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Cole Poswiatowski
Professor Malcom Campbell
UWRT 1104
March 31, 2019

An all-electric future? Are all electric cars really saving the environment?
Since 1908, Petrol (more commonly known as Gasoline) burning cars have been the

craze and the only source of transportation for millions or billions of people across the world.

Since the early 2000’s people have been concerned about global warming and people realized

that petrol burning cars may have helped the human cause of global warming and a movement

was started to help the environment. In 2005 Tesla Motors came out with its first electric car and

in 2010 Nissan came out with its Leaf, a zero emission, zero tailpipe vehicle. From then the

conversation became a major push for all-electric cars. In the 2019 Cadillac commercials, they

promised a push for an “All-Electric Future” but what if an all-electric future isn’t the answer?

What if the best change is for no change to the car manufacturing fleet? Or is there a much larger

change needed to fix this aspect of global warming?

Each passenger car emits 4.6 metric tons of carbon dioxide per year and approximately

505 grams of CO2 per mile. This isn’t including the more potent (as in worse for the

environment) Methane, Nitrous Oxide, hydrofluorocarbons that Vehicles also emit. And while

most “All-electric” or Plug in cars have no tail pipes and emit very little carbons from the car

itself. We must then look at where the electric car gets its power. Most people get their electricity

through power plants near them, those power plants create power by burning Coal, Natural gas,

and Petroleum; which produce over 1,700 metric tons of carbon dioxide in the U.S. a year,
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combined (EIA) Therefore are electric cars really green if the electricity they use comes from a

place doing just as much, if not more damage to the environment then petrol burning cars. David

Biello from the Scientific American says that “Electric cars can only be as green as the source of

the power” (Scientific American) and therefore electric cars at this point are not better then their

predecessors they just cause environmental damage indirectly.

Looking at the demand of electricity, if 100% of cars ran off of electricity there will be a

huge increase in demand of electricity. From Inverse, the author stated, by looking at Americas

states that use the most electricity, Texas and California, there will be a large increase in the

demand of electricity. Upwards of 55% and an unknown cost of changing the infrastructure to

energy dependent and changing gas stations to “electric stations” and building more powerplants

to accommodate the demand (Inverse). This source shows that there are many other things to

consider when demanding a fully electric car fleet. As well as the other side of the issue of more

power plants would cause more pollution of the atmosphere. According to Clean Technica the

current power grid could only handle if about 25% of the cars in America were electric, after

25% the power grid will need some major system upgrades (Clean Technica) Forbes has a

solution for the power grid. Their article states that if the companies charge by “time of usage”

rates. Basically, saying that high demand times during the day will have higher prices,

influencing people to charge their vehicles at low demand periods of the day and allowing the

stress on the power grid to be as minimal as possible. (Forbes)

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Of course, the people who really have to make the decision if electric cars are truly better

and have the highest demand are the car companies themselves. From a magazine that was

delivered to the Human Resources (HR) departments, the author stated that electric cars , at this

point are only useful if someone who was traveling into large metropolitan areas, such as

London, to avoid the emission charges. The author did state that electric cars were much better

under the correct set of circumstances, but electric cars weren’t in the best idea for car

manufactures at the moment, stating that the range of the cars needed to be increased for them to

become more relevant. (People Management) The problem with this source is that it is from

2013 and the technology being used in electric cars has vastly increased over the past six years.

Electric cars now average over 100 miles per charge, with High end cars, such as Tesla, can go

over 300 miles in 2018 (Go Ultra Low). But the high-end cars are not affordable for regular

families and most will have to choose the lower options that only average just over 100 miles per

charge, much less than a standard vehicle which is standardly over 200 miles per tank with

hybrids extending even more.

