The widespread adoption of electric vehicles has been rising at a shocking rate, and global electric vehicle sales are predicted to increase by 35 percent to over 14 million this year. This seems to show that many people are believing that switching to electric cars is a beneficial change to the environment. A key reason for this is the fact that vehicles produce a lot of greenhouse gases such as CO2, methane, and nitrous oxides. For example, in the US, about 20 percent of all CO2 emissions come from cars and trucks. However, only a few people are actually concerned about the feasibility and effectiveness of this switch. According to Mr. Signoriello, a three-decade veteran at MMAL, the harsh reality of this change is that it is going to cost billions of dollars and a very long period of time to upgrade one country’s energy network into a cleaner one. Switching to electric vehicles is therefore not the most effective solution as most electricity is not clean, electric vehicles will use up resources on Earth, and there are limitations to what is currently available with electricity.
To begin with, one of the most important reasons why people should not switch to electric vehicles is that most energy sources are still unclean. Electric vehicles must be charged using electricity from the grid, but most countries still generate their electricity using fossil fuels. This means that when people charge an electric vehicle, they are essentially charging it by using fossil fuels. Therefore, switching to electric vehicles does not actually mean reducing CO2 emissions. Instead, people are just moving the emissions from the vehicle to the power station. Until the energy generation is switched to cleaner sources, electric vehicles will not be eco-friendly. For instance, in South Korea, fossil fuel usage for energy production in 2021 accounted for about 67 percent of all sources used for electricity generation in that same year.
Moreover, switching to electric vehicles will accelerate resource depletion and cause harm through mining. Constructing an electric vehicle requires large amounts of specialist minerals and metals, and the more electric vehicles are built, the more minerals are needed. One problem here is that many of these minerals, such as lithium, cobalt, and Rare-Earth Minerals, are difficult to mine and cause a lot of environmental damage. To meet the demands for these difficult-to-obtain minerals, human exploitation will inevitably take place in places like the Democratic Republic of Congo, offsetting a lot of benefits of electric vehicles. The countries where these human exploitations occur tend to be poor countries while it is usually the rich countries that benefit from this. For example, in the DRC, people are often crammed together with 10,000 other people and ordered to mine thousands of kilograms of cobalt for almost no wages.
Lastly, there are very limited charging points available for electric vehicles, which tend to suffer from short ranges. The world is set up for regular vehicles; gas stations are everywhere so they are easy to find, meaning that it is easy for regular vehicle users to refuel their cars. In contrast, charging points for electric vehicles are relatively rare, especially outside big cities. Adding on, installing more charging points is complex and expensive as very big electrical cables and loads of infrastructure are required to build them. Furthermore, electric vehicles have a limited range; they cannot drive as far as regular vehicles. Also, electric vehicles are slow to recharge; while regular cars take minutes to recharge, electric cars take several hours. Therefore, this makes electric vehicles unsuitable for people who live in the countryside or drive long distances. To illustrate, for the 2021 model year, the median driving range of all electric vehicles was 234 miles while the median range for gasoline vehicles was 403 miles. This clearly shows the relative lack of range for electric vehicles compared to regular cars.
Despite these clear downsides, some people argue that regular cars should be replaced by electric vehicles as the change can lead to other technological developments too. One example of these claimed developments is that lithium batteries improved through the development of electric cars can be used in cellphones. However, the harms people will have to face to reach these technological developments outweigh the possible benefits. The amount of pollution emitted and the resources wasted, such as lithium, cobalt, and manganese, will be significant as it takes a long period of time for a new technology to be fully developed and stabilised. When current phone batteries are working properly, it is not worth going through all the risks and downsides for an unnecessary and non-urgent benefit.
Another point proponents of electric cars claim is that switching to electric cars will lead to less reliance on fossil fuels. In particular, they argue that a country such as South Korea relying on foreign imports for fossil fuels will result in instability as prices can fluctuate a lot, making the country vulnerable to geopolitical events. However, the situation would not be very different when regular vehicles are switched to electric vehicles since the price of electricity will increase significantly. At present, the electrical grid is simply not ready as it is based on our current electrical usage; if everyone suddenly starts using electric vehicles, electricity usage is going to shoot up. Therefore, current power stations will not be able to cope and building new power stations takes years or decades. Even if new power stations are built, the existing cables are not big enough to carry all of the electricity, meaning that we would need to replace or upgrade the entire grid. As a result, due to rising demand and a lack of availability, the price of electricity will soar. This will result in notable limitations in travelling and transporting goods to different places.
Switching to electric vehicles might seem feasible and beneficial at first glance. However, this change does not automatically lead to the usage of clean energy sources, there are supply limitations for critical minerals which will result in huge resource depletion and human exploitation. It is true that there are some potential benefits such as reduced reliance on fossil fuels and less exposure to geopolitical turmoil in the long-term if people switch to electric vehicles. However, the challenges we need to face for that positive future are too big to overcome. The harms that will inevitably occur throughout the process will outweigh the benefits we may receive. Therefore, it would be a wiser decision to start with hybrid cars that do not require a complete revolution of our energy systems and thereby will be better matched to the currently available supply.
Yehee Jung
Content Creator
