How green are electric cars?

Synopsis

As countries around the world phase out the sale of new petrol and diesel cars, it is predicted that by 2030, there will be 145 million electric vehicles on the road, all fully emission-free at the tailpipe. However, while electric vehicles have lower total emissions compared to petrol and diesel cars, the humanitarian and environmental impacts of their manufacturing raise significant concerns. The production of electric vehicles generates up to 60 percent more carbon emissions than their petrol or diesel counterparts, primarily due to the mining and refining of rare metals like cobalt and lithium. For instance, extracting one tonne of lithium can produce between 5 and 15 tons of carbon. Additionally, the manufacturing process involves long carbon journeys, as raw materials are often shipped to China for refinement before being sent back for vehicle assembly. This process also leads to environmental issues, such as the loss of billions of liters of water from ecosystems during lithium refining and child labor concerns in cobalt mining in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. These factors complicate the transition to electric vehicles.