Amnesty International faults electric vehicle batteries as carbon intensive

I don't mean to belittle Amnesty's efforts, but what exactly are they suggesting people do?

Traditional fossil fuel vehicles are bad.

Yet they are slamming the batteries that power EVs.

So, what exactly are people supposed to drive?!

Just bought a new LEAF. Drives great, charge lasts 400kms and it's environmentally friendly.

Also driving my 350z, which gets very good mileage, even better than my old Odyssey used to!

AI would do better to complain about the mountains of used batteries found in some poorer nations and how to dispose of those better.

@Belrick

how is the electricity that charges your car produced?

They do seem to get confused over ethics and emissions, keeping the air cleaner in cities is the main thing electric cars do, but electrification with much smaller batteries also helps a lot, that is why I am in favour of hybrids and catalytic converters.

All very true, but I cannot understand the negativity towards hydrogen fuel cell vehicles. Surely it is better to spread our options.

Forcing the whole world to switch over to EV soonest sounds politically popular but unrealistic on so many levels. There are many intermediate hybrid options too.

(Naturally I would like to try out one of each system, if I had the wherewithal.)

This is hardly surprising! Where do people think these batteries come from? Raw materials come fro the ground, you have to dig and mine, which by its essence is a dirty polluting industry.

The biggest problem still remains that if you charge you electric vehicle from a charging point that is powered by a coal, gas or nuclear plant then the green credentials of your electric car go out the window. There simply is not enough green or renewable power to charge and run all these new electric cars. China for instance wants to lead the way on electric cars but most of tis power comes from coal power stations. Its counter productive and in the long run could do more damage than good.

In the rush to appease our green hopes, as usual we have rushed forward with out thinking it through properly coming up with short term solutions and kicking the repercussions down the road.

The biggest problem still remains that if you charge you electric vehicle from a charging point that is powered by a coal, gas or nuclear plant then the green credentials of your electric car go out the window. There simply is not enough green or renewable power to charge and run all these new electric cars. China for instance wants to lead the way on electric cars but most of tis power comes from coal power stations. Its counter productive and in the long run could do more damage than good.

Look at history - every new paradigm has had a period of time where it bootstrapped off the old system to get started.

The logical fallacy of what you are saying is that it expects us to have figured this all out, before we have figured it all out.

These things take time.

We all knew that but the greens

My wife likes rear window defroster. Her hands stay warm when pushing car while I sit in drivers seat. We have zero emissions' and feel no guilt for future generations.

AOC is not gonna like this.

@Belrick

how is the electricity that charges your car produced?

Fossil fuels?

I confess I do not have much respect for Amnesty International. I've never had.

Before asking auto industries to disclose information about their production process, let the organization disclose what each of their members uses for their transportation.

If they are so concerned about environment, invest in those related industries and come up with a solution - instead of just demanding others to do so.

etc. etc.

They are just a bunch of big mouths with no good actions.

"My wife likes rear window defroster. Her hands stay warm when pushing ... while I sit in drivers seat. We have zero emissions' and feel no guilt for future generations."

Hahaha...

The recycle of the lithium batteries is an even bigger headache, and some of the toxic waste simply can't be recycled.

There are actually quite some breakthroughs in combustion engines recently pioneered by Japanese companies such as Mazda. And Toyota also promised to raise the thermal efficiency of their engines to 50% in near future. Which will make those 'evo friendly' (they really aren't) EVs less and less competitive.

@zones2surf:

I don't mean to belittle Amnesty's efforts, but what exactly are they suggesting people do?

I think the elites idea is that we do not drive, nor fly, nor take a cruise ship. If you look at all the people who spend countless hours telling us how to live most are hypocrites (private jets, yachts, SUV's with other escorting cars, etc.).

Energy is required to move us from one point to another. Bikes are awesome as you use your own power to move from A to B and also get some exercise while doing so. Unfortunately we cannot bike everywhere.

There are drawbacks to any form of energy. The chemicals used to manufacture the Lithium batteries and the mechanism to extract Lithium from the earth are very environmentally unfriendly. The amount of energy to make the battery is high. Then, the electricity must get to the car from somewhere to charge the batteries. Transmitting electrical power over any distance results in losses (due to the impedance of power lines and transformers). In the end a public transportation system that people actually use (and feel comfortable using is best). Of course this cannot people but it is the best solution.

Technology is constantly evolving. The so-called "right" solution to carbon is out there somewhere but the existing technologies are not at a place where carbon based fuels can be replaced.

These huge batteries are a scam.

actually theyre not its been shown that it all depends on how your car is charged, if its charged with nuclear, wind , solar generation , renewables electric vehicles are less carbon intensive than ICE after about 4 yrs, if theyre chraged by coal, oil gas then its about double this.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6RhtiPefVzM

These sudden realization of child labour in mining cobalt in Africa, carbon pollution by EV batteries ... why these sudden realizations? OPEC backed initiatives?

The article reaffirms that EVs are a step forward over internal combustion powered vehicles, but that improvements can and should be made in the production processes of EVs.

Lot of misinformed people in comment sections.

Tesla Model X battery is carbon neutral after less than a year worth of driving and it's battery pack is HUGE.

Electricity to charge EV's is getting cleaner by the month since coal power generation is in steep decline, even in China it's electricity generation is comparable to US in terms of CO2 emissions, yes it has more coal in the mix, but the rest is quite clean.

If you charged Tesla Model 3 with electricity coming from worst Indian coal power plant it would produce 13,5kg of CO2 per 100km vs. new BMW Series 3 at 12kg/100km.

But you don't. In US only about 30% of electricity is produced with coal.

But even if it was 100%, coal power plants are constantly upgraded to lower their emissions as opposed to cars which once produced only deteriorate during their lifetime and spew all that tailpipe junk for you to breathe in while driving behind it and where you live for your kids and family to breathe in.

As for recycling, Amnesty doesn't take into account that there are major mining companies completely switching their business to recycling , take Umicore as example, multinational which mined in Africa for a century now completely switched to recycling.