Are EVs Better For The Environment

Are EVs (electric vehicles) better for the environment. This video reviews the key points of the article linked below from The Conversation. The viewer can make up their own mind to whether EVs are the perfect environmental option.
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Link to article: theconversation.com/the-world...
Intro music from royalty free RUclips music 'Pure Magic’ Chris Haugen
Outro music from www.bensound.com 'Retro Soul'
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[@ecopennylife]

How do you feel about this article? Should we head towards eBikes & electric micromobility or EV cars for local short trips & commutes?

[@seitenryu6844]

They do make interesting points, but I'd like to see more information about the volume of ebike or electric moped adoption. The main problems I see over the mid to longterm, is disposal or recovery of battery materials, and the trend towards designing ebikes for recreation vs durable vehicles. The battery and motor mounts change too rapidly, leading to waste and excessive costs.

[@ecopennylife]

Thanks for watching, my eBike has a quality Bosch motor and battery which hopefully is long-lasting (had for 5 years). In general as the batteries are much smaller there will be much less waste compared to full EV cars with huge battery packs. Hopefully Li-Ion batteries can be recycled in the future. You have a point, there is no standardisation for motors and batteries, even across the same manufacturer's line so broken motors can't be easily swapped out etc.

[@asharak84]

I both drive an EV and ride an EV for commuting. The bike is a lot more efficient, takes less space, causes less road damage etc and I entirely agree it's a better option in many many cases. That said, it's worth highlighting that I still own both - the manufacturing emissions of both still happened. The car has done more than enough miles already to make it greener than if I owned a combustion car, but if I could own no car that woulds be best - but it's not currently realistic to be carless with kids where I live. Given the statements made by some of the stuff you're commenting on it's probably worth mentioning a few things about EVs:
They're not necessarily heavier than equivalent class cars e.g. the model 3 is lighter on average than a roughly equivalent BMW 3 series. They do tend to be mostly larger cars though, so while it's fair to compare them with equivalent cars it's also missing that the lightest cars are mostly just absent from the EV world. They also don't take all that much in the way of rare minerals - most EVs sold now have 0 cobalt and the ratio is growing, lithium is used but isn't rare.
One thing I wish ebikes would do is adopt proper standards - so repairing, maintaining or replacing a battery, controller or motor would become properly viable. At the moment it's a very fragmented space and a lot of ebike components are going to get scrapped despite still being in fine working order just because some part of the bike broke.
On e-bikes something I enjoy as a wholly theoretical discussion - are they more or less efficient than a normal bicycle?
Two ways you can look at it:
- using electricity and being heavier, an ebike is clearly worse
- humans use food as an energy source and are very inefficient, so the ebike wins by a lot
For me I think it's a pointless comparison if a fun one - ebikes are awesome because they enable more journeys, while the food argument is predicated on not having an excess of calories to burn off. I know I go out for extra rides just for exercise. I am not eating extra to allow myself to do those rides, I'm doing those rides to cope with having eaten extra, clearly I should just eat less :'(

[@ecopennylife]

Thanks for your comment, I try to use my efficient diesel Forester for long trips & my eBike for short trips, the whole 'car only' mindset of governments & citizens needs to change in my opinion 🚴

[@asharak84]

@@ecopennylife absolutely, I'd love to no longer feel like I had to have a car!