Cost of Reducing CO2 with Electric Vehicles
Posted by Max Dunn Fri, 23 Jan 2009 15:33:00 GMT
There are some questions about whether electric vehicles (EVs) actually reduce the amount of CO2 emitted, especially when electricity is produced by coal. However, we have seen that EVs in clean energy states produce only 1/6 as much CO2, and even in the worst case, produce no more than a regular gas car.
Providing more evidence of this, a new study by Boston Consulting Group not only shows how much less CO2 electric vehicles produce, but also puts a figure on how much this costs:
While this report shows that the cost of reducing CO2 with electric vehicles is not cheap, costing between $7,000 and $14,000 to reduce CO2 in half, the CO2 savings far surpass anything possible with advanced gas (ICE) engines. And the CO2 emissions caused by electric vehicles is only going to get lower as electric power generation becomes cleaner and the premium for electric cars will continue to fall as batteries become cheaper.
(Reference: The Comeback of the Electric Car)
It is surprising that even when considering the fuel savings the electric vehicle will have, that it still has an ownership cost penalty – even when batteries get 4x cheaper in the future! Did I miss something? Also surprising is just how good “Advanced” diesel is – it achieves better than 30% CO2 reduction for a fraction of the incremental cost of electric.