How green is electric driving?

Electric car produces 35 percent less CO2

For many motorists, the high purchase price and the limited driving range, as well as the limited recharging options are important barriers in buying an electric vehicle. Contrastingly, the environmental friendliness of such electric vehicles remain a major incentive for many. However, a lot of people remain sceptical, because how environmentally friendly is such an electric car actually?

Passenger cars emit various harmful substances. Natuur & Milieu has drawn up a fact sheet in which you can see the impact of the various types of fuel on health (NOx and particulate matter) and the climate (CO2). CO2, also known as carbon dioxide, is by far the best-known harmful gas. It is not toxic in itself, but it does contribute to the greenhouse effect and thus to global warming.
A fully electric car does not produce any CO2 whilst being used. However, this means of transportion is not necessarily climate-neutral, since carbon dioxide is also released during the production of the battery itself. The same happens with electricity generation, although the way the electricity is generated does make a big difference.
Green energy does help

For example, wind or solar energy is much greener than electricity from an old-fashioned coal-fired power station. In our country, electricity is still mainly produced by means of a mixture of natural gas and coal. TNO has calculated that electricity costs an average of 447 grams of CO2 per kWh. If we were to use only ‘green’ energy for this purpose, harmful emissions would be reduced to 36 grams of CO2 per kWh.
If we, like TNO, assume that the electricity required to drive an electric car is generated using the current Dutch energy mix, the CO2 emissions of an electric vehicle per kilometre driven are on average some 35 to 55 percent lower than those of a comparable petrol-driven vehicle. Compared to hybrid petrol vehicles and conventional diesels, which have more favourable fuel consumption, the advantage is smaller, but still 30 to 50 percent.

Due to inventions such as the catalytic converter and the particulate filter, fuel cars have become increasingly cleaner in recent years. However, a significant amount of carbon dioxide is still released during the combustion process. A conventional car will never emit zero pollutants, but a car with an electric motor does have that potential. TNO’s calculations illustrate that electric vehicles that run on green electricity emit 85 percent less CO2 per kilometre than a fuel car. Consequently, such electric vehicles score high on sustainability, 3.

At local level, such as in inner cities and along busy roads, electric cars can already contribute to a cleaner environment as well. Additionally, an advantage of electric cars is that they are quieter than cars with internal combustion engines. As such, such vehicles immediately contribute to the reduction of noise-pollution on the local level. Whilst employees value electric lease cars with a 2, customers get a positive impression of the company by stating that it makes it sympathetic, 1.