One of the key value propositions of electric vehicles (EVs) for consumers—and the planet—is their ultralow carbon footprint once in operation. Unlike cars and commercial vehicles with internal-combustion engines, EVs do not produce direct tailpipe emissions from burning diesel and gasoline. But battery-powered EVs have a major emissions challenge of their own: production of the batteries themselves is a highly carbon-intensive process
Indeed, producing the large lithium-ion batteries used to power EVs is the biggest source of embedded emissions for both electric cars and trucks, accounting for about 40 to 60 percent of total production emissions, according to our estimation. In other words, making batteries can generate as much emissions as producing all the other materials that go into making an EV—or even more (Exhibit 1).Read More…
