The preceding years have seen an increase in the production and adoption of electric-powered vehicles while slowly shifting away from combustion-powered engines across India, with the government aiming to have over 8 crore electric vehicles on the road by 2030. Although increasingly popular, for many, this shift brings with it burning questions: Is switching to electric vehicles enough? Are they even green? Is climate change real?
Simply put, no, yes, and definitely yes, but to understand why it isn’t sufficient to switch to electric vehicles and hope for the best, we must take a deeper look.
The source matters:
The major source of EV emissions is the energy used to charge their batteries. Norway, a leader in adopting electric vehicles, can celebrate that their electric vehicles are clean as they are majorly run on hydropower, but not everyone can. Much of the world still generates energy by burning
fossil fuels. In India’s case, coal is the prime choice.
The good news is that there is a large push for renewable energy additions globally; India grew 9.83% in renewable additions in 2022 itself, with solar leading the charge. However, how we produce electricity has ways to go
before we consider electric vehicles fully emission-free.
Raw materials prove to be difficult:
Most electric-powered vehicles make use of lithium-ion batteries made up of rare earth metals such as lithium, cobalt, and nickel that can be linked with profound environmental and human rights issues.
Cobalt mining in certain countries involves the use of "artisanal" miners often, children dig these metals using hand tools, putting their health and safety at great risk. Obtaining lithium requires the use of large amounts of groundwater, thus reducing what's available for farmers in nearby areas and making the production of electric batteries up to 50% more water-intensive than combustion engines.
In addition to this, extracting these metals from their ores involves smelting, a the process that releases sulfur oxide and other harmful gases into the atmosphere
Despite these shortcomings, it mustn’t be taken to believe that electric vehicles aren’t any good. They are much better in terms of their overall climate impact than combustion vehicles and are set to improve more over time.
It is essential that we find answers to these questions and develop resolutions around them. Ultimately, the entirety can be encapsulated well by saying: As the grid and supply chain get cleaner, electric vehicles get greener.
Bibliography
- https://climate.mit.edu/ask-mit/are-electric-vehicles-definitely-better-...
- https://www.theguardian.com/football/ng-interactive/2017/dec/25/how-gree...
https://www.investindia.gov.in/sector/renewable-energy
By Sachkeerat Singh (BCA, 2021-24)