EV Myths #6 EV Batteries are Worse than ICE vehicle Emissions

This is a frequent, misinformed, statement: “The batteries in EVs are worse for the environment than a gas or diesel vehicle.”   

There is *some* truth to that statement, as making an EV battery is an energy intense process in the mining, refining, and building processes, but that is not the whole story. 

First off, let us set things up to ensure we are talking ‘apples to apples’ when comparing EVs to Legacy ICE vehicle emissions by taking two similarly sized all-wheel drive vehicles- the excellent BMW X3 M40i and the Tesla Model Y Dual Motor Long Range.  

Both vehicles have all wheel drive; remarkably similar horsepower; almost the same interior space (the Tesla 5% greater) and weigh a similar amount (the BMW being 1% lighter).  

Considering that 27% of the Tesla’s weight is the battery, this demonstrates just how much lighter the rest of the vehicle is. If we exclude the battery from the CO2/GHG calculation at this point and say both vehicles took the same amount of energy to build (probably less for the battery-less EV but forget that for the sake of comparison) we can calculate the how much more emissions the EV required to build compared to the BMW. 

Transport & Environment’s 2022 study found that, depending on where the battery materials were sourced and made, there was a 50 kg to 100 kg CO2 penalty per kWh of battery capacity. Using 75kg as an average, the Model Y battery with 80kWh of capacity required 6,000 kg of CO2 to build and thus has this deficit compared to its BMW cousin. If both vehicles never drove a kilometer after that one could say that ICE is better for the environment than an EV, but what would be the point? 

 The ICE BMW burns through 10.1L of gas every 100 km and each liter emits 2.3kg of CO2 which over the Canadian average of 15,000 km per year means 3500 kg of CO2, and over ten years 35,000 kg of CO2.  

The EV Tesla uses an average of 17kWh of electricity from our BCH grid (at 0.01kg/kWh) and over a full year of driving would emit 25.5kg and over ten years 255 kg of CO2. Those mathematically gifted would have observed that the ICE car emissions passed the EV about 20 months after they both hit the road and never looked back ending up at the ten-year mark emitting 28,745 more kg of CO2.  

That ICE vehicle will stay on the road for a total of 15 years before retirement and have emitted 52,500 kg MORE than the EV by its end of life. 

But wait; what if the EV was on the worst grid for emissions in Canada (0.523 kg/kWh in SK)? That would be not as great, but the total after 15 years the EV would still emit 22,500 kg less than the ICE vehicle. Oh, and what happens to the EV’s battery? It goes on to several decades of service in stationary energy storage or gets fully recycled and produces far less CO2/GHG than it took for production from virgin material. 

 So, another noxious EV myth is debunked.