There has been a huge misinformation campaign to discredit electric vehicles that has created a poor level of knowledge about EVs among consumers, as the same lies are circulated again and again.
In a recent post on Reddit, one person highlighted their frustration at the sheer amount of misinformation about EV technology, including the myth that the production of EVs and their batteries causes much more pollution than internal combustion engine vehicles — making them not really green tech at all.
Posting in the r/ElectricVehicles subreddit, the person wrote that it is "ridiculous just how much misinformation there is" before asking if people ever stopped to think just how much pollution is associated with extracting, refining, and transporting the energy sources that are used to power ICE vehicles.
🗣️ Which of these factors is your biggest obstacle to purchasing an EV?
🔘 Cost concerns 💸
🔘 Range concerns 🪫
🔘 Performance concerns 😓
🔘 Already switched 😎
🗳️ Click your choice to see results and speak your mind
While EV batteries are environmentally costly to produce because of the mining of the materials used in them, this is still significantly less damaging than the mining of dirty energy sources used to power ICE cars. To support the transition to low-carbon technology, the world is currently mining 7.7 million tons of minerals per year, which is much lower than the 16.5 billion tons of coal, gas, and oil we are digging up annually, according to Sustainability by Numbers.
EVs are also much cleaner and cheaper to run, even if they are powered by electricity produced by dirty energy. For example, one study found that the pollution produced on a 408-mile round trip by an electric car was significantly less than that produced by a gas-powered vehicle. Charging an EV using renewable energy can reduce the pollution associated with your vehicle even more, according to Energy Star.
There are lots of other myths circulating around the production and use of EVs. Our article here helps debunk some of them.
While the original poster received lots of positive comments from other EV enthusiasts, some people chastised the person for not backing up their opinions with research.
"Do the math, or look up sources that have done it. That way you can actually speak to real facts, not feelings." wrote one commenter.
Another said: "The argument that EV's are worse for the environment is propaganda. There are numerous articles that work out the math."
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