> It is still more environmental friendly to drive that 10 year old used tincan than to buy a new electric car.
No it isn't, what do you base this on? Production of a new electric van takes a limited amount of CO2, and the CO2 saved while driving it compensates for that within a couple of years. I don't know how this rumor still persists.
I drive maybe 1500 miles per year and if I calculate in petrol usage for the next 10 years where a car wasn't produced for me, it will use less CO2 overall.
Since I live where the electric grid is already at the limit, my options to install a charger are limited as well. I could use 230V 16A to maybe charge it very slowly...
Batteries also degrade with age and we will have to see how a used car market will look like. I have a car for luxury only since my work is a few hundred meters away.
If you buy a new car anyway, an EV would be a good choice provided you have the means to charge it. Many people in the cities don't have that option. But it wouldn't be too helpful if you replace your current car just for the sake of it.
1500 miles a year is a huge caveat to your earlier prouncement. Of course if you drive rarely^, an existing ICE vehicle could result in less emissions than building an entirely new EV.
^Average annual KMs driven by Europeans is 12k, Americans average 15k Miles a year.
You can't simultaneously posit that you drive 1500 miles a year, and then complain about the charging speed. 1500 miles a year doesn't need 230V 16A. You would achieve the level of charging speed literally with a laptop charger.
It depends how much running around you do and how much CO2 the energy mix where you live generates. For someone doing a few thousand miles per year it could easily be the case that a new car would never pay off the additional CO2 emissions during it's manufacturer.
Of course you can then make argument that they aren't doing enough mileage to justify having their own car in the first place.
I would go so far as to say it's a sunk cost fallacy to run the old carbon emitting car even one more mile.
There is no savings to be had by waiting to convert to an EV, the total emissions are always going to be higher if you drive the polluting car rather than switching today.
That’s demonstrably false. Each EV is an immediate ~13k kg hit on CO2. Average ICE passenger car is .4 kg CO2 per mile. Even if you have a source of zero carbon energy to power the EV, that’s 32500 miles of driving an ICE before you break even on CO2.
Note the "choose a state" and compare Wyoming or West Virginia for a regular hybrid car (e.g. Prius or Insight) to an EV... and that is quite different than if you pull up California, Oregon, or Washington.
In WY and WV, the plugin hybrids have a larger carbon footprint than a regular ICE hybrid car (Prius or Insight).
Only if the electricity is net zero carbon though (and, really, only if the generation of that low-carbon electricity somehow is related to driving the car and wouldn't have been generated anyway).
Why does it have to be net zero? That would certainly get you to breakeven in less miles but it is by no means a requirement for an EV having a carbon advantage over an ICE.
According to the Energy Dept site listed upthread, even in WV with 92% coal generation an EV emits half the CO2 per mile as an ICE.
You really have to consider all the variables, ie grid carbon intensity, miles driven and car manufacturing. People seem to get focused on one of the variables in the carbon lifecycle.
You could always move somewhere energy generation isn't so dirty especially as its probably also effecting your air quality not to speak of the employment options.
I have been able to avoid travelling by car[0], but I have the luck of being in a city with good public transport and local-sized shops, so there are 5 tram stops (and several bus stops and a suburban rail station) and 8 supermarkets closer to me than the gap between the middles of Apple's south car park and their duck pond.
And back in Cambridgeshire, roads were quiet enough I was comfortable commuting (and shopping) by bike.
Not everyone is in such a well-designed place.
[0] I don't own a car, and the last time I was behind a wheel was, I think, 2017.
such comparsions are mostly stupid, since there are too many factors that would make it really hard to analyze. i.e. as long as cars are produced the 13k kg hit on co2 will be made no matter if you buy it or not, your old ice car will probably be resold and probably to somebody that can than save co2 emissions per mile, not every electricity is green, your old card was probably produced with more co2, it depends if you upgrade/downgrade/keep your car class, it depends how you drive (and if you ever driven an ev, you will see that its easier to drive it economically), and so on.
of course the plain numbers might make sense on paper but not on the real world.
No it isn't, what do you base this on? Production of a new electric van takes a limited amount of CO2, and the CO2 saved while driving it compensates for that within a couple of years. I don't know how this rumor still persists.