Why electric vehicles aren’t so clean

                             
Many state that electric vehicles are the cleaner solution for the environment; however, this is not true. The big difference between electric and gas is the platform. Gas powered vehicles run off the internal combustion engine or “ICE” platform, which uses a mechanical engine as the power source. The only down side of this however, is the exhaust, where gases like Co2 are released, and the claims “bad for the environment” start. 

Introduced as the “cleaner” option, the electric vehicle (EV) platform uses one or more electric motors that are directly connected to the wheels, which get power from the main battery.  This may sound great due to no exhaust, engine, or gas, but where they miss out on tailpipe emissions, they make up in production. According to the Environmental protection agency (EPA), most electric vehicles utilize a lithium battery, which is gathered through a mine. This  results in 15 tons of toxic carbon dioxide released, for every one ton of lithium mined. Compare this to the yearly carbon footprint of an ICE vehicle, and you only get close to five tons of carbon dioxide released per year. This means that the production of lithium is almost double that of the average car. 

ICE vehicles also have a lot of requirements as it is to reduce these emissions. Catalytic converters (mounted on the exhaust) filter out the Co2, lessening the amount of harmful gases that are released. Like catalytic converters, there is also use of an EGR valve (Exhaust gas recirculation).  This valve allows exhaust gases to get redirected back into the engine to be burnt again, while idling or driving, when unburnt fuel can be present. 

So overall, just because electric vehicles have no tailpipe (Exhaust) emissions, they still release almost twice the amount of harmful gases during production, than ICE vehicles do in their exhaust, which is also used to be reburned again.