Unless your vehicle has particularly bad emotions, generally speaking that’s the recommendation. All vehicles have a front-facing emissions cost from their manufacture; EVs having more due to the battery materials. While it’s better in the long run to have an EV on the roads than a gas/diesel, there is value in maintaining an existing vehicle.
Like, I’m not sure how to properly convey the point but there’s something about reducing the market demand for a new car and its environmental impact. If someone were to trade in their old vehicle and buy a new one every few years (which is unfortunately pretty normal in the US for middle class’folks), they’d actually have a worse carbon footprint buying EVs because of those front-loaded emission costs.
The best step towards a greener future is cutting out unnecessary production rather than chasing the next gadget that’s supposed to save the world.
The vast majority of ICE cars emissions come from their usage, not their production, so it’s environmentally beneficial to take them off the road and recycle as much of them as possible even if they’re still road worthy.
Unless your vehicle has particularly bad emotions, generally speaking that’s the recommendation. All vehicles have a front-facing emissions cost from their manufacture; EVs having more due to the battery materials. While it’s better in the long run to have an EV on the roads than a gas/diesel, there is value in maintaining an existing vehicle.
Like, I’m not sure how to properly convey the point but there’s something about reducing the market demand for a new car and its environmental impact. If someone were to trade in their old vehicle and buy a new one every few years (which is unfortunately pretty normal in the US for middle class’folks), they’d actually have a worse carbon footprint buying EVs because of those front-loaded emission costs.
The best step towards a greener future is cutting out unnecessary production rather than chasing the next gadget that’s supposed to save the world.
Not necessarily, an EV running on green electricity catches up in about 30k km if I recall correctly, that’s two years of driving.
https://www.nationalobserver.com/2023/02/24/analysis/gasoline-versus-electric-cars-life-cycle-emissions-compared-canada
The vast majority of ICE cars emissions come from their usage, not their production, so it’s environmentally beneficial to take them off the road and recycle as much of them as possible even if they’re still road worthy.