The Contradictions of Battery Operated Vehicles | Graham Conway | TEDxSanAntonio
4,049,973
Published 2020-01-31
This talk will challenge the popular perception that Battery Electric Vehicles (BEVs) are environmentally friendly, and will argue that we are inappropriately rushing the market introduction of these vehicles. BEVs are commonly sold under the guise of being ‘Zero Emissions,’ an assertion that is not true by any definition. Brake pads produce emissions, as do
tires and even interiors under sunlight. The electricity that powers BEVs is generated by power plants, 64% of which burn fossil fuels in the U.S.—fossil fuels that contribute to greenhouse gas emissions and global warming. Even more importantly, there are significant CO2 emissions
created during the manufacture of the battery pack, meaning that in order to offset the carbon created during the production process, a BEV must drive 40,000 - 100,000 miles before being environmentally comparable to a gasoline-powered vehicle. Hybrid vehicles, on the other hand,
which combine much smaller batteries with efficient internal combustion engines, have been shown to be a much better option for lowering global CO2. Unfortunately, they do not receive the same marketable ‘kudos’ or policy backing as full BEVs. We are headed down the wrong path by
rolling out BEVs before making the manufacturing and electricity generation CO2 neutral. Dr. Graham Conway is a Principal Engineer in the Automotive Division at Southwest Research Institute. For the last ten years he has been immersed in evaluating automotive technologies and consulting for car companies and suppliers. This gives him unique insights and perspectives on the industry. He is passionate about making vehicles more efficient to ensure the future of the planet and has a message to share about some common misconceptions about electric and non-electric vehicles. This talk was given at a TEDx event using the TED conference format but independently organized by a local community. Learn more at www.ted.com/tedx
All Comments (21)
-
He was doing fine until he claimed that renewable electric energy sources (solar and wind) produce no CO2. He needs to include the CO2 produced during their manufacture and operation. Windmill blades are produced from composite materials in which most of the components are derived from petroleum.
-
He makes great points! BUT "renewable sources" of energy still produce a HUGE about of waste and are damaging to the environment. If we would encourage Nuclear power as the main source of power, the amount of effect on the environment would be by far the lowest.
-
Like George Carlin said, "When the earth is ready, it will shake us off like fleas. Regardless of what we do to it".
-
With so called renewable energy, emissions for the production of solar panels (and the recycling of failed ones) also needs to be taken into account. As a mechanic I do service hybrid cars also and so many of them can't even reverse out of the service bay without the petrol engine starting and when test driving the petrol engine spends more time running than you think.
-
Don't forget. It makes more sense from a green perspective to keep your old car running and well-maintained as long as you can. There are significant environmental costs to both manufacturing a new automobile and adding your old car to the ever-growing collective junk heap.
-
It takes a lot of energy to produce these vehicles, so hold onto your vehicles longer, your clothes, phones etc longer. However, big companies don’t want this to happen.
-
Most Americans will NEVER hear this information because we are a headline news country.
-
Building wind and solar does produce lots of emissions also.
-
I'd like to see him go into the carbon footprint of the production and lifespan of solar and wind powered sources. never mind the recyclability of them or lack of.
-
"There are no solutions, only tradeoffs." -Thomas Sowell
-
"We should wait until EV are really Zero emissions" This reminds me of the joke: A person bought shoes that are a little tight and the salesman told him that they will stretch over the next few weeks so he refuse to wear them for a few weeks until they stretch.
-
no discussion on the AMOUNT of water needed to manufacture the components that end up in either vehicle. Fresh, potable water is a huge environmental aspect that needs to be taken into consideration.
-
I'm in the renewable energy field and even that needs to be looked at. During construction and operation of a wind or solar farm, thousands of gallons of diesel are burned every day, not to mention the environmental impacts on tree clearing on a large scale. Plus the life cycle of wind turbines is usually 20-30 years and large components arrive on ships (which burn 2000 gal of heavy diesel per hour) and major components like the blades end up in landfills when the site is repowered as they are not recyclable. Nuclear is the best thing we have so far.
-
A good analysis, but surprisingly he missed the amount of CO2 emitted in mining rare earth elements for solar panels and wind turbines, not to mention they contain massive amounts of processed petroleum products we often refer to as plastics.
-
Great talk. He seemed to make the same mistake though: he didn’t draw the box around the solar panel or the wind turbines? Would be interesting to see the numbers for that.
-
How about the emissions from the production of fuel?
-
Excellent presentation, but I still wonder why nuclear is never part of the solution. There is nothing remotely close to it in clean energy production, and over all the years we've used it, very little damage has occurred, and always when safety protocols were ignored. I would love to see the graphs with nuclear energy used. Oh, and we also have reactors now that can reuse the waste, producing basically no nuclear waste. Why not?
-
Please do an expanded version of this talking about the batteries, what it take to produce them, there life span, and what happens to them when they have reached the end of their efficient life span.
-
It is so wonderful to find someone that feels the same way about electric vehicles as I do...as a hotrodder I LOVE ELECTRIC CARS !!!! but there are many points against going full electric on a national or even world level that you addressed so wonderfully. My only issue with your talk is the use of solar and wind generators...to go back to the pollution emissions you talked about in batteries the same can be said about solar and wind. On a recent trip down to Texas I had the opportunity to see the wind farms across the nation being repaired/updated and the carbon footprint created by this exercise far outweighs the benefits to this endeavor. As we see in today's news California is having an issue as to what to do with the outdated and burned out solar panels that contain toxic metals....they have driven out all recyclers able to deal with this and are now resorting to just burying them which will cause future ecological issues (liberal hypocrisy at it's finest I guess) We should ask ' Why are the most efficient solar panels banned from being imported into the US?' but we are afraid of the answer. Why is wind power pushed so hard when it shows it can not provide power equal to it's pollution defecate (that word is wrong but google correct can't fathom so...) ? As I said...as a hotrodder I am all for electric vehicles....I have followed 'Gone Postal' , 'Killacycle' and many others and they are awesome ! I agree with everything you said...except...the solar and wind power point....Nuclear and Hydro are the only proven clean energy systems that we can rely on.
-
6:22 "Solar generation rose 23% globally in 2021, while wind supply gained 14% over the same period. Together, both renewable sources accounted for 10.3% of total global electricity generation, up 1% from 2020, data from Ember showed." (Reuters 2022) “Renewables [will] become the largest source of global electricity generation by early 2025, surpassing coal,” the IEA said in its Renewables 2022 report. Earlier this year, a report from the International Energy Agency said clean energy investment could be on course to exceed $2 trillion per year by 2030, an increase of over 50% compared to today. (CNBC 12/6/2022)
