university in Norway published a study saying that electric cars can be more polluting than generally assumed. Leo Hickman, with your help, investigates. Post your opinions below, e-mail

leo.hickman @ guardian.co.uk

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LeoHickman

9:40

A study by engineers based at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology has challenged some common assumptions about the environmental qualities electric cars.

published this week in the Journal of Industrial Ecology, "Environmental Assessment of comparative life cycle of electrical and conventional vehicles," begins by saying that "it is important to address problems problems movement. "Therefore, the authors understand that the resolution of a problem, electric cars are not creating another? And if this is the case, then the degradation of the environment outweigh any advantage

The study highlights, in particular, the "toxicity" of the manufacturing process of electric cars compared to conventional petrol / diesel cars. He concludes that "global warming potential" of the process used to make electric cars is double that of conventional cars.

The study also indicates that - as has been said repeatedly - that electric cars do not make sense if the electricity we consume is produced mainly by coal. "It's against-productive to promote [electric vehicles] EVs in areas where electricity is generated from oil, coal and lignite combustion," he says.

So if this new study make us reassess the environmental attributes of electric cars? Or data analysis and help us, as the authors stress, improve the environmental performance of electric cars? As they say:

Although electric vehicles are a major technological breakthrough with significant potential environmental benefits, they can not be used by all parties and in all conditions.

Please leave your thoughts below. If you keep quoting figures or studies provided through a link to the original source. I also invite stakeholders to participate in the debate, too. And later today, I will return with my own verdict.

10:09

There have been a reaction via Twitter asking if the study is "well to wheel", ie It also does not include the emissions caused during extraction / production? petrol / diesel

I just received an email from William Majeau-Bettez, one of the authors, in response to this:

Yes, our study focuses on the production line of cars and fuel, the use phase and end of life.

PS I asked the authors of the study to follow the debate and respond to other readers' questions.

10:32

It is probably worth noting, in case you missed the link above, that the document in question can be read here in its entirety. This is the main conclusion:

the production phase of the electric vehicle was much more environmentally intensive. However, significant overall improvements in terms of GWP [global warming potential], press the [earth] acidification potential, and other impacts can be obtained by electric vehicles powered by energy sources appropriate for comparable ICEVs [vehicles to the internal combustion engine]. However, it is cons-productive to the promotion of electric vehicles in areas where electricity is generated from oil, coal and lignite combustion. The electrification of transport must be accompanied by a policy approach enhanced management life cycle, and counter potential setbacks in terms of water pollution and toxicity. Electric vehicles are ready to connect the transport sector personnel, as well as electricity, electronics and metal industries in a unique way. Therefore, the development of these areas should be jointly and systematically in solving electric vehicles to contribute positively to efforts to mitigate pollution.

10:38

The comment @ MartynW then asked:

this study takes into account that the car is one of the most recyclable products that we use?

Majeau-Bettez Guillaume, one of the authors of the article, just sent me this response:

The importance of recycling is one of the conclusions of our analysis. There are different ways to account for recycling lifecycle analysis. We chose to analyze a "first wave" of electric vehicles, from metal mixtures medium (a fraction of a fraction of virgin and recycled). Hopefully later "waves" of electric cars with a larger fraction of recycled metal (eCars made eCars, cradle to cradle ...), but the industry is not there yet.

11:24

A big thank you for the great response from readers to this day. Here are some interesting observations that I thought worth noting here "on the line" ...

Dr Simon Evans

While we expect petrol / diesel cars to be more effective than if the same will apply to the production of electric cars, in addition to the mixture of carbon grid current will fall through the ground you achieve carbon - at least inthe United Kingdom. This will make electric cars a proposal even better in terms of CO2

ikd

The place that most of these studies fall is that they do not sufficiently take into account the benefits that toxic air pollution of electric vehicles and, in particular, spatial dependence. The effects of pollution on health are much greater in heavily polluted urban centers (including London) than in less contaminated, small towns or rural areas.

madkiwi

Although electric vehicles currently rely on polluting power plants in the future, they may become more user friendly, as alternative sources are developed. I see electric vehicles to not be perfect, but have much more potential than cars pollute IC always, no matter how effective they are.

