EV’s have been hailed as a major step towards a cleaner, greener world, maybe even the transportation of choice for the second coming. I’ve been a huge fan of EV for decades, so with baby 3 on the way I went on a quest to find the ultimate, efficient baby-hauler to replace our Prius WITHOUT sacrificing on fuel efficiency. (Spend my hard-earned money on GAS? Good day, sir!). The findings? Some uncomfortable truths about the big green promise, and a few ways to address the drawbacks of EV.
THE PROBLEM with Cars
Gas and diesel vehicles putter along, stinking up the air, climate change, lung disease, cancer, apocalyptic doom etc. You’ve heard it all before, right? Maybe not. Not much is said about those little oil-slick puddles our poorly potty-trained gas burners leave behind, and the crashes, hospitalizations and fatalities they cause (especially for motorcyclists). Or how air pollution might lower student test scores. Or work-related deaths and injuries in the oil industry. It’s fair to say that the downside to the internal combustion engine (ICE) is big, complex, and not always obvious. Despite everything petroleum has done for humanity, most people suspect we can do better than 1.5 billion combustion engines (finely tuned in backyards around the planet) all exploding fossil fuel at efficiencies ranging from around 50% on the “good” end, to 20% or less on the end that makes a pile of burning tires proud.
THE SOLUTION? EV!
I’ve been annoying friends and family with EV geek talk since it was mostly DIY nerds in their garages “upgrading” their cars with washing machine motors and lead-acid batteries. Why? Because EV’s provide a ton of advantages over ICE vehicles and solve some of the major problems they face. Some of these benefits are obvious. No tailpipe = no local air pollution. Obvious. Huge performance, durability and maintenance gains. Not on everyone’s radar, but no secret. Most loudly proclaimed and “obvious” of all are the environmental gains. In addition to not sputtering out exhaust, they give us fuel source options, a revolutionary change worthy of it’s own post (coming soon).
HOORAY FOR EV! LONG LIVE EV! …But dangit if there ain’t always a but.
THE PROBLEM WITH THE SOLUTION
Of course there are some problems with the EV solution. In no particular order:
MINING VS DRILLING
I worked in a mine once. Appartently it can be seen from orbit. The dump trucks are big enough to drive over a house carrying a pile of monster trucks in back. Impressive, but… it’s a frikkin huge hole in the planet. A constant stream of lead-and-arsenic-laden tailings goes out to the desert for reburial (although plenty of it ends up in the local air). Sure, the petroleum industry is a mess too (worked in that industry too), but let’s just keep in mind that we’re trading liquid mining of petroleum for solid mining of lithium, copper, cobalt etc., and that much of this is done in nations with human and environmental standards that might raise eyebrows elsewhere. I’d love to hear people’s thoughts on how they compare, because I don’t think it’s a cut-and-dried trade-off.
THE GRID
Much of the electrical grid is old, decrepit and known to the state of California to burn down communities. Or dependent on power sources that just dry up. Oops. And many experts predict that this won’t be getting better anytime soon, let alone with the adoption of EV’s. There’s much we can do, like load-scheduling, micro-grids, residential solar, etc, so I’m not saying the sky is falling or anything, but it’ll take some thinkin’, investment, motivating, time and effort.
MANUFACTURING
EV batteries require a lot of toxic chemicals, heavy metals and energy inputs. Lacking big lithium batteries, ICE vehicles don’t need things like lithium, cobalt, etc. Again, let’s plug this into our equation.
And then there are China’s questionable labor and environmental practices. Just kiddin, those aren’t questionable. They’re unquestionably bad by our standards! And while domestic EV production is growing in the USA, China is still the big player in all things EV and it’s hard to avoid parts from China, especially battery cells (another good reason to avoid long-range EV’s unless you really actually factually need them). Some manufacturers are better than others, so take this into consideration when buying.
BATTERY FIRES
To be quite honest, lithium sorta spontaneously combusts. Of course, the C in ICE is for combustion, something those are doing all the time. It’s no surprise that ICE vehicles burn up much more often than EV’s do, but still, battery fires do happen. When EV battery fires do happen, they can create highly toxic metal oxides and hydrofluoric acid that can end up in the water used to extinguish them, which must be contained and disposed of as hazardous waste. ICE fires aren’t pretty either, but their smoke output isn’t quite the chemical cocktail that lithium batterey fires are.
RANGE
People drive, on average, less than 30 miles per day. Google’s Bard says we exceed 200 miles on 1% to 5% of our drives. And while AI’s are known to be quite “creative” with their “facts”, the basic premise is obviously true. You almost never need more than 50 miles of range. But then you go and get a hankerin to drive to the mountains, and now you’ve got yourself a case of the range anxiety, ya knothead! Well, there’s a cure for range anxiety. Read on.
CARRYING CAPACITY
One thing they need to teach in high-school sex ed classes is that foolin around can really limit your future car-buying options. Once you have that third carseat to cram in, good luck! Sure, there are plenty of ICE minivans and full-size SUV’s to choose from, but what if your last car was a Prius and/or the thought of getting less than 50 MPG makes you cry? While EV options have flourished, your choices are almost entirely limited to 5 seats or less. Toyota even saw fit to DROP the center seat in the RAV4. That’s how much they want your business, baby #3.
