Why Are Electric Cars Better For The Environment?

Why Are Electric Cars Better For The Environment?

If, like many people, you’re concerned about environmental issues like climate change and reducing carbon emissions, you may have considered buying an electric car. With the sales of electric cars up year on year, we wouldn’t be surprised if that’s the case.

If you are considering buying an electric car, you’ve probably got a lot of questions about the impact they might have on the environment.

At Nathaniel Cars, we believe that the switch to electric cars is an important and exciting movement in the car industry. So, we asked the electric vehicle experts from our Cardiff and Bridgend showrooms the questions you’re most likely to want answered.

So, are electric cars good for the environment?

It’s slightly more complicated than a yes or no answer.

In many ways, electrics cars are a much more environmentally friendly option than petrol or diesel cars, with research by the International Council on Clean Transportation (ICCT) showing that electric cars are indeed better for the environment.

However, the manufacturing process can result in significant carbon dioxide emissions. This can make it hard to say for certain, since it will depend how “clean” a country’s energy production is.

Here are a few of the reasons why electric cars are good for the environment.

Electric cars are a breath of fresh air

First and foremost, electric cars don’t have an exhaust pipe, which means no carbon-dioxide-filled fumes while you’re driving.

As a result, electric cars emit fewer greenhouse gases and air pollutants than petrol or diesel cars. Because of this, the increased use of electric cars can help to improve air quality in towns and cities.

In fact, over a year, one electric car can save an average of 1.5 million grams of carbon dioxide!

electric-cars

Electric cars use cleaner fuel

Research by the European Energy Agency found that the electricity required to fuel an electric car still produced less carbon emissions than driving a petrol or diesel car. In fact, carbon emissions could be up to 30% lower.

These emissions can be reduced even further when low carbon electricity is used.

Is the production of electric cars environmentally friendly?

This is where things become a bit more complicated.

It takes a lot of energy and resources to produce a car, which results in high carbon emissions. This is also the case with the production of electric cars.

In fact, the battery manufacturing process for electric cars can sometimes cause more carbon emissions than the production of petrol or diesel cars.

However, the moment an electric car hits the road, its harmful impact on the environment diminishes significantly in comparison to cars that burn fossil fuels.

If the electric vehicle production process uses renewable energy, such as wind power or solar energy  (and this will differ from country to country), it would significantly reduce the associated carbon emissions and environmental impact.

The environmental impact of electric cars

So, if you’d asked yourself the question, “are electric cars really good for the environment?”, while the answer isn’t quite as simple as it could be, the evidence says that yes, they are.

Examples of why electric cars are good for the environment include:

  • lower carbon emissions than petrol or diesel cars when you drive
  • lower carbon emissions than petrol or diesel cars when you charge them
  • lower carbon emissions in their whole lifecycle than petrol or diesel cars

But the electric car industry also knows that there are some improvements that could be made when it comes to their production and the use of renewable energy to fuel them.

Crucially, an electric car is only as clean as the power it uses to keep it moving. Which means that, unlike petrol and diesel cars, it does have the potential to be 100% green when it comes to driving and being fuelled. So long as it’s using 100% renewable energy.

The future of electric cars and the environment

Solutions to make electric cars greener and more environmentally sustainable are being developed every day.

Currently, the lifecycle of an electric car is already more eco-friendly than petrol and diesel cars. But with advances in technology and the increased use of low carbon electricity and renewable energy, electric cars will become an even more environmentally sustainable solution.

One piece of good news is that in May 2019, the UK had its first coal-free fortnight. This meant that windfarms, solar panels, biomass and hydro plants generated more electricity than coal, oil and gas power stations combined.

The National Grid predicts there will be 36 million electric vehicles on UK roads by 2040. If you’d like to be one of them, we can help.

To find out more about the fantastic range of electric vehicles at Nathaniel Cars, contact the EV experts at our Cardiff and Bridgend showrooms, today.

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