But there’s your first, oversimplified answer. Over a 180,000-mile life of a vehicle, fully electric vehicles will produce fewer greenhouse gas emissions. Plug-in hybrids are next best, then regular hybrids, then internal combustion engines.

What’s the catch?

We don’t live in a vacuum. Cars don’t always work as intended. And a tweak in the life of a car can have a big influence on the total emissions.

The base carbon footprint of producing an electric car and its battery, transporting it to consumers and scrapping the vehicle remains the same. So if those cars aren’t driven to the full 180,000 miles, their per-mile carbon dioxide emissions increase.

“How many electric cars do you see that are 15 years old or 16 years old?” Nunes said.

However, Don MacKenzie, an associate professor of civil and environmental engineering at the University of Washington, expressed optimism that EVs currently on the road can indeed last those 180,000 miles.

How your electricity is generated matters too. Charging your EV with power generated at a coal plant won’t cut emissions as much as those that use hydropower, wind or solar farms.

There’s another factor, perhaps the most important one: cost.

First, there are the emissions reductions for every dollar spent.

Hybrids might cost $4,000 or $5,000 more than a normal car, he said. Plug-in hybrids cost even more, and fully electric vehicles cost perhaps $15,000 to $20,000 more than normal.

...continued

©2024 The Seattle Times. Visit seattletimes.com. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.