Oil has been thrown on an old fire again, because the European independent environmental organization Transport & Environment has conducted a new study into the CO2 emissions of electric cars. Are we done once and for all with this endless discussion?
De Volkskrant publishes the results of the figures of the European Federation for Transport and the Environment. The new research shows that an electric car that is now being offered for sale somewhere else during its life emits on average three times less CO2 than a comparable petrol or diesel version. The Transport & Environment (T&E) concludes this from a so-called life cycle analysis. Every gram of CO2 was considered: from the production of parts such as batteries to the transport of electricity from the central point to the local charge point.
If everything is included, an electric European car emits almost 100 grams of CO2 per kilometer. Because more use is made of green electricity in the Netherlands, such as wind energy, the average is slightly lower: an average of 377 grams of CO2 per kilowatt hour is produced in the production of Dutch electricity. This translates to more than 75 grams of CO2 per kilometer. That does not seem much cleaner than cars with fossil fuels that can emit an average of 104 g / km, but that does not include production and all the additional CO2 emissions. Including this, a petrol car emits an average of more than 250 grams of CO2 per kilometer. At best, the difference between an electric car and a fossil fuel car is up to 80 percent. Sweden is an example of a country where this is the case: the battery is made in that country and the car produced drives around there. This saves a lot of transport and therefore also CO2 emissions.
It is possible that electric cars will become even cleaner during their lives, because many energy companies are looking at sustainable options for generating energy. This development also has a positive effect on the production of batteries. The use of batteries means that electric cars are significantly behind in showrooms compared to cars with fossil fuels, but the break-even point has already been reached after 23,000 electric kilometers, according to T&E.