Car blogs

Green-minded Americans may be licking their chops waiting for the debut of the Nissan Leaf battery-electric vehicle later this year, but on the other side of the Atlantic, some folks are questioning whether BEVs pose all that much of an advantage for people looking to save some money - or the Earth.


Some fuel-sipping combustion-engine-powered cars have a smaller environmental impact than battery-electric cars because of both the metals and chemical process required to produce lithium-ion batteries and the electricity required to recharge the cars, according to a report by Swiss Federal Laboratories for Materials Science and Technology, or EMPA.


Cars that get at least 60 miles per gallon, using European fuel-economy standards that are slightly more generous than those of the EPA, create lower so-called cumulative energy demand than EVs, the report said.


While the average diesel-powered car in Europe gets about 42 miles per gallon, some Ford and Volkswagen diesels actually exceed 60 mpg.


"The main finding of this study is that the impact of a lithium-ion battery used in BEVs for transport service is relatively small," the report said. "In contrast, it is the operation phase that remains the dominant contributor to the environmental burden caused by transport service as long as the electricity for the BEV is not produced by renewable hydropower."


The study was released just one day after the BBC reported that operating an EV will cost more than operating a similar gasoline-powered car during the first three years of ownership, predominately because of higher depreciation expenses stemming from the relatively higher costs of a new EV.


The main culprits in the EV's environmental impact are the transportation and raw-material needs to make a battery pack, which includes steel, copper and aluminum. The chemical process involved in making the battery also emits carbon dioxide.

Continue reading...

Tags: Batteries, Diesel, Emissions, Fuel Economy, Plug-ins and Electric, Battery-Electric, BEV, Diesel, Electric Vehicle, Emissions, EV, Fuel Economy, Swiss Federal Laboratories for Materials Science and Technology

---

Over Life of Vehicle, Some Diesels May Be 'Greener' Than Electrics - Swiss Study was originally published by Green Car Advisor. Read the full story by clicking here.