Statement of Purpose

To analyse whether Electric Vehicles(EVs) are actually better for the

environment in the long and short term.
Certificate of Completion
This is to certify that Aryaman Singh and Shlok Shrivastav of class XI-C have
successfully completed the English project work for class XI of the Central Board
Of Secondary Education in the academic year 2023-24. It is further certified that
this project is the individual work of the candidates.
Teacher’s Signature :
Date :
Essay

Electric Vehicles(or EVs) have transformed the automobile market, by providing a

cleaner alternative to the world. They are one of the inventions, which will play a
key role in transforming humanity into a fossil-fuel free species. They have
received immense attention, and funding over the past few years in the form of
government subsidies, venture capitalist funding etc. But are they really the future
of automobiles? Or have they been overhyped by the media? In this essay, we will
discuss the pros, cons and alternatives to Electric Vehicles in the current global
market and beyond.

Unlike traditional Internal Combustion Engine (ICE) cars, Electric Vehicles work
by using energy stored in its battery instead of combusting fossil fuels like petrol or
diesel to power the car.
The majority of EV batteries today are Lithium-ion batteries. Lithium-ion batteries,
as the name suggests, require lithium for their production. Lithium is mined in
countries like Chile, Argentina, China, etc. Recently, India has discovered its own
Lithium reserves in Kashmir and Rajasthan. However the mining of lithium to
make batteries, for both cars and other uses, has adverse impacts on the
environment, including soil degradation, water contamination and air pollution. In
fact, the environmental cost of producing lithium-ion batteries is so great the
upfront CO2 emissions on manufacturing an EV is substantially greater than that of
making an ICE car.

Cobalt is another key element in Lithium-ion batteries, this is seen quite clearly, by
the projected growth in its demand being 60% in the period of 2017 to 2025, while
Lithium generally occurs as a primary product in the form of brines or hard-rock
ores, less than 10% of the cobalt supply occurs as a primary product. This creates a
lot of transparency issues in the cobalt value chain, and consequently this creates a
threat to the EV market in general, not to mention most of its deposits being in the
Democratic Republic of Congo, a highly unstable nation. However, the future of
EV may move away from cobalt, due to all the glaring issues it has, this is already
happening currently with the NMC 811 battery which diminishes the use of cobalt
in batteries.

Today, the majority of our electricity production is dependent on non-renewable

sources of energy, like coal, petroleum. Thus, all cars today, directly or indirectly,
depend on fossil fuels. However, in recent years, significant investments into
renewable energy sources like wind, solar and hydroelectric power have been
made. Hopefully, in the future, all of our energy production can be renewable
based eliminating fossil fuels entirely.

The backbone of mass EV adoption rests upon a vast network of charging stations,
which is in it of itself dependent upon government subsidies and foreign direct
investments, in India the FAME (Faster Adoption and Manufacturing of Electric
and Hybrid Vehicles in India) subsidies are focused upon setting up of charging
stations (427 under Phase I and 2700 under Phase II) along with providing
incentive to consumers for purchasing EVs. This not only promotes companies to
shift to EV production but also encourages consumers to buy EVs which currently
face high prices. This doesn’t even mention the problems with range and time of
charging, which are major inconveniences for any user. EVs currently have ranges
much lower than their ICE counterparts. The low range requires the density of
charging stations to be greater than petroleum, which may only be possible in
metros with good electricity infrastructure. Slow rate of charging also causes
inconvenience to the riders on both long or short rides.

Though EVs have garnered a lot of attention over the past few years, due to climate
awareness among the masses. It is not the only alternative to ICE cars. The future
may very well be powered by Green Hydrogen or Ethanol-powered cars, and most
certainly, not everyone is sold on the idea of EVs being the only alternative. The
Union Minister of Road Transport and Highways Nitin Gadkari, has time and time
again adamantly proposed diversification of the automobile industry towards
ethanol, methanol, biodiesel, bioCNG and green hydrogen, exclaiming how he sees
green hydrogen as a major fuel powering our cars in the future. While Lithium-ion
batteries suffer from high CO2 emissions during production, green hydrogen can
even be produced from organic waste, and is generally cheaper than petrol, proving
to be quite the competitor to EVs. Even the major automobile giant Toyota, is more
adamant about mass adopting ethanol powered vehicles, than EVs.

However, it is not all doom and gloom for EVs. Even today, despite being charged
using non renewable energy, EVs produce less CO2 over their lifetime than ICE
cars. EVs continue to get cheaper, more charging stations are being built, the range
of EVs are improved, and clean energy adoption is increasing. The future of EVs is
very bright. The rate of innovation in the EV space is very high and every year
new technologies are created to improve the production, performance and
accessibility. With government subsidies, corporate investment and general
awareness by the public, not only EVs but any moves to curb climate change will
surely be successful!