Frugal and Energy Efficient Living

Last edited Wed Jun 17, 2020, 04:05 PM - Edit history (1)

as the carbon cost is already there, so you are not creating demand for a "new" vehicle.

I would also point out that EVs are on track to have much longer road life, since they have several orders of magnitude fewer moving parts. Electric motors can easily last up to 500K miles before failure, and battery packs are good for 80% capacity at 200K miles (there are some exception in early model Leaves (2011-2014).

After the battery pack is no longer suitable for an EV, it can have another decade's reuse powering a house, or for grid storage. So, you would have to amortize the carbon footprint over that time as well. After than, it can be recycled to recover graphite, cobalt, copper, manganese, aluminum and lithium.

Solar PVs do require GHG to create, but once created last 25+ years producing up to 80% of their rated capacity (they lose 1%-2% their first year, then about 0.5% a year thereafter. Also, there are tech upgrades in the work which will mean increased efficiency, longer life with lower degradation, and greener power source as manufacturing facilities begin using their own product. A prototype wind turbine made of layered interlocking wood is being set up in Sweden, and if successful, would dramatically lower the energy used to build and transport them.