I was intrigued by the graph for the Polestar that came up in a previous post ....I thought I'd add a couple of lines (apologies in advance for the phone pic of a printout but hopefully it will pass)

Polestar compared the CO2 of their EV running on a number of supply mixes with an ICE Volvo XC40 .... I've added a line for the Ford Fiesta 1.5 TDCI which has pretty much half the CO2 emissions of the XC40 (black line marked 'x') .... I've also put in the vertical dotted line at 170,000 kms ... which is the mileage at which the average car in the UK gets scrapped (I know we've all had cars that have gone way beyond that, but it's the Motor Industry official figure)


[Linked Image]


A few thoughts:

Even on the European mix of electricity sources the EV would still be in serious deficit at scrapping time (much worse Globally)

The Fiesta weighs in at 2/3 the weight of the XC40 ... no doubt there are different issues here, but 2/3 the raw materials means the black 'x' line for the Fiesta would leave the Y-axis somewhat lower than the XC40 (I erred on the side of the EV and made it the same for clarity) .... meaning the 'x' line would sit lower on the graph altogether, making the case for the EV more problematic still.

If you factor in that switching to EVs is meaning the creation from scratch of a massive infrastructure network with all its associated environmental (and CO2) costs .... and the loss of liquid fuels will inevitably mean the dismantling and removal of the current ICE infrastructure .... again with serious environmental and CO2 costs.

If you want to run a very large high performance luxury barge, then EV, with it's current subsidies and low running costs is the way to go.

If you want to save the planet then a small economical ICE car and leaving the infrastructure well alone may well be the best choice.

K



Last edited by Image; 15/05/21 05:08 PM.