Examples please.
Ok: I don't have any statistics, and I'm to lazy to find any,
but I am a thinker. As I see it here is how it breaks down, first production, an electric car requires just as must steel (frame, chassis, body), petroleum products, (plastic interior, foam seats, carpet) and rubber (belts, hoses, tires) as does a internal combustion car of similar size. The production of all of these products are rather high as far as the pollution they put out.
So Electric and Combustion are the same so far. Now the differences.
Combustion cars have an engine made from iron or aluminum usually. Electric cars have a motor made with a whole lot of copper and magnets. The mining/smelting of iron/aluminum/copper all pollute a lot.
So they're still even.
Now a combustion car has a gas tank, not much to it, a electric car has a whole bunch of probably NiMH or NiCD batteries. Nickel mines, and nickel smelting are every bit as polluting as iron is. Nickel mines are usually huge open pit mines (like copper) which tear up thousands of acres of land, and the smelters chuck out tons of air pollution. Also when the car wears out, or crashed those batteries are very hazardous to dispose of, you just throw them in a landfill and the acid is libel to leak out and pollute ground water.
So on this one a combustion car definitely pollutes much less.
As for power your either sucking oil out of the ground refining it, and burning it right in the vehicle. Or you using oil, coal, nuclear, wind whatever, they all still create pollution and problems and your just moving it to another location. I've heard that burning oil to make electricity energy is more efficient then burning it to create combustion energy. So the electric probably pollutes less here.
So they are tied again.
Plus consider this, assume everyone in the US replaced all their gas/diesel cars with electric cars tomorrow. Do you think the current electric grid could handle it? Of course not. We would need to build dozens and dozens of new power plants all over. We'd just be replacing the pollution created by oil drilling/refining, with pollution from electric power plants. Except not really because not all of the oil goes to cars. Some goes to Semi tractors needed to move all the goods we move, some goes to home heating oil, some goes to airlines, some goes to production of plastics, foams and carpet. So we'd still need lots of oil, in addition to dozens of new power plants.
Those who think an electric car has less negative impact on the environment are deluding themselves.
I do not think we have the technology that will break us off oil in the long-term yet, if we do I haven't seen it. Hybrids and electric cars are just silly gimmicks to me. I laugh at Toyota bragging because their Prius gets 45 mpg.
BIG WUP, my buddies 1986 VW Rabbit diesel gets 55 mpg and that's 25 yr old diesel technology, the new turbos are much more efficient. I think a new diesel VW Golf gets 65+ mpg. But why they won't/can't sell more diesel small cars in the US is a rant for another day.
