Many consider that electric cars produce no CO2. Well in operation this is true they do not, however when they are charged they take electrical energy from the electrical power grid which has in turn been generated by 80% fossil fuels. The upshot is that using an electric car will also produce CO2, but according to the calculations below it is about half that of a car powered by internal combustion and in the UK it could cost 3 times less than petrol! This is great, but the technology infrastructure for electric cars is still some time off, so don’t run off the car showroom yet!Taking a fairly small and efficient car, petrol (gasoline) or electric, it will require about 0.13 kWh of energy from the power source to drive it 1km at a reasonable speed.
| Internal car efficiency | Source energy required per km | Common fuel source unit of measure | Price per km | CO2/km | |
| Petrol | 20% | 0.65 kWh | 0.067l/km | 6.7 pence/km | 0.16 kg/km |
| losses mostly in the internal combustion process and in engine idle | Accounts for 80% internal losses | There are 9.67 kWh of energy in a litre of Petrol (Gasoline) | Based on £1 per litre | On full combustion 1 litre will produce about 2.4 kg of CO2 | |
| Electric | 80% | 0.16 kWh | 0.16 kWh (grid) | 1.9 pence/km | 0.07 kg/km |
| Losses mostly in the charge and discharge cycles of the battery some quote 83% | Accounts for 20% internal losses | Grid electrical energy | Based on an average grid price of 12 pence per kWh | The UK national grid emits 0.54 kg of CO2 per kWh supplied |
The electric car at worst should produce half as much CO2 as the petrol car. And with increases in renewable energy the use of nuclear for grid supply this will reduce further. Interestingly the price per km indicates considerable scope to increase the cost of grid supply electricity for cars, which could in theory pay for the increased cost of renewable energy supply.
The paper in the link is very goog and seems to me to be accurate, misses out the replacement costs of batteries however.
www.stanford.edu/group/greendorm/participate/cee124/TeslaReading.pdf
