Are Electric Vehicles Really Eco Friendly?

This post is not against electric vehicles, I’m all for electric vehicles, but sadly a lot of people don’t truly understand what eco friendly means. Non-harmful and respectful of the environment and its inhabitants, not emitting pollution into the atmosphere. If you think electric cars are truly eco friendly then you’ve been had.

Every touts electric cars as being the better alternative and the bonus is they reduce our dependence on oil (which is an awesome thing). However people fail to take into account that electricity is still produced in quite a of countries by non eco friendly means. Not every country has nuclear power (even that can cause troubles with the environment). Australia amongst others rely on coal for electricity generation.

But even if you make the power generation more friendly you’re still left left the sourcing of materials (metals and substances from the Earth) to make most of the components in an electric car. The transportation of electronic components to the car manufacturing plant and then of course the transportation of cars locally and globally via trucks, trains, boats and planes. The materials inside of a battery are far from eco friendly, and a lot of countries still don’t have proper means to dispose of dead batteries.

Eventually when the day that 1 in every 3 people own an electric car comes, will things be any better? Electric generation will need to be further increased to help with the extra load on city power grids which in turn might just make things slightly better for the environment unless alternative power means are found that have minimal impact on the environment.

So are electric vehicles eco friendly? No. Will they reduce our dependence on oil? Yes. Will they in turn reduce carbon emissions and therefore help alleviate the effects of global warming? A little.