How “green” really is an EV anyway?
3rd December 2020 |
With a growing family one of my biggest concerns as a father is a simple one.
What car do we need to get the team around town, but also so that I don’t feel like I’ve given up on life?
These are important questions to answer for one’s self.
I mean, practicality is great and all, but I also won’t be caught dead lumbering the little meat axes around in one of those acronym vehicles… namely the dreaded MPV.
I’m still not even on the SUV bandwagon – seeing that every car I’ve ever owned since I was 18 has rarely seen the touch of mud, let alone anything requiring extra ground clearance, I kinda of don’t really see the point.
No offence to MPV or SUV drivers. I’m sure those of you out there love them dearly. Or perhaps don’t really care about cars and are 100% in it for the practicality.
Not I.
Lower to the ground is more my take on it. And if it has a bit of punch for those times when hesitation just gets you killed, well I’m all for it.
If I had the disposable money to buy one outright, I’d probably just lump in and get the nicest four-seater sedan (you call them saloon over here) I could.
That would probably mean something like a Porsche Panamera or an Aston Martin Rapide. One of those parked up in the garage would be oh, so tasty. Maybe you “feel me” with where my view on the automobile sits, if you do, and if you’ve got one of those two parked in your driveway – gimme a shout at sam@southbankresearch.com. I’d love a real-world review from you.
Of course you may also feel I’m sinking into pretentious w***** territory. Fair enough, I’ll get on with the point.
The problem I face is that soon enough there will be a requirement for a new car in the Volkering household. As I’ve said before, I fall in between a rock and a hard place as I’m sure many of you out there are too, or perhaps will be in the next few years.
The dilemma is the bone-headed dragging forward of the ban on the sale of diesel and petrol (internal combustion engine (ICE)) cars from 2030 by the government.
This is going to likely see the backside fall out of the second-hand car market for ICE vehicles. It also sets a tone for harsher taxes and more pecuniary penalties for those of us that still end up with diesel or petrol cars.
Hence much like you’ll soon be forced to get a vaccine for a virus that you’re quite possibly at minimal risk from, you’ll also soon be forced into buying an overpriced electric car that’s not fit for purpose and also kills a little bit of your soul.
The real question though, which many are trying to answer is, just how “green” are the EVs that are supposed to save the world? Is the demonisation of ICE cars a giant beat-up or is there some truth to the matter?
“Astongate”
In trying to answer the question about how “green” EV cars really are, there’s going to be a push for transparency on the true environmental cost of EVs compared to ICE cars. That means from manufacturing into real-world use – the full life cycle.
In searching for these answers, a public relations company, Clarendon Communications, produced a report on the matter which has stirred up quite some controversy for out car maker, Aston Martin Lagonda (LSE:AML).
The details of the report I won’t go into here. You can read the thing if you like here.
Anyway, some furore has been bundled up because apparently this communications company is linked to an executive at Aston Martin and in this report, there’s a claim that an EV car would have to travel somewhere around 48,00 miles (78,000km) in order to break even on its CO2 emissions “cost”.
Of course Aston Martin isn’t in the EV game right now, it’s all about performance cars, luxury performance cars, ICE engines and not so much on the “green” aspect of things.
So the accusations are they’ve “lied” to people about these figures just to further their own interests.
To me it sounds nothing like more than a massive mountain from a molehill.
I’ve seen this report. And I’ve seen the report it references from Polestar which compares like for like a Volvo XC40 versus the comparable EV, the Polestar 2.
It’s a report on transparency from Polestar about Polestar proving the cost to manufacture an ICE cars is less than an EV. You can see Polestar’s report here.
Furthermore, it shows and explains that you would need to travel quite some way in order for the CO2 cost of an EV to break even with an ICE car.
No big deal so far.
Well the beat up here, is that the distance estimated needed to travel for that breakeven point, is believed to actually be more like 16,000 miles.
Now for most people covering 16,000 miles is probably going to take you a few years to knock off. And granted over the long haul of car ownership, and the miles most cars travel after they’ve changed hands a few times, EVs are going to make a dent in emissions.
But are they going to change the world?
Well I doubt it.
The tricky thing is that EVs are the way of the future. But they’re not as green as people think they are. And outside of places like the UK, they won’t be powered by 100% renewable energy so they’ll continue to be dirty for some time.
Car makers like Aston Martin find themselves under the security of the media because they’ve not gone all in on EVs. But perhaps they don’t need to.
Maybe with a ten-year runway we’ll find that there will be sufficient changes in manufacturing, development of biofuels and greener ways to power more traditional ICE cars that mean the 2030 deadline, might never actually come…
I still have a long view on Aston that I think will play out for the positive in the next few years at least. For now the stock is trading above our buy-up-to of 73p. Should it dip below it becomes an active BUY, above that price it will remain a HOLD.
Regards,
Sam Volkering
Editor, Frontier Tech Investor
