Electric cars do not fight against air pollution

The world has long been enamoured with the idea of an electric car and now they are coming into being, countries around the world are holding them up as the ideal zero-emission vehicle. Barack Obama has promised that there will be a million cars in the US by 2015, whilst German Chancellor Angela Merkel stated that a million cars will be on the Autobahn before 2020.

Many countries offer subsidies in an effort to promote the electric car to buyers. The most impressive of these is the exempting of electric cars from Denmark's 180 per cent registration tax. This exemption is worth up to $63,000 (£41,000).

Unfortunately the electric car is not as environmentally friendly as it is believed, nor is it a cost effective alternative to petrol or diesel-fuelled vehicles. Research by the US Congressional Budget Office found that the average lifetime of an electric car is around $12,000 more than the lifetime cost of a petrol driven car. It is also reported that it will be 2026 before the cost of an electric car breaks even with the cost of a hybrid. 

Although whilst moving, electric cars produce zero emissions, the production process is not so beneficial in the fight against air pollution. The production of an electric car creates around half of the carbon dioxide emissions that it will cause throughout its lifetime. This amount is more than double the amount of emissions from the production of a petrol-powered car. This coupled with the fact that the electricity used to recharge these cars is mostly produced by the burning of fossil fuels - such as coal - means that an electric car must be driven a lot in order to make it worth the initial carbon dioxide emissions.

Those in support of electric cars cite the fact that an electric car will produce under half the carbon dioxide emissions of a petrol driven car in 180,000 miles. However they do not mention the fact that the battery will have to be replaced, perhaps a couple of times, before it reaches this target. Once again the production of spare parts for the electric car creates a large amount of emissions, making it even less environmentally friendly.

Due to the fact that electric cars require to be constantly charged - and so are not suitable for long journeys - many people only purchase them as second cars, choosing to use petrol or diesel powered cars for longer journeys. Only using electric cars for shorter journeys means that a single car will not be able to counteract the emissions created by its initial production.