Electric cars are emission-free – that’s good. But how does her life cycle assessment over the entire life cycle out of? So as an overall balance that takes into account factors such as battery production, the electricity mix and the consumption of raw materials? In order to be able to make a reliable statement, you not only have to consider the entire life cycle of the vehicles, but above all the electricity mix used for charging. And that’s where things get difficult – because it varies from country to country and from charging station to charging station.
To put it simply: Combustion engines are more environmentally and climate-friendly in manufacturing and production, electric cars in operation. This is shown by many studies, including those by the ADAC.
Why it is like that?
Because the Production of the batteries for electric cars the eco-balance strong burdened. She needs precious ones raw materials and especially rare earths, lithium, cobalt and platinum. In addition, the production of the battery is very energy intensive. But: the longer a battery lasts and the longer it is driven, the better the impact on sustainability. According to the ADAC study, the electric car wins after around 127,500 kilometers compared to the petrol engine (with the German electricity mix!).
It would be different if the electric car was exclusively green electricity would be driven: Then the balance would improve drastically and the electric car would already be more climate-friendly than the combustion engine after around 40,000 kilometers.
The crowd makes the difference
The ÖAMTC also makes analyzes that examine the life cycle of the cars. The emissionsthat a vehicle causes during production and when driving depend heavily on the Masse, i.e. the weight of the vehicle. Because mass needs more energy when driving, mass also needs a larger battery.
In the compact class does this mean, for example, that the electric VW ID.3 has an average value of 35 tons of CO over its life cycle2-Equivalent caused. This is followed by plug-in hybrids (e.g. a Toyota Prius 1.8) with around 40 tons of CO2-Equivalent and diesel (about Skoda Octavia 2.0 TDI) with a CO2-Equivalent of about 42 tons. Due to the lower consumption, they are both still well ahead of the petrol engine (e.g. BMW 118i), which produces approx. 53 tons of CO2-Equivalent caused. 15,000 kilometers per year and a service life of 16 years were assumed for this.
If you want to know more about it, you can use Green NCAP’s online tool: Here the CO2– Balance sheet can be retrieved for each car – www.greenncap.com