Are electric cars more environmentally friendly? We are looking for an answer to one of the most pressing questions of our time. Automatic translate

Electric cars may seem like a new phenomenon, but the story begins long before Tesla’s first car hit the streets in 2008. William Morrison, an eccentric American chemist from Des Moines, Iowa, toiled for years in a secret basement laboratory he called “the cave,” and in 1890 demonstrated the result of his solitude—the first practical, self-propelled, four-wheeled electric carriage. The six-passenger car had a top speed of 22 km/h and was little more than an electrified carriage, but its breakthrough helped usher in the first golden age for electric vehicles.

Over the next few years, electric vehicles from various automakers began appearing throughout the United States. New York even had a fleet of more than 60 electric taxis. By 1900, electric cars had reached their peak, accounting for about a third of all cars on the road.

However, slow speeds, heavy batteries and Ford’s mass production of the Model T dealt a serious blow to the electric vehicle industry. The Model T, introduced in 1908, made gasoline-powered automobiles widely available and inexpensive. By the 1920s, the United States had improved road systems connecting cities, and with the discovery of Texas oil, gasoline became cheap and accessible to rural America.

Despite a number of false dawns in the 20th century, including General Motors’ impressive but commercially unviable EV1 car in the mid-1990s, public interest in electric vehicles only returned in the early 2000s as concerns about carbon dioxide emissions, and Tesla Motors, a small Silicon Valley company, has announced the production of a luxury electric sports car that can travel more than 200 miles on a single charge.

Tesla’s subsequent success and the global push for net-zero carbon emissions have irreversibly changed the auto industry. General Motors has said it aims to stop selling new gasoline-powered cars and light trucks by 2035 and switch to battery-powered models. In 2021, Volvo said it will move even faster and introduce an all-electric range by 2030.

Authorities in many countries encourage citizens to purchase electric vehicles by providing various benefits. For example, in Russia, owners of electric vehicles are exempt from transport tax, have free travel on toll roads, various free charging methods, and upon purchase are provided with a very significant subsidy from the state. Taking into account this subsidy, today you can buy Evolute (the first Russian brand of serial electric vehicles) in Moscow at a price no different from cars with internal combustion engines.

But as electric cars and trucks become mainstream again, they face a persistent question: How green are they?

Overall, most electric vehicles sold today produce significantly fewer planet-damaging emissions than gasoline-powered vehicles. However, a lot depends on how much coal is burned to charge plug-in cars. Greenhouse gas emissions are higher for an electric vehicle in "year zero" of car ownership due to emissions associated with battery production, but this (excess carbon debt) can be paid off depending on where the vehicle’s break-even point is over its lifespan.

A simple illustration of the break-even carbon debt of an electric compared to a conventional internal combustion engine car can be provided by the Nissan Leaf EV in the UK, one of the most highly efficient electric vehicles available on the market today, emitting 76 grams of carbon dioxide equivalent, about 3 times lower than emissions over the life of an average conventional car.

Although battery production will result in a carbon debt in ’year zero’ of Nissan Leaf ownership, using the average carbon intensity of UK electricity over the last two years of ~223gCO2e/kWh in year zero and gradually improving towards the 2030 target of 100gCO2e/kWh, this debt will be paid off in less than two years of driving.

However, in countries with much higher carbon intensity of the energy system, the payback period comes much later. For example, in China, where the average grid carbon intensity in 2021 was 541 gCO2e/kWh, the Nissan Leaf will only pay off its excess carbon debt in 7 years.

The good news for EVs is that most countries are now pushing to clean up their power grids. In the United States, utilities have retired hundreds of coal-fired power plants over the past decade and switched to low-emission natural gas, wind and solar power. As a result, electric cars are becoming cleaner.

Like many other batteries, the lithium-ion (Li-ion) cells that power most electric vehicles use raw materials such as lithium, cobalt and rare earth elements, the extraction of which is associated with serious environmental problems and human rights violations.

Lithium mining in Chile and Argentina has been criticized because the element is found in salt deserts. Lithium mining in salt marshes is reportedly causing droughts in local areas, threatening local livestock and plant farms. Exporting mined lithium from Australia to China for processing is also discouraged, further unbalancing the supply chain.

Cobalt mining produces hazardous tailings and slags that can leach into the environment, and studies have found high levels of exposure to cobalt and other metals in nearby communities, especially among children. Extracting metals from ore also requires a process called smelting, which can release sulfur oxide and other harmful air pollutants.

Automakers are promising to develop batteries with less cobalt or eliminate it altogether. Sodium-ion batteries (SIBs) may be the closest and most viable option to replace lithium-ion batteries, and are currently being developed by CATL, one of the world’s largest battery manufacturers, to power future electric vehicles.

Sodium resources are richer, have an even global distribution, and unlike lithium-ion batteries, SIBs do not require lithium, cobalt, copper and nickel. However, their prospects depend on potential scientific breakthroughs, since SIBs are not yet capable of storing enough energy.

Despite the challenges ahead, electric vehicles have the lowest lifecycle greenhouse gas emissions of any vehicle technology. As electricity becomes less carbon-intensive in the coming years, life-cycle greenhouse gas emissions will only decline, making them a “clean winner.” There is currently no realistic path to deep decarbonization of ICE vehicles within the timeframe set by the Paris targets, making electric vehicles potentially the single lowest greenhouse gas emitting technology today and for the foreseeable future.

One hundred and forty years after William Morrison created a self-propelled, four-wheeled electric carriage, electric vehicles have become commonplace in major cities around the world, and they may well be at the forefront of efforts to achieve net-zero carbon emissions by mid-century.