battle Climate Change?

 

 

In the modern vehicle market, EVs (electric vehicles) are next to godliness. Firms have prioritised plans to shift production to ‘electrify’ all vehicles to battle the possibly devastating problem of climate change. These duplicitous plans add new methods to exacerbate the issue through problems such as incorrect disposal of car batteries, promoting the use of fossil fuels and giving rise to polluting manufacturing methods. Many people regard EVs as our best response to climate change, however fail to see the appalling reality of it which makes us question, are EVs really the tool to battle climate change or is this just a viral trend?

 

The simple difference between ICE (internal combustion engine) cars and electric cars has to do with the process of transforming the potential (stored) energy into kinetic (movement) energy.  In ICEs, this energy is stored in chemical form in the fuel and is released by mini explosions inside the engine.

 

On the other hand, despite also having chemically stored energy in batteries, electric cars release it electrochemically without any kind of combustion, due to lithium-ion batteries. This means no combustion occurs hence there are no C02 emissions whilst driving.

 

However, the source of the energy to power these cars doesn’t come from solar panels, wind turbines or even nuclear energy, it comes from fossil fuels. Whilst the CO2 is not being released during a drive, polluting gasses have already been released at a distant power plant.

 

In addition to this, the manufacturing cycle of EVs starts with raw materials being extracted, refined, transported and manufactured into several components that will be assembled to produce the car itself. This process is very much the same in both conventional and electric cars. However, after the manufacturing process, EVs release more CO2 according to the Union of Concerned Scientists.

This happens because these batteries are made of rare earth elements (REE) like lithium, nickel, cobalt or graphite that only exist beneath the surface of the Earth and therefore depend on mining activities with very polluting processes. In addition to this, these large batteries are often not recyclable and pollute the environment after their short 10 year life

Instead of electric vehicles, technology from motorsports, such as Formula 1, can prove to be the answer to climate change, shaking the market with their revolutionary technology.

Formula 1 teams have Experimented with more renewable fuels, better energy recovery systems and more efficient engines leading to F1's current power units which have an overall efficiency of 52%. In comparison to this, the average petrol engine makes about 20% thermal efficiency.

 

Climate change is not a future problem, it is a problem that will directly impact everyone now. With rising temperatures, the frequency of heat cramps, heat exhaustion and heat strokes will increase. In addition to this, extreme weather such as strong winds and rain, a current example being storm Eunice, will become regular. The transport sector is one of the largest contributor to this and development in this sector is essential.