Are Electric Cars REALLY That Green? [New 2022 Data]

If you really care about the environment, keep your current car and drive it untill it falls apart. Every time you buy a new car, the cost of emissions, materials, minerals are huge.

Reminds me of Luxembourg where 35 years ago we were told that diesel cars were the only way to go and where we even received subsidies to buy diesel engined cars. Fast foreward to around 2010 and suddenly we were being told that diesel was bad and to be avoided at all costs. The moral of the story is don't believe all the things that politicians say to you!

Would be interesting to see a comparison to replacing an engine in a 15 year old car (or other major repairs) to keep it going compared to having a new car manufactured, and what sort of 'break even' number there would be. That would keep it out of the land fill, as well as reduce a lot of mining, manufacturing etc.

Rory talks a lot of sense. Well-balanced and properly thought-out views put forward. Respect.

It's great that an EVangelist, like yourself, Rory can be open and balanced when it comes to discussions like these - big respect for such fabulous content, dude 😎

The comments are gonna be interesting to check back on for this one 😅

Volvo released the study in the name of transparency. It gives the numbers that people can actually refer to, and does so in an impartial way. This is what we need more of.

I'm not overly concerned about the green-ness honestly. Instant torque is fun and easy to use. I have ample solar on my roof so it's free to drive. When I subtract gas and maintenance costs from my truck to my EV, I come out ahead.

low income individuals cannot afford to buy an EV. i'm concerned that gasoline will be a tax on the poor in the near future.

You're absolutely right that efficiency of EVs is a key to reducing overall impact. My 2017 Hyundai Ioniq Electric gets 5 miles/kWh, where the new Hyundai Ioniq 5 only gets around 2.5 miles/kWh, because it's huge, heavy and not aerodynamic! That's going backwards...

The best option at the moment i think is to keep using existing cars and to try and keep them going for as long as possible. Maybe try and make it easier a cheaper to repair existing cars aswell.

By far the best car reviewer there is….you can’t help but listen to this lad.,even if your not particularly into the car that he is reviewing.Well done.👊👏👍

A nuanced and reasonable discussion on a contentious topic? Tell me it isn't so! Seriously though, this was an enlightening video and hats off to Volvo for the study, even if people don't like its conclusion. Volvo has identified room for improvement and it's important to note how quickly technology and industry changes the equation.

Great material as ever, and I love the future forward slant at the end! Thanks for being one of the few reviewers who publish thought provoking content like this.

Honest, straight forward, intelligent, respectful…well done. In the end it is how we are as human beings with each other that truly matters!

Thank you for posting, I really like your channel.

I’m glad you identified that electricity production is getting greener & battery production will too. On the flip side, crude oil is becoming dirtier to obtain. Here in the U.S. we’re using off-shore drilling which has had massive spills & fracking which decimates the environment.

8:16 Yes! Producing smaller batteries (EV's with smaller batteries) is one of the most important keys to making a positive environmental impact with personal transportation. Thanks for this excellent video presentation! Keep up the good work.

Great report!

65'000 miles from even a small high efficiency ICE car like a Ford Focus releases 14 metric tonnes of CO2, the same range on a similar sized electric car like a Nissan Leaf releases barely 4 metric tonnes, it takes some incredible torture of the numbers to get such a large difference in manufacturing carbon footprint. The "trick" Volvo is pulling is using an extremely large battery manufactured in the most environmentally damaging way possible but without the equivalent for the ICE car they use for comparison. Like an aluminium engine block could be made in the same country as the battery (where most electricity comes from coal power stations) and get similarly massive carbon footprint costs.