Electric Cars: Do They Really Reduce Our Carbon Footprint?

Electric cars are slowly becoming in vogue. The demand for electric cars is rising, and big car manufacturers like Ford, General Motors, Mitsubishi and Nissan are racing to dominate this corner of the market. The rationale behind the growth in sales of electric cars is that these vehicles will help bring down carbon emissions in the air, clean up the air we breathe, and lower the levels of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere. But do electric cars really reduce our carbon footprint and contribute towards a green environment?

According to a recent study by the UK Committee on Climate Change, the answer is yes ” but only once the electric car has traveled more than 80,000 miles or 129,000 kilometers. Unfortunately, most electric cars today will not even get to travel that far.

Batteries Are the Problem

The problem with electric cars right now is that they require so many batteries to run, and they need to have these batteries replaced from time to time. The average distance they can go without charging batteries is only 145 kilometers, making them inefficient for longer trips. Most importantly, the study has shown that manufacturing these batteries, not to mention the electric car itself, uses up more energy and leaves behind more carbon footprints than the production of a standard gas-guzzling vehicle.

So, right now, electric cars do not really reduce our carbon footprint. This is not to say, though, that electric cars are totally bad for the environment. The fact that these electric cars can significantly reduce carbon emissions in the air cannot be ignored. If there is a way to improve the efficiency of these cars and to make their production much, much greener, electric cars are still our ticket to cleaner air and a more environment-friendly transport in the future.

Comments are closed.