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HEAVY WORDS – This end of the year has seen, in a few days, two important interventions that have reduced, at least, the illusion for electric cars. Akyo Toyoda, president of Toyota, argued that the dissemination of battery car will have the effect of increasing CO2 emissions (who to know more). A few days later, Franz Fehrenbach, chairman of the supervisory board of Bosch (a company very active in components for electrification), pointed the finger primarily at Europe’s unilateral choice towards electricity (who to know more).
WHEN ELECTRICITY IS “DIRTY” – These interventions, “heavy” because they are delivered by senior managers of global companies, share the fact that produce batteries emits so much CO2 to cancel the absence of local emissions from electric cars. Another point in common is the statement that the countries, Japan and the European Union, are not prepared for a large fleet of electric cars for charging points and power grid. The managers’ observations are based on the fact that the emissions they would simply move to power plants, still largely powered by fossil fuels.
CLEANER, YES OR NO? – These considerations have aroused great discussions, with favorable and unfavorable opinions, also here on the website of at the wheel. But how are things really going? Before continuing, let’s make a premise: any energy consumption, to move and build objects, implies CO2 emissions and this also applies to electric cars, even if they do not have an exhaust pipe. So even battery production generates (a lot) carbon dioxide, but the efficiency of electricity and electricity generation / transmission relative to the oil cycle can more than offset these emissions. A study, taken up by the BBC and carried out by the English universities of Exeter and Cambridge together with that of Nijmegen (Holland), supports this thesis. Investigation (who me who to learn more) concludes that the electric cars during all the life cycle produce less CO2 than those with a heat engine. This happens even if the electricity used to build and move them is not produced exclusively from renewable sources. In practice, electricity produces less CO2 in 95% of the countries on Earth. The exceptions are Poland and some other places where electricity is generated almost entirely from coal.
WHAT DOES MERCEDES SAY? – We leave the university facilities and go to the factories, for example in Mercedes. La Casa della Stella has been publishing theecological footprint of their cars. Looking through your documents we find out how much CO2 your cars emit in yours. life cycle. So let’s compare the electric EQC and the GLC 350e 4MATIC plug-in hybrid, both with all-wheel drive and built on the same lines (the wheelbase is identical). Over a period of 200,000 km, the construction, operation and disposal of an EQC at the end of its useful life would generate 17.1 tons of CO2 if the energy used came exclusively from hydroelectric plants. Carbon dioxide would rise to 32.4 tons using the energy produced in the European Union, which has a substantial part of the production of thermal power plants. The same quantities referring to the GLC 350e are respectively 25.6 and 37.9 tons of CO2, very different values especially if 100% renewable energy is used.
