So drive less than the target mileage and they are worse for the planet. Drive more than the target and have to replace the batteries, far far worse for the planet. Drive only in the roughly 10,000 mile target range before scrapping, they are fractionally better.
The top-line electric Tesla car, emits about 44 tons of CO2 from production thru scrapping, about 5 tons less than a similar Audi A7 Quattro. Avoiding 5 tons of CO2 would cost less than $45 on Europe's emissions trading market. The annual benefit is about the cost of a cup of coffee. Yet U.S. taxpayers spend up to $7,500 in tax breaks for less than $45 of climate benefits.
Researchers estimate that if the U.S. has 10% more gasoline cars in 2020, 870 more people will die each year in the U.S. from air pollution. Hybrids, because they are cleaner, will kill just 610 people. But 10% more electric vehicles powered on the average U.S. electricity mix will kill 1,617 more people every year, mostly from coal pollution. The electric car kills almost three times as many as a hybrid.
Electric car mythsIn the public conversation, electric cars are seen as the new uber-green. But they're nothing of the sort. If we had 25 million extra electric cars rather than gasoline cars on the road in 2020, they would over their lifetime avoid 75 million tons of CO2 at a market value of more than half a billion dollars. However, at present-day subsidies, they would cost a phenomenal $188 billion while creating more pollution than gasoline cars, costing about $35 billion in lives cut short by poor air quality. For every dollar of cost, the electric car does less than half a cent of good.
Y'all by way of Federal Government programs have installed 875 electric vehicle charging stations in and around San Antonio. In the 5 years since the first of these charging stations were installed, the average use rate of each station is 3%. Over half of the stations have gone an entire year with zero use. 89 of the stations have never been used a single time.
Awesome use of your tax dollars.
