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Comment by reducesuffering | Hacker News Reader

Imagine in 2021 thinking HN would be positively receptive to someone boasting about choosing a $75k S6 ICE, polluting over the next 20 years at 22mpg, over an EV. Money is not an issue and yet there's no mention of climate change, only that it was a "no-brainer."

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60% of US electricity still comes from Coal and Natural Gas [0], which are polluting. So, an EV is nothing more than an increase in mileage - it's not like it's suddenly Zero polluting, unless of course you're charging from at-home Solar.

Now of course I don't know the efficiency, or amount of pollutants (CO2 and other) released compare between gas engines and coal/natural gas power plants, so the actual increase in mileage and environmental benefit might be different, but it is certainly not 100%.

Has anyone come across any study that compares the two?

Public transport, remote working and so on have a much much larger impact IMHO.

[0] https://www.eia.gov/energyexplained/electricity/electricity-...

I'd be interested in this as well as the environmental impact and byproduct of Battery build and degradation.

Of course, and I never meant to imply an EV is a complete reduction of emissions. Even a solar-at-home EV still has tire emissions and all the carbon spent to manufacture and ship it. My condescension comes from this being a simple choice at the dealership, rather than the many harder, but still worthy, decisions to reduce emissions in transportation altogether.

Every car is a decision to pollute and use excess resources, it’s just a matter of scale. Even if you are lucky enough to have a clean source of electricity, you’re still contributing to the problem. Asphalt is made from oil and concrete releases co2, both of which are used to make the roads necessary for you to drive this vehicle around. Then there are the energy and resource inputs into the vehicle itself, the infrastructure built bigger for car driving distances, etc.

The better option is to not own a car at all, and walk/bike/transit your way around.

It’s 7.5 l/100km, which is 32 mpg if my math is correct.

Average city and highway usage is estimated to be 22mpg.[0]

[0]https://www.fueleconomy.gov/feg/Find.do?action=sbs&id=42615

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