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Factcheck: 21 misleading myths about electric vehicles
By Simon Evans - Carbon Brief, October 24, 2023
Electric vehicles (EVs) significantly cut lifecycle greenhouse gas emissions in almost all circumstances and are the key technology for decarbonising road transport.
While not having a car has even larger climate benefits, many peoples’ ability to go car-free is limited by their circumstances and the availability of alternatives.
This means EVs are “likely crucial” for tackling transport emissions, according to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC).
EV sales are growing fast, accounting for one in every seven cars sold globally in 2022 – up from one-in-70 just five years earlier.
Yet EVs are also being subjected to relentless hostile reporting across mainstream media in many major economies, including the UK.
Here, Carbon Brief factchecks 21 of the most common – and persistent – myths about EVs.
- FALSE: ‘An EV has to travel 50,000+ miles to break even’
- FALSE: ‘VW’s e-Golf becomes more environmentally friendly only after 77,000 miles’
- FALSE: The ‘electric Volvo C40 needs to be driven around 68,400 miles to cut carbon’
- FALSE: ‘Electric vehicles have little or no CO2 advantage over the car you already drive’
- FALSE: ‘Climate change is accelerating because of the ban on combustion-engines’
- FALSE: ‘Old bangers are the green motorist’s choice’
- FALSE: ‘EVs simply displace carbon emissions from roads to distant power stations’
- MOSTLY FALSE: ‘Electric cars are not green machines’
- INCOMPLETE: ‘Electric vehicles alone can’t solve climate change’
- FALSE: ‘EVs are [low-mileage] runabouts…[that] take a long time to pay off their carbon debt’
- FALSE: ‘Synthetic petrol could displace electric vehicles’
- FALSE: ‘Hydrogen cars are more sustainable than EVs’
- FALSE: ‘Sales of electric vehicles appear to be slowing’
- FALSE: ‘Electric cars could soon be more expensive to drive than their petrol equivalents’
- FALSE: ‘There are insufficient raw materials…for all vehicles to be EVs’
- FALSE: The lifetime of EV batteries is ‘horribly uncertain’
- FALSE: ‘Electric vehicles can explode – petrol ones only do it in movies’
- FALSE: ‘Under Biden’s electric vehicle mandate, 40% of US auto jobs will disappear’
- FALSE: ‘Electric car revolution at crisis point’ due to ‘charging point shortage’
- FALSE: ‘Britain’s creaking power grid cannot cope with charging electric cars’
- FALSE: ‘How your super heavy EV produces MORE pollution than petrol and diesel cars’
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