SOLUTIONS TO THE PROBLEMS WITH THE SOLUTION
THE GRID FIX
EV haters have long complained that the grid is insufficient to handle the load EV’s will put on it, but the sky is still not falling. Beyond ongoing grid upgrades there are several things we can do to maximize the grid we have.
GRID FIX 1: BECOME THE GRID
Despite all of the cheesy ads that make solar seem like a complete con, it actually does pay off for many (though not all) people. If you’ve read our article on what to look out for you know it CAN be an amazing deal for the planet AND your bank account. Because A) Thank you taxpayers! And B) duh, your roof is literally cooking with free energy. And once you go solar, you can never un-see the millions of dumb roofs baking in wasted free energy. Replacing your power bill with a lower solar loan is usually a no-brainer that can make you, the grid and the world happier.
GRID FIX 2: SCHEDULING
Our grid is designed to easily handle PEAK loads that are only seen twice per day and even the rare spike. The rest of the time the grid is underused. Obviously, scheduling demand is the first step, and since every gadget these days is “smart” (even wood stoves), achieving load-leveling through scheduling is relatively trivial. This is something that utilities around the world have caught on to and are incentivizing. Power price inflation has made the “everything else inflation” look like child’s-play, and this is predicted to continue. But this 25% or so inflation is mainly seen during peak hours, while off-peak hours remain cheap. Smart energy consumers are catching on and scheduling their demand in response, preserving their finances, maximizing the grid we have and helping to keep the sky from falling. Slapping a battery on your home power system makes load-scheduling even easier, AND gives your house superpowers like barely noticing blackouts, and the ability to fast-charge an EV.
GRID FIX 3: MICROGRIDS
Something a little bit beyond the control of most of us is the ability of local energy sources like solar, wind, solid waste etc to make the current grid paradigm obsolete. Why transport energy throughout regions (losing 60% OF POWER ALONG THE WAY!!!) when each town or even neighborhood can create its own power microgrid, independent from that dam or nuclear reactor over in the next state? This is happening to some degree, and hopefully is a sign of things to come. Stay tuned for our captivating article on the emerging clean power revolution!
THE BATTERY FIRE FIX
The odds are low, but the stakes are high, so be prepared for an EV battery fire. (Kinda rhymed there!) Here are some basic tips to make the EV experience even more pleasant:
- Relax. EV battery fires are about one quarter as common (and deadly) as ICE vehicle fires, according to the National Fire Protection Association. Phew! Yet another reason EV is better! FWIW, scooters and eBikes are WAY more likely to experience battery fires.
- Lithium fires aren’t handled the same as gas & diesel fires. Prepare accordingly.
- Crashes are the main cause of EV fires, so try to keep your crashing to a minimum. Battery fires are also more likely to happen while under load or charging, so fire protection in your garage (if you charge it there) might not be a bad idea.
- Some battery chemistries are less volatile than li-ion, and manufacturing practices matter. If you prefer safety over range, research model safety data and history, rather than just the range bragathon of automakers.
THE MINING & MANUFACTURING FIX
We may not be able to switch to free-range organic EV’s, but the makes and models approved for tax credits are at least somewhat locally grown due to “Made (partially) in the USA” requirements. If the model you like isn’t on the list of qualifying vehicles, it doesn’t necessarily mean it’s on some “naughty” list. They can also be excluded for various bean-counting reasons.
THE CARBON FOOTPRINT FIX
Sure, we shouldn’t forget that EV’s have their own issues we should continue to work on, but you’d be hard-pressed to find an EV that is worse for the environment than an ICE vehicle. But some manage it anyway, and it’s usually because they’re Lithium Hogs!
If you’re one of those obsessive-compulsive people for whom pretty good is the new horrible, here are some ideas for squeezing every last greenie point out of your EV!
- Don’t fall victim to Range Anxiety Fever.
- Don’t let the power go to your head. Drive like a normal human. (or better?)
- Install solar on your home and stop letting all that free sun-money go to waste!
- Buy the car you love, maintain it, drive it forever.
- When you’re done maxing out your EV gains, explore other things. Wanna save practically the whole planet with just a piece of string? Read our article on the hulk-like power of clotheslines!
SUMMARY
It’s true that EV’s aren’t perfect, but they are an evolutionary leap above ICE vehicles and a major upgrade for the vast majority of the trips we take. There’s also much we can do to address the issues they do have, and EV’s will also keep getting better if we keep choosing better.
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Regards,
James
Oh ya, I almost forgot to address RANGE, CAPACITY, ETC.
For anyone who’s curious, we ended up with a plug-in hybrid Chrysler Pacifica. Yes, the manly little devil on my shoulder told me to get an SUV with awesome ground clearance so we could do awesome testosterone things in it, but the other devil on my other shoulder was like “Dude, look at all the space in that minivan! There’s room for, like, 6 babies in that bad boy!” Our “PacHy” also represents the best solution to the range dilemma AND the overall carbon footprint climate change issues, for all of the reasons laid out in the thrilling sequel, “LITHIUM HOGS: How EV’s are Destroying the Planet!”
