Showdown: Electric Cars vs. Internal Combustion

Electric car technology is arguably the best thing going right now in the effort to mitigate the environmental damage caused by personal vehicles... or is it? One common criticism of electric cars is that, given the fact that most of the world's energy comes from coal power plants, they're still technically relying on combustion. Which technology actually turns out to be better, with all environmental effects considered? Internal combustion or electric?

Slate has a neat article outlining the comparison of IC and electric cars, and they find that in pretty much every case, electric cars outperform conventional IC cars on the basis of pounds of CO2 emitted per mile. However, the margin by which the electric car wins depends significantly on where you live. In areas where hydroelectric, nuclear, solar, or wind power are significant parts of the mix, the electric car blows IC out of the water. If you live in a coal-powered region, not so much.


Fig. 1: Tesla Roadster. This car says "I care about the environment and also kick ass".

To put some numbers on it, the Slate article compares the Toyota Corolla and the Tesla Roadster, and finds that, per 100 miles, the Corolla emits 63.11 pounds of CO2, and the Roadster emits 48.05 pounds (based on average US power generation mix). That means that even when you take into account the emissions from the power plant, the Roadster only emits 75% as much CO2 as the Corolla (a relatively efficient IC car). While this may not sound paradigm-shifting, keep in mind that the Roadster itself also emits no exhaust whatsoever, which is pretty significant when you think about the kind of urban air quality issues that big cities are struggling with now as a result of IC cars.

Now, if only they could develop the technology to make all electric cars look as cool as the Roadster.


Fig. 2: This car says "I care about the environment, and wear rainbow suspenders."