The electrification of uses is transforming mobility, especially in France and Europe, where ambitions for the automotive industry are grandiose. By 2035, new internal combustion vehicles will be banned from sale in Europe in favor of electric vehicles, in an effort to reduce emissions of greenhouse gases of the EU.

Beyond emissions, other factors must be taken into account to measure the environmental and energy impact of such a transition. To understand the issues, let's talk about the numbers...

The environmental benefits of electric cars

Reducing greenhouse gas emissions

Clean energy production

Since an overwhelming majority of our vehicle fleet consumes petroleum, a large quantity of GHGs is emitted into the atmosphere by transport, representing about 35% of total CO₂ from France (20% of the total for passenger cars). The carbon footprint of each imported vehicle, which generates GHGs throughout the manufacturing process, increases this balance even more.

Distribution of French CO emissions₂ as of 2019 — Source: Citepa

To reach carbon neutrality, other means of locomotion must be adopted. Manufacturers are working on several “clean” means of propulsion for the European market. In particular, cars whose operation does not directly emit any GHGs because of the very nature of the fuels used: electricity and hydrogen.

The energy efficiency of electric cars

Energy efficiency represents the relationship between the movement made by a car and the energy spent to make it. The energy efficiency of an electric car is higher than that of an internal combustion car.

Although this data benefits EVs in terms of performance, the carbon impact should be the only indicator taken into account. Indeed, regardless of the energy efficiency of a vehicle, if the electricity consumed It is not decarbonized, better fuel efficiency does not permanently solve the problem.

CO emissions₂ thermal vs electrical low carbon & fossil fuels — Source: Le Réveilleur

Reducing air pollution

The reduction of local pollutant emissions

The extreme concentration of thermal vehicles in urban centers is a scourge for city residents, especially in France. Despite the significant advances made by automotive manufacturers, many pollutants are released into the atmosphere, which can cause cardiovascular and respiratory disorders.

On the contrary, electric vehicles do not emit any pollutants into the atmosphere during their use, drastically reducing local pollutant emissions.

The reduction in noise emissions

As for energy efficiency, the difference in noise pollution between electric and thermal vehicles should be put into perspective. Of course, an electric model is quieter below 30 km/h, but beyond that the decibels recorded are equal, and this is because of well-known and unavoidable physical phenomena.

Indeed, it is mainly Friction between bitumen and wheels that creates noise pollution. At present, using an absorbent coating remains the only way to significantly limit noise emissions in cities. At higher speeds, the friction of the air with the body also generates noise.

The environmental disadvantages of electric cars

Battery production

Many people point to the environmental impact of electric cars.

The question of the extraction of raw materials

The lithium ion battery is the type of battery most commonly used by the automotive industry. This has led to an explosion in demand for nickel, cobalt, lithium, and manganese, a trend that will continue to increase over the next decade.

Extracting battery components is the other side of the coin. The largest reserves of metals and rare earths mentioned above are located far from home, in poor or developing countries.

The issue of battery recycling

Recycling batteries at the end of their life is a long-term industrial and environmental challenge. The recycling sector currently under development will stimulate the circular economy and reduce our imports of raw materials.

However, it is impossible to recycle the entire battery. The rest, highly polluting chemical elements, must be stored permanently to prevent them from escaping into the environment.

Despite this, 90% of the battery recycled makes the electric car a clean vehicle.

A European energy mix in full transformation, whose maturity and composition leave much to be desired

The quantity of carbon-free energy in the French energy mix is playing an increasingly important role thanks to the development of renewable energies. This is a very good thing because an electric car is only ecological if the energy consumed is low carbon.

France has the most carbon-free mix in Europe, so if we increase our production while maintaining the same emission levels, our transition makes sense.

CO emissions₂ to produce 1 kWh of electricity in the EU — Source: statisques.developpement-durable.gouv.fr

Unfortunately, our power generation capacity is not unlimited. The more the number of electric vehicles increases, the more electricity consumption increases (if all thermal cars became electric, we would have to produce 100 additional TWh), putting the network and network operators literally under pressure during rush hour.

In the future it will be a real headache for Enedis and RTE to keep the network in balance due to the following factors:

• a greater difference in consumption between off-peak and peak hours;
• The intermittency of renewable energies ;
• the reliability of our aging nuclear fleet.

Solutions exist but they are expensive (mass production of hydrogen during off-peak hours to avoid the intermittency of renewable energies), or even contrary to our climate objectives (installation of gas/coal power plants).

For our European neighbours, whose energy mix has a carbon footprint that is much higher than ours (×10 in Poland for example), the challenge is immense. Their production must be decarbonized, but also increased, while integrating low-carbon production methods to counter the intermittency of renewable energies.

The challenges of improving the cleanliness of electric cars

Research and development of cleaner batteries

Many innovations are still needed for electric cars to be used to limit climate change. Manufacturers must find a compromise between the weight of the battery, its storage capacity, its cost of production, its lifespan, its ability to recharge and its environmental footprint. For the moment, the lithium-ion battery meets the expectations of manufacturers but especially those of consumers.

Many other battery concepts exist (nickel-metal hydride batteries or all-solid-state batteries) that consume less raw materials and are easier to produce and recycle.

Old-generation batteries are inferior in every way to lithium-ion batteries and tomorrow's batteries are not ready to leave research laboratories. This is why the recycling of batteries at the end of their life is so important, as it is the only way to limit the environmental impact of lithium-ion batteries.

The development of renewable energy sources

The development of solar energy

The development of renewable energies is accelerating under the impetus of the government, in particular with the renewable energy acceleration law passed earlier this year.

Solar energy will play a major role in the decarbonization of our energy mix and the automotive industry is indirectly participating in the effort thanks to parking lot canopies. These very particular ground power plants value land and offer companies the opportunity to install charging stations.

As an indication, an electric car charged using solar energy emits 11.8 g of CO₂ per km against 157 and 185 g of CO₂ for diesel and gasoline.

The development of wind energy

With respect to Wind energy, France is a particular case. We are very far from exploiting our wind potential with the current wind farm, which is mainly onshore.

Thankfully, offshore parks (at sea) will multiply in French waters over the next 10 years and will significantly increase our capacity to produce carbon-free energy (objective by 2050: to produce 50 GW off the French coast, almost the equivalent of our current nuclear fleet!).

Such production, coupled with other renewable energies and a rejuvenated nuclear fleet, is necessary if the electrification of our economy continues.

A mix dominated by wind and nuclear power is the most ecological. An electric car charged with wind energy emits 3 g of CO₂ per km and only 1.3 g for the one charged from Of nuclear energy.

To conclude, the electric car is clean but only under certain conditions. An electric society reduces its emissions (fine particles such as GHGs) drastically, because it is a means of locomotion that uses clean fuel.

However, if the whole world were to drive an electric car, metals such as nickel, cobalt and lithium would become the new black gold, causing the destruction of many natural ecosystems and the deterioration of the living standards of the poorest in the countries of the South (hence the importance of recycling!). It is therefore necessary to decarbonize and better control the supply chain.

Electric cars force us to decarbonize our energy system in an intelligent way (more flexible production capacity, a carbon-free energy mix) to take full advantage of their ecological potential.

The electrification of individual mobility is not the only way to reduce our GHGs produced by transport, there must also be a logic behind our transition.

For example, in urban centers, the massive use of public transport and cycling will greatly reduce the carbon footprint of city residents. In the countryside, the use of electric cars and hydrogen/biogas buses is more appropriate.