Guess11

The study did not look beyond "average use" vehicles for calculating numbers. No comparative figures especially at low speeds in urban stop-start operation. All these factors contribute significantly to electricity.

11:40

Here is another e-mail Guillaume Majeau-Bettez, one of the authors of the article that you follow the reaction readers below:

Your readers are

criticism

The question is recycling center (see my previous post).

ikd: The lack of urban waste is certainly a strong argument in favor of electric cars. Human toxicity, our study focuses on a portion of the difference between emissions in densely populated and sparsely populated, although it could certainly be improved. However, we can not assume that toxicity in humans, as against the toxic effects on aquatic organisms and ecosystems

@ Seb: This is one of our main conclusions: that the production of an electric car produces about twice the climate impact of the production of a comparable conventional car, you have to work clean electricity to "equalize" the initial impact climate

later Seb @:. Any energy requirements phase is based on industry benchmarks with the European driving cycle, after the 101 EEC Council Regulation (EEC 2005). These tests are combined four elementary urban

driving cycles and extra urban cycle driving and regenerative power losses overnight charge included for recharging electric vehicles.

Guess11:. Industry standard as we base our evaluation of the use phase in the "New European Driving Cycle", which includes a stop-start kind

As many readers pointed out, the electric car industry is young and is likely to improve in the future. We studied the current generation of electric cars, refrained from making predictions.

Dialogue
well.

11:52

just received this response from a spokesman for the League of automakers and dealers

electric vehicle is an option in a set of technologies that help drivers reduce their emissions. The automotive industry manufactures - or are developing - a wide range of low-emission vehicles and low-carbon and high-efficiency gasoline and diesel models, in essence, biofuels, hydrogen, hybrids, plug-in hybrid cell electricity and clean fuel vehicles. Each year, the latest powertrain technologies see reduced emissions with new cars today emit on average 20% less than their counterparts 10 years. Major investments are underway, with R & D in the world feed the continuous improvement of existing technologies and the introduction of other low-carbon innovations.

Regarding the life cycle emissions of electric vehicles, the energy industry in Europe is constrained by legal limits on the total amount of CO2 emitted each year until 2020 ( EU Emissions Trading Scheme 2009/29/EC). This limit is reduced each year to achieve an overall reduction in CO2 emissions. This means, in practice, an increase in global energy demand due to electric vehicles (or for any other reason), then the increase in demand must be met for the production of electricity from renewable sources renewable or carbon neutral.

addition, measures such as the Directive on renewable energy in the EU, which requires 20% renewable energy by 2020 are positive strategies to achieve the reduction of CO2 emissions while European emissions Trade Plan requires electricity suppliers to reduce global CO2 emissions.

24:11

Robert Wilson, University of Strathclyde Department of Mathematics, raises an important point below the line:

Just decarbonisation of electricity

assuming no increase demand seems to be a big challenge. Our choice seems to be between increases in energy efficiency in transport, the transition from fossil fuels to "clean" and efforts for public transport more, or looking for something like 100% electric vehicles. The first approach guarantees a certain level of success. The second, however leave the grid completely if it is not completely decarbonise. What we need to do here is to rethink the issue, and instead do not wonder if electric cars are bad for the environment, but how many of them are harmful to the environment.

kilometers per kilometer, electric cars in China surpassed conventional vehicles as one of the worst environmental pollutants. The average fine particle emissions per passenger-km are 3.6 times higher for electric cars than gasoline cars. This is better than diesel cars, but on par with diesel buses, which can spread through the environmental impact of the number of passengers they carry. "If we compare the emissions from petrol cars emission electric vehicles, electric cars are very, very bad," says Christopher Cherry, assistant professor of civil and environmental engineering at the University of Tennessee. "So the fact is that you have to consider when exposure to emissions from source of exposure is by far -. Plant compared to the exhaust pipe of a car "

24:30

As background reading, I examined the question of whether "electric cars actually emit less "before. I also studied the issue raised by UHF101 on" fear of ".

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