wells to wheels
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More good news about electric cars in the U.S.: the emissions associated with the electricity used to charge them have fallen. Again. Based on the latest data on powerplant emissions from the EPA, an electric car on the road in the U.S. now has average emissions as low as an 80-mpg car. DON'T MISS: Electric cars cleaner than any gas-only car for 97% of U.S. drivers (Jun 2017) That figure is sales-weighted, meaning it takes into account where electric cars exist today in the U.S. But that 80-mpg average translates to emissions 10 percent lower than even last year's average, which was 73...
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Electric cars emit less carbon than average U.S. new car, everywhere in the world
When electric cars first arrived in 2011, it was a reasonable question: Aren't you just shifting emissions from the tailpipe to the smokestack? The answer is yes, but the carbon emissions per mile of an electric car—properly measured on a wells-to-wheels basis—are virtually always lower...
John Voelcker -
2020 Mazda electric car to share Toyota underpinnings, technology
Mazda is a tiny carmaker on a global scale, producing just 1.6 million vehicles a year. It competes with four companies (GM, Nissan-Renault, Toyota, and VW Group) that each sell around 10 million a year, as well as numerous other smaller makers still larger than Mazda. In a world where reducing the...
John Voelcker -
Electric cars are cleaner than hybrids in most places: mapped once again for your convenience
The question is a reasonable one: electric cars may be zero-emission, but what about the electricity to recharge them? While renewable energy is growing globally, burning fossil fuels is still the source of most electric power today. The good news is that in most areas of the U.S., the "wells to...
John Voelcker -
Energy use for hydrogen fuel-cell vehicles: higher than electrics, even hybrids (analysis)
It's now clear that the zero-emission vehicles of the future will be powered by electric motors. The electricity to power those motors, however, will come from one of two competing technologies: high-capacity batteries or hydrogen fuel cells. The debate over which technology is superior, which has...
John Voelcker -
Electric cars vs bicycles: which has a higher carbon footprint?
Electric cars are simply nicer and calmer to drive than conventional cars, and as their prices fall, that may be what will lure mass-market buyers over time. But they have undeniable benefit of lowering wells-to-wheels carbon emissions per mile driven, and they can also be powered entirely on...
John Voelcker -
Transitions into new technologies always generate confusion and misinformation, and certainly that has been the case with modern electric cars. Buyers, automakers, and analysts debate their cost, suitability, real-world range, wells-to-wheels carbon footprint, and recyclability, among other issues. Six years after the first modern electric cars launched, the volume of misinformation has slowed somewhat as sober analysis replaces rhetoric. But consensus in many of those debates has not necessarily been achieved, and new analyses and articles still emerge that can paint a distorted picture of...
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In Just One Year, Electric Cars Have Gotten Cleaner: How'd They Do That?
Electric cars have no tailpipe emissions, but their overall impact on the environment includes the electricity generated to recharge their batteries. The carbon emissions associated with that power vary greatly, depending on the local utility that provides it. Now an updated study from the Union of...
John Voelcker -
Coal Makes Electric Cars Bad? No, Plug-Ins Show Coal As Bad
Every so often, electric-car skeptics will attack the idea of using grid electricity to power a car by bringing up coal. "Yeah," the argument goes, "but you're just burning coal instead of gasoline in your electric car--so how's that any better?" There is, of course, a fair amount of science that...
John Voelcker -
Nissan Exec Calls Electric Leaf Pollution "Bull"
We all know that electric cars have zero tailpipe emissions, but the claim that electric cars move the pollution from the tailpipe to the power station chimney has long been a cornerstone of arguments against the electric car. But in an unusually candid moment at the 2011 Tokyo Motor Show, Nissan...
Nikki Gordon-Bloomfield -
Electric Car Critiques Can Have Merit, But Check Your Source
Earlier this week, Cnet published a story claiming that the European version of the Chevrolet Volt, the 2012 Vauxhall Ampera, was no more environmentally friendly than an ordinary gasoline car. Aiming to debunk Vauxhall's miles-per-charge and fuel economy claims, the article cited British blogger...
Nikki Gordon-Bloomfield