Electric vs Internal Combustion vehicles. Who will win?

This is one argument which might be going on for years to come – Electric Vehicles or Vehicles powered by Internal Combustion Engines, which pollute more?

Unfortunately, the answer is not so obvious. There are so many variables which might need to be taken into consideration before arriving at an answer and it is so complex to work out. Recent studies try to establish that ICE compact cars and hybrid cars have a better chance to win the race of which technology shall leave lesser carbon footprint than the other. If we think about it, it does makes some sense. A small fuel efficient ICE vehicle takes lesser resources to build than a car like say Tesla which is big and with much bigger battery.

The problem is electric car manufacturing and battery manufacturing technologies are not emission free and in fact contribute a lot to the carbon footprints. To manufacture a car like Tesla, the carbon foot prints left back is quite high.

A Youtube channel, going by the name ‘LikeTesla’ shares a lot of relevant information about the topic. Though, the name might suggest a strong inclination towards the brand Tesla and suggestively towards electric vehicle technologies, many of their findings are based on a thorough research on the subject and many a times the channel does not hesitate to talk against Tesla.

The debate of Electric vehicles vs ICE vehicles needs to be looked into objectively. While electric vehicles leave a lot more carbon footprint than ICE cars at the time of production, there is almost zero pollution from them during their time of operation. ICE Cars on the other hand are much cleaner at the time of production but end up polluting more during their complete lifecycle. Other factors like the manufacturing process, where does these energies come from also play a crucial factor in determining the fight between the two.

We might need to take into consideration the after-market uses of electric vehicles battery in the secondary storage market after the EV’s lifecycle.

The following video is a very detailed one and is full of data, charts, graphs and figures. Going though it might throw in a wealth of information about the entire processes involved.

This is one tough and tight competition!