Electric Cars have huge potential – but require a ‘greener’ system
- Amandine de Rosnay
- Aug 11, 2019
- 5 min read
The point of this questioning is not to undermine the case for EVs, but rather to raise a central issue about the industry: what would a truly sustainable EV economy look like and is enough being done by government and car makers?
In its fifth assessment report, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) reported that transport accounts for ¼th of global carbon emissions. Greenhouse gas emissions (GHG) from this sector have more than doubled since 1970, increasing to 7 billion tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent (CO2e) in 2010. It is also rising at a faster rate than for any other energy end-use sector; with 80% of the increase from road vehicles. This is especially problematic, given the dependence on petroleum fuels, the combustion of which results in high levels of the principal warming gases (carbon dioxide, ozone, and black carbon).
As a result of the pressing need to find alternatives, electric vehicles (EV) have gained in traction and popularity. According to the 2015 Paris Agreement, to keep global warming below 1.5 degrees, 100 million electric vehicles should be added to our roads by 2030. This means a 50-fold increase from today’s numbers. Mass-market adoption of EVs will reduce on-road transportation carbon emissions and help clean up cities. The main advantage of replacing petrol with electricity is that not only do electric cars usually emit less than petrol ones already over their lifetime, but over time, as electric grids become ‘greener’ that gap will widen. Thus, electric cars have the potential to reach climate change mitigation targets that petrol cars simply do not.
Limiting our carbon emissions is essential, but so is reducing our overall environmental impacts an preserving our biophysical stocks. We are ultimately dependent on them for most of what we produce and because there is no ‘stopping’ climate change at this point – there is only limiting its damages. This means that with our growing population, climate impacts, and increasing pressure on biodiversity and ecosystems – we must think holistically about our Natural Capital.
As a result, there are a number of challenges that need to be addressed to make EVs a holistically ‘green’, viable and sustainable solution in the long term. We should not find ourselves in a position whereby the market for EVs grow at a much faster rate, than the solutions to make it greener still.
Mining Lithium
Lithium-ion batteries are a crucial component of EVs; which need about 12 kilograms of lithium each. Demand for lithium is increasing exponentially, doubling in price between 2016 and 2018. According to consultancy Cairn Energy Research Advisors, the lithium industry is expected to grow from 100 gigawatt hours (GWh) of annual production in 2017, to almost 800 GWhs in 2027.
Battery production entails extraction of a natural non-renewable resource – which has important environmental and human costs.
Most of today’s lithium is extracted from liquid brine reservoirs that are located beneath salt flats, known as Salars. The easiest and cheapest way uses a lot of water – approximately 500,000 gallons per tonne of lithium. In Chile’s Salar de Atacama, mining activities consumed 65% of the region’s water. Local farmers who grow quinoa and herd llamas in an area where some communities already have to get water driven in from elsewhere, are increasingly impacted by water scarcity. Bolivia, a country where lithium production offers new hopes for economic growth, will face similar problems with their water resources. In May 2016, protestors threw dead fish onto the streets of Tagong, a town on Tibetan plateau. The fish in Liqi river, were killed by a toxic chemical leak from the Ganzizhou Rongda Lithium mine. This was the third incident from lithium mining in the area.
It is up to governments to legislate on least impacting mining methods, and up to car manufacturers to have proper due diligence in place, ensuring that their lithium does not just come from the cheapest place on earth – but where mining is done within the realms of what is possible for sustainable mining.
Manufacturing
The way EVs are produced matter greatly. The impact of EVs gets more complicated when looking at the way cars are produced – and their lifecycle emissions. An MIT study, substantiating an earlier study from the Norwegian University of Science and Technology (2017) shows that currently “larger electric vehicles can have higher lifecycle greenhouse gas emissions than smaller conventional vehicles.” In addition, where the car is produced also matters. Chinese EV battery manufacturers produce up to 60% more CO2 during fabrication than normal engine production, but could cut their emissions by up to 66% if they adopted American or European manufacturing techniques. The biggest EV market however – is in China, with nearly 1.1 million electric cars sold in 2018.
There are no more cutting corners when it comes to the way we manufacture; energy efficiency is an absolute must – even when creating electric vehicles. Finally, this does not change the need for our consumption patterns to become more ‘humble’. A big EV still emits more than a small EV – and even at times a small petrol car (though this may change in the near future).
Infrastructure
EVs will put an important strain on electric grids that may be ill-equipped to cope with everyone charging their cars (this will depend on where in the world you are!). Moreover, a dirty electric grid will still result in GHG emissions while our ‘deadline’ for a habitable planet is approaching fast. This is problematic for countries like #Mauritius for instance, whose electric grid is currently about 80% oil. With policies that incentivise hybrids and EVs, but a fairly loose ‘plan’ to improve from the current 21% to 35% renewables by 2025 - there are chances that we will miss out on the true potential of EVs.
Electric Vehicles for Smarter Cities: The Future of Energy and Mobility, a report from the World Economic Forum, developed in cooperation with Bain & Company, suggests following:
Take a multi-stakeholder and market-specific approach. Today EVs continue to be associated with traditional ownership and use models, and are still generally considered as just cars - All relevant stakeholders should be engaged to collectively define a new paradigm
Prioritize high-use electric vehicles. Electric taxis and public transportation will have a great impact in reducing carbon emissions – and avoid too much raw material extraction.
Deploy critical charging infrastructure today while anticipating the mobility transformation. EV charging infrastructure should be developed along highways, at destination points and close to public transportation nodes.
Battery end of life
Today, only 5% of lithium batteries are recycled in Europe – in the rest of the world it’s even less; the rest end up in landfills. If battery recycling becomes more efficient it will reduce the need to extract new materials, therefore lessening the reliance on mining and production of new batteries. Today however, recycling and re-purposing batteries is costly; costing €1 per kg, while the value of the reclaimed material is only a third of that. There are numerous barriers to explain this:
As lithium cathodes degrade over time they can’t be placed into new batteries ‘as is’ – it is also hard to know what point it is at in its life.
There is limited information shared regarding the residual battery capacity
Lack of standards,
Regulatory uncertainty about liability once the battery changes owners
Recycling lithium costs five times as much as extracting virgin material.
Innovation in this area, needs to be developed fast. Better, faster and cheaper ways of recycling lithium-ion batteries are needed, to avoid chemical leaks, ‘post-life’ GHG emissions and other impacts on our ecosystems and human health.
The point of this questioning is not to undermine the case for EVs, but rather to raise a central issue about the industry: what would a truly sustainable EV economy look like and is enough being done by government and car makers? Unlocking the full climate mitigation potential of EVs requires that the system in which they operate is holistically sustainable – from mining to recycling.
Sources and further readings:
http://www.futuredirections.org.au/publication/climate-change-lithium-production-mutually-exclusive/
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