Now to look into the batteries of these Electric cars. Electric cars use Lithium-ion

Batteries or a hybrid of lead acid and Nickel (Stanford) and while regular cars still use these

types of batteries they are much more important and much larger in electric cars. The

manufacturing of Lithium-ion batteries for electric cars can cause upwards of 74% more CO2

emissions then conventional cars do today, as long as it is made by factories that use fossil fuels

to power it. Like the largest one in Germany. Some plants, like Tesla’s, are using solar power to

run their plants that build their batteries for their cars but at this point it doesn’t seem like many
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other companies are following suit at this moment. (Industry week) This shows again that

Electric cars are indirectly causing a much larger footprint then what they save.

Not to say that electric cars are not the future and will not help the environment in the

long run, there just isn’t enough environmentally saving innovation to allow electric cars to be

any better then petrol burning cars as far as the environment, and not to say that the current

power grid could not stand the switch to an all-electric fleet of cars. To answer the question

asked at the beginning, an All-electric future is the answer, but some other larger changes need to

come first. The best solution is to start with the electric companies themselves. To move away

from Natural gas and Coal as the largest producer of electricity and push Hydro, Nuclear, and

solar power as the main sources, or find new environmentally safe way to generate electricity.

Then use those powers to manufacture the Lithium-ion batteries needed to power the cars. After

that the electricity grid will need to be upgraded to allow for the new demand of electricity. And

finally, the push for all-electric cars will become not only reasonable but environmentally

capable to undercut the large carbon footprint created by the auto industry. And if the range of

the car can increase while keeping costs low for standard families the benefits move to the

middle and lower classes and make it a more of a worldwide effort to help and save the

environment.
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Annotated Bibliography

Biello, David. “Electric Cars Are Not Necessarily Clean.” Scientific American, Scientific

American, 11 May 2016, www.scientificamerican.com/article/electric-cars-are-not-necessarily-

clean/. Accessed Mar. 5, 2019

In this article the author explains to the audience that electric cars are not what they seem to be.

He explains that although electric cars are green for the environment the source of their power is

anything but green, as the power plants that provide most of America and other developed

countries where electric cars are possible use coal burning plants to create the electricity. The

author claims that electric cars are “only as green as the source of their power”. He calls that

electric cars are not the solution to the environmental problem, but a change of all things will be.

This source comes from a very well-known and credible company. This article shows that our

problem of global warming extends far beyond just vehicles, as a whole society change will be

necessary to stop the destruction of our environment and a larger change will be necessary. The

authors intended audience is those who believe that electric cars the largest step that people can

take to slowing or stopping Global Warming.

Clarke, Seán. “How Green Are Electric Cars?” The Guardian, Guardian News and Media, 21

Dec. 2017, www.theguardian.com/football/ng-interactive/2017/dec/25/how-green-are-electric-

cars. Accessed Mar. 5, 2019

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In this source the author shows facts in chart data about the emissions from every type of

vehicle in use today and breaks it down into greenhouse gas emitted and energy used as well as

use by country. This allows the reader access to not only the average amount per vehicle but the

amount by individual country. This is a credible source as it comes from a popular source of

information as well as it shows all the sources the author got his information from on the bottom

of the page. The article shows the reader the numbers of each type of car and if the car is really

as green as some people make them out to be. The authors intended audience is anyone looking

for specific graphical data about each individual type of car and their effect on the environment.

“Should You Go Green?(Use of Pure Electric Cars by Human Resource Personnel)(Motoring

Extra).” People Management, 2013, p. 57. Accessed Mar. 5, 2019

In this article, the author makes a case against all electric vehicles citing the facts that at that

point in time they weren’t sustainable or reliable for long distance driving. The author also

stated that it was only practical if someone was to drive into London or Cities similar to. This

short source is credible as the article is delivered to HR departments of car manufacturing

companies. The article also utilizes examples of the all-electric, hybrid, and plugin hybrids on

the market and shows talk about how effective they are under the right set of circumstances. This

source shows the what information HR was getting about what they thought was the future for

their companies. This source was helpful as it has allowed an insider look to car companies and

why they act the way they do. The intended audience of this article is the people in the Human

Resource departments of car companies.