LostKiwi
Senior Member
- Joined
- Aug 25, 2006
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- '93 500SL-32, '01 W210 Estate E240 (RIP), 02 R230 SL500, 04 Smart Roadster Coupe, 11 R350CDi
I would be more impressed with those graphs if they were comparing apples with apples. The CO2/km for diesels isn't a direct comparison to CO2/KWh for EVs. There is also insufficient detail in the data used; does "well to tank" include the carbon footprint of the ships used to move battery raw materials around the planet and the emissions from the various smelters and other processes involved in refining the Lithium? And don't forget, this isn't a once in a lifetime event as batteries are not lifed for the lifetime of the rest of the vehicle.
Whilst the emphasis is currently (and maybe correctly) on the health effects of vehicles in our towns and cities we appear to be ignoring the environmental devastation caused by mining the raw materials for Lithium-Iron batteries.
Read the article - it includes the full lifecycle of the vehicle including manufacturing batteries etc.
The simple fact is (which is quite well shown in my view) that a diesel car is worse on emissions than an electric car over its lifetime. The shipping of batteries would only be a relatively small component of any emissions in the total as the emissions of a ship are spread across a large number of vehicles.
No matter how much you may like your diesel it is destined to fade into obscurity, just as my petrol cars are.