Over 90% Of U.S. Would Drive Cleaner In EVs

What Are the Benefits of Switching from Gasoline-Powered Cars and Trucks to Electric?

David Reichmuth, July 25, 2022 (Union of Concerned Scientists)

Transportation is the largest source of global warming emissions in the US and the passenger cars, trucks, and SUVs produce the majority of transportation emissions…Electric vehicles (EVs) can eliminate tailpipe emissions altogether and so are an attractive option for reducing both global-warming and smog-forming air pollution.

While EVs can have no tailpipe emissions, there are emissions from electricity generation. There are also emissions from extracting the materials and the manufacturing processes required to make EVs…To compare driving on electricity versus gasoline, we need to consider all of the global warming emissions that occur in producing and using those fuels…

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For an EV that means: Emissions that result from raw-material extraction, such as coal mining and natural gas drilling…Emissions from delivering these fuels to power plants…Emissions from burning those fuels in power plants to generate electricity…Electricity losses that occur during distribution from power plants to the point where the electric vehicle is plugged in…[and]The efficiency of the vehicle in using electricity…

…[For comparable gasoline and diesel vehicles, emissions] result from: Oil extraction at the well…Transporting crude oil to a refinery…Refining oil into gasoline…Delivering fuel to gas stations…[and] Combusting fuel in the vehicle’s engine…

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Because of differences in electricity generation across the United States, the emissions produced from driving the average EV vary depending on where the vehicle is driven…Over 90 percent of people in the United State live where driving the average EV produces fewer global warming emissions than the most efficient gasoline vehicle (59 mpg)…

…While driving the average EV yields significant emissions savings, the more efficient the EV, the greater the benefits of switching from gasoline to electricity. Driving the most efficient EV produces lower emissions than the most efficient gasoline car where 97 percent of the population lives…” click here for more

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