by Shane Henson — July 29, 2013—Facilities owners and managers who are considering hosting electric car charging stations or purchasing electric cars for their fleets or may find a new IEEE report informative. Since they first came off the manufacturing line, electric cars have been touted as a more environmentally friendly option than gas-powered cars; however, there is little research to support this belief, according to a peer-reviewed report in the IEEE Spectrum magazine published by IEEE, a global professional association dedicated to advancing technological innovation.
According to the report, electric cars lead to hidden environmental and health damages and are likely more harmful than gasoline cars and other transportation options. The report, Unclean at Any Speed, indicates that the recent billions spent on subsidies for the subsidies for the Tesla, Nissan Leaf, and other electric cars may actually be doing more harm than good after considering the full lifecycle and environmental footprint of electric vehicles.
The report recommends shifting electric car subsidies toward more robust options backed by research, including emissions testing, bicycle infrastructure, smog reduction initiatives, and land-use changes.
The paper’s author, Ozzie Zehner, says he was once an electric car enthusiast but has since changed his position. “Upon closer consideration, moving from petroleum-fueled vehicles to electric cars starts to appear tantamount to shifting from one brand of cigarettes to another,” writes Zehner, a visiting scholar at the University of California—Berkeley and the author of Green Illusions.
His paper identifies how electric cars merely shift negative impacts from one place to another. The paper also analyzes how electric car research is performed, detailing what is counted, what is left out, and why. It also points to corporate sponsorship of electric vehicle research at various universities.
“The findings of corporate-supported studies are not necessarily wrong,” remarks Zehner, “but the researchers are too frequently asking the wrong questions.”
According to the report, political priorities and corporate influence have created a flawed impression that electric cars significantly reduce transportation impacts. Meanwhile, the electric car’s presumed cleanliness has not held up to scrutiny from broad, publicly funded studies from the National Academy of Sciences, the National Science Foundation, and the Congressional Budget Office. For instance, the National Academies projected technology advancements out to 2030, and still found no health or environmental benefit to driving an electric vehicle, claims Zehner.
