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submitted 4 days ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

Everyone knows that electric vehicles are supposed to be better for the planet than gas cars. That's the driving reason behind a global effort to transition toward batteries.

But what about the harms caused by mining for battery minerals? And coal-fired power plants for the electricity to charge the cars? And battery waste? Is it really true that EVs are better?

The answer is yes. But Americans are growing less convinced.

The net benefits of EVs have been frequently fact-checked, including by NPR. "No technology is perfect, but the electric vehicles are going to offer a significant benefit as compared to the internal combustion engine vehicles," Jessika Trancik, a professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, told NPR this spring.

It's important to ask these questions about EVs' hidden costs, Trancik says. But they have been answered "exhaustively"


her word


and a widerange of organizations have confirmed that EVs still beat gas.

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[-] [email protected] 21 points 2 days ago

The only valid criticisms of EV's are:

  1. They're harder to extinguish than a gas car if they end up catching on fire.

  2. They don't really solve any of the major issues with car based infrastructure.

  3. Tesla is a shit show because of that damn muskrat which pushes a lot of people away from EV's in general.

[-] [email protected] 5 points 2 days ago

They are heavier and accelerate faster than an equivalent ICE vehicle on the same frame, and so result in more pedestrian fatalities.

[-] [email protected] 2 points 2 days ago

They are heavier and accelerate faster than an equivalent ICE vehicle on the same frame, and so result in more pedestrian fatalities.

That's not why.

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[-] [email protected] 4 points 2 days ago

They’re harder to extinguish than a gas car if they end up catching on fire.

https://www.roadandtrack.com/news/a62188058/tesla-semi-crash-fire-required-50000-gallons-of-water-and-fire-fighting-aircraft/

Yeah that is gonna be a bigger problem than most people imagined.

[-] [email protected] 4 points 2 days ago

To be fair, no consumer vehicles have 900 kWh batteries haha.

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[-] [email protected] 37 points 3 days ago

Public transportation is even better yet

[-] [email protected] 10 points 3 days ago

And when we actually get that going I'll stop making sure I always have a car available.

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[-] [email protected] 17 points 3 days ago

Put them in a sealed room with a gas engine running and you'll see how fast they realize that they're cleaner

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[-] [email protected] 126 points 4 days ago

We're going to run the country into the ground because we have such a large group of people being totally fine with (or even encouraging) their lack of education and the ability to reason properly. They're just proud to be "against" something together, they don't even care what it is they're against.

There are already EV battery recycling plants springing up now that there are enough used EVs to warrant them, there wasn't much point building them when there weren't any battery packs to process.

The renewable energy switch is already happening, because even without subsidies they're still cheaper.

But no... gotta get out there and roll coal.

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[-] [email protected] 9 points 2 days ago

Because the conservative machine, despite the love of Elon's right-wing antics, never stop talking about how bad EVs are. Funny, the only time they act like they care about the environment is when they talk about how bad the EV batteries are to manufacture. While they roll coal and drive gas-guzzling mall cruiser bro-dozers all over the place.

[-] [email protected] 2 points 2 days ago

Give him a few years into a potential Trump victory, and he will make Tesla to manufacture petrol cars.

[-] [email protected] 9 points 3 days ago

Its about 40% more power efficient per mile but theres a couple of other trade-offs, still better yeah.

[-] [email protected] 14 points 3 days ago

Genuine question - are EVs better for the environment if the main source of electricity of my country is coal based? Most of the coal plants are pretty old too…

[-] [email protected] 36 points 3 days ago

Yes, whether your electric plant is coal, natural gas, or honestly even if it was diesel. Larger engines are more efficient than smaller ones. It's been a long time since I broke down the math over 10 years so my information is probably wildly out of date but even 10 years ago when you broke down the math charging an EV from a fossil fuel plant of any kind was still ultimately more efficient than a gas car in the long term.

Couple that with the ability of many EV now to also act as a battery for your house and that just goes wildly into the EVs favor if you utilize that for peak demand offset. Which many people could do easily even if it meant not having their battery fully charged in the morning when they go to leave for work because let's face it very few people drive more than 60 miles full round trip in a day so even with their battery at say half they would have more than enough for their whole day plus extra.

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[-] [email protected] 21 points 3 days ago

Yes. That's the entire point here. The answer is yes.

[-] [email protected] 8 points 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago)

zombie engineer voice "traiiiiiins"

[-] [email protected] 2 points 2 days ago

IMO, I still think there's not enough infrastructure to support charging EVs. Don't get me wrong I've seen some. Just... Not a lot. Until charging is as prevalent as gas its just not worth it. Or if you have a house I guess.

In some areas I hear it's good. But in my area there's only 1 set of charging stations at a Wawa that I know of. And that Wawa is an hour drive away. Plus I'm at a rental complex that mows the lawns regularly and having a cable run from my house to the car is not allowed.

My current gas operated vehicle has about 160000 miles on it. I'm hopeful that my vehicle will last a long time. And then when my vehicle dies, I'll look at the infrastructure again and see if it's beneficial for me to switch to an EV. I'm going to continue to wait until it's beneficial for me to buy a new car.

We'll see how it goes.

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[-] [email protected] 11 points 3 days ago

Of course they're cleaner. As long as your electricity isn't coming from coal, you're doing better by the environment than an ICE.

[-] [email protected] 34 points 3 days ago

Even if your energy comes from coal they're still more efficient.

[-] [email protected] 18 points 3 days ago* (last edited 3 days ago)

Over the longterm, and they also require a lot less maintenance because they don't have to deal with mini-explosions from combustion generating excess heat and stress. The problem is in the battery, and the industry hasn't even scratched the surface for solutions.

I see trucks carrying butane tanks all the time, where are the trucks carrying EV battery replacements? There aren't because the industry wants to charge extra for fixed installation ones depending on capacity and charging capacity and there is absolutely no profit incentive that offsets other losses to standardize battery systems in a way they can be easily extensible or replaceable.

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[-] [email protected] 8 points 3 days ago

Because we Americans are easily swayed by propaganda, unfortunately.

[-] [email protected] 45 points 4 days ago* (last edited 4 days ago)

They all suck in their own unique ways. Automotive tires are a leading source of microplastics so EVs aren't exactly a darling angel, but getting to work has become a 500 billion a year industry in America and framed in such a way that people are debating which car is better for the environment when they're all horrible compared to mass transit. Because capitalism thrives on frivolity and consumption. That's the real crux

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[-] [email protected] 29 points 3 days ago

can you really blame us?

let me run through the last 8 years of American history with four words, "we were lied to". doesn't matter from whom, doesn't matter what. we're constantly being lied to. truth is, it's been true for longer than 8 years, but the last 8 have been especially transparent.

we're learning that the upper echelon only trusts the American public to do three things; consume, produce, and die. if you can't even do that for them, you're removed as an undesirable.

so yeah, trust in the system is broken. it's going to take at least a generation or two just to repair it ** if they work on it**.

I can't fault anyone who's untrusting of a system that continuously covers lie after lie with more lies.

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this post was submitted on 23 Sep 2024
469 points (96.4% liked)

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