Originally Posted by
84fiero
I recalled seeing this study recently.
https://www.dw.com/en/ifo-study-cast...als/a-48460328
It looked at not just generating electricity but the entire life cycle including manufacturing of the car and the battery, the latter being the biggest culprit. It's just one study but my impression is that there doesn't seem to be much independent research being done into accurately tracking and comparing the life-cycle emissions to one, determine what the best solutions are and two, encourage transparency so that improvements can be made.
There are also serious environmental and human rights concerns with the mining of raw materials and production of batteries...which of course reaches beyond cars to our cell phones, laptops, etc. but is required in much larger quantities for a vehicle.
If you're interested in a rebuttal to that study, here's one:
https://electrek.co/2019/04/22/study...esel-debunked/
For example, the original IFO study admits that the Tesla has lower ongoing emissions, but claims the lifetime difference is due to it's high environmental production cost. Even if you accept those costs without debate, the authors artificially inflate the lifetime impact by only considering a relatively short lifetime for the cars ("
The life cycle in terms of distance driven was arbitrarily set at 150,000 kilometers (93,205 miles)"). This will, of course, reduce the percentage impact of the ongoing emissions - emissions which would be far worse for the combustion cars.
In addition, the results are very German centric - quoting from the article: "
The fact that the carbon count tips clearly in favor of combustion engines is primarily the result of Germany's fossil-fuel-heavy energy production, the researchers however say". In other words, the applicablilty of this study to non-German audiences is questionable at best.