Ward's
Quote:
Claims that electric vehicles won’t help reduce harmful emissions are flawed, and instead evidence suggests EVs can have a major impact on reducing the pollution traced to vehicles used in everyday life, a University of Michigan study finds.
I dug around, and found the study itself: link to study
Back to Ward's:
Quote:
“Based on the average mix of renewable and nonrenewable electric power sources in the U.S., the average well-to-wheels (greenhouse-gas) emissions for battery-electric vehicles (BEVs) is the lowest, at 214 grams per mile,” the researchers say. “The corresponding values for two different plug-in electric vehicle implementations, PHEV10 and PHEV40, range from 253 to 278 gpm, respectively.
“Gasoline-powered vehicles produce the most GHGs per mile, ranging from 356 to 409 gpm, depending on the specific type of ICE (direct-fuel-injection versus conventional port-fuel injection, respectively), Sivak and Schoettle say.
Quote:
EVs are not only cleaner but also are substantially more efficient than ICE-powered vehicles, the Michigan researchers find.
“BEVs use the least amount of petroleum at 54 Btu/mile, with a typical PHEV40 vehicle model ranking the second-lowest in usage at 1,588 Btu/mile and a typical PHEV10 vehicle model using the third-lowest amount at 2,588 Btu/mile,” Sivak and Schoettle write.
“Predictably, gasoline-powered vehicles use considerably more petroleum per mile, with direct-fuel-injection ICEs averaging 3,791 Btu/mile and traditional fuel-injection ICEs averaging 4,359 Btu/mile. While the PHEV40 consumes 29 times the amount of petroleum a typical BEV consumes, a typical fuel-injected ICE still consumes nearly three times the amount of petroleum as a PHEV40 and around 80 times as much as a BEV,” the UMTRI researchers say.
Quote:
But skepticism toward EVs’ potential environmental benefits remains widespread.
“Cars and trucks are responsible for roughly 24% of U.S. greenhouse gas pollution – nearly 1.7 billion metric tons per year,” an article in Scientific American noted last year. “Because those emissions come from hundreds of millions of tailpipes, this source of pollution seems difficult to control. Shifting it to hundreds of smokestacks at power plants that supply electricity to charge electric cars, therefore, seems like a more effective way to clean up the fleet.”
The UMTRI study estimates electricity currently accounts for just 0.1% of all transportation-related energy consumption in the U.S., while 92% of transportation-related energy consumption still is derived from petroleum.
But modern BEVs’ average fuel economy always has been substantially better than comparable conventional ICE vehicles. Compared to the average fuel economy of 22.8 mpg (10.3 L/100 km) for current ICE vehicles, the average available fuel economy of BEVs is more than 4.5 times higher, averaging the equivalent of 103.0 mpg (2.3 L/100 km).
I did not check the study to see if the GHG per mile took into account renewable energy or not.
Quote:
Claims that electric vehicles won’t help reduce harmful emissions are flawed, and instead evidence suggests EVs can have a major impact on reducing the pollution traced to vehicles used in everyday life, a University of Michigan study finds.
I dug around, and found the study itself: link to study
Back to Ward's:
Quote:
“Based on the average mix of renewable and nonrenewable electric power sources in the U.S., the average well-to-wheels (greenhouse-gas) emissions for battery-electric vehicles (BEVs) is the lowest, at 214 grams per mile,” the researchers say. “The corresponding values for two different plug-in electric vehicle implementations, PHEV10 and PHEV40, range from 253 to 278 gpm, respectively.
“Gasoline-powered vehicles produce the most GHGs per mile, ranging from 356 to 409 gpm, depending on the specific type of ICE (direct-fuel-injection versus conventional port-fuel injection, respectively), Sivak and Schoettle say.
Quote:
EVs are not only cleaner but also are substantially more efficient than ICE-powered vehicles, the Michigan researchers find.
“BEVs use the least amount of petroleum at 54 Btu/mile, with a typical PHEV40 vehicle model ranking the second-lowest in usage at 1,588 Btu/mile and a typical PHEV10 vehicle model using the third-lowest amount at 2,588 Btu/mile,” Sivak and Schoettle write.
“Predictably, gasoline-powered vehicles use considerably more petroleum per mile, with direct-fuel-injection ICEs averaging 3,791 Btu/mile and traditional fuel-injection ICEs averaging 4,359 Btu/mile. While the PHEV40 consumes 29 times the amount of petroleum a typical BEV consumes, a typical fuel-injected ICE still consumes nearly three times the amount of petroleum as a PHEV40 and around 80 times as much as a BEV,” the UMTRI researchers say.
Quote:
But skepticism toward EVs’ potential environmental benefits remains widespread.
“Cars and trucks are responsible for roughly 24% of U.S. greenhouse gas pollution – nearly 1.7 billion metric tons per year,” an article in Scientific American noted last year. “Because those emissions come from hundreds of millions of tailpipes, this source of pollution seems difficult to control. Shifting it to hundreds of smokestacks at power plants that supply electricity to charge electric cars, therefore, seems like a more effective way to clean up the fleet.”
The UMTRI study estimates electricity currently accounts for just 0.1% of all transportation-related energy consumption in the U.S., while 92% of transportation-related energy consumption still is derived from petroleum.
But modern BEVs’ average fuel economy always has been substantially better than comparable conventional ICE vehicles. Compared to the average fuel economy of 22.8 mpg (10.3 L/100 km) for current ICE vehicles, the average available fuel economy of BEVs is more than 4.5 times higher, averaging the equivalent of 103.0 mpg (2.3 L/100 km).
I did not check the study to see if the GHG per mile took into account renewable energy or not.