Mobility Matters Daily Special - The problem with EV batteries
All throughout this week, as I am on holiday I wanted to share some of my favourite transport-related videos with you as a special treat. They generally have a climate or social justice-related theme to them, and I think you will enjoy them all.
To start with, electric cars are great, but they have a huge problem: the batteries. This video by Wendover Productions goes into this issue in quite some depth.
But maybe, while its not a great solution, when it comes to the climate maybe we should’t let perfect be the enemy of the good? What do you think?
For pure CO2 then they are mixed, if recycling can be done at scale then overall things improve a lot.
Those who suffer from the mining impact have not created the problem that is triggering the need for the solution that they are now suffering for . Double hit for them and a debate that the whole world needs to have not just the rich industrialised countries with whom it currently is and have the most to gain but least to loose.
Bringing things closer to home its OK saying EVs can come into this clean air zone because they don't emit NOX. Look slightly deeper and they are no better than a diesel (and some recent work suggests quite a lot worse than a new diesel) as they create more particulate pollution because they are generally heavier so have higher tyre and brake wear. The only solution is public transport and more active travel and a reduction in heavy low occupancy vehicle use.