Electric Vehicles Are Not Zero Emissions – But They Are Much Greener Than Fossil Fuel And Hydrogen

Electric Vehicles Are Not Zero Emissions – But They Are Much Greener Than Fossil Fuel And Hydrogen

Share to Linkedin Now that COP26 is almost upon us, there is a lot of visibility for climate change-related stories in the mainstream UK news. But thanks to the many vested interests in the energy sector, there is also a lot of misinformation flying around, particularly on social media. One of the most frequent myths you will encounter is that conventional fossil fuel-powered cars and their hybrid siblings are really less-CO2-emitting than EVs, because of the emissions from electricity generation. In this article, I'm going to explode that myth and show that another green contender, hydrogen, isn't such a zero CO2 option as it claims either. Are battery-electric vehicles really as green as evangelists say? I'm talking here about the emissions of individual vehicles. There are other factors from manufacturing, which I will address later. But let's start at the tailpipe, beginning with a regular internal combustion vehicle. A Volkswagen Golf 1. 0 TSI is a frugal car, officially emitting 124g/km of CO2. However, we should also consider the CO2 generated by producing the fuel used by this car. This lengthy process varies in emissions depending on where the oil is produced, starting with getting oil to the refinery, refining