Are Electric Vehicles Truly The Zero Emissions Solution We Think Them To Be? | Utilimarc Fleet FYIs

Gretchen Reese (00:06):

Hey there, welcome to Fleet FIYs, the weekly podcast at Utilimarc that reveals how you can make the most of your data for starter fleet management. My name is Gretchen, and every week you'll hear from me, and some of the industry's finest in candid conversations, that will shed some light on not only two decades worth of data insights, but some of the industry's hottest talking points, and key metric analysis with the aim to help you better understand your fleet from every angle. 

(00:33):

But before we begin, if this is the first time you've heard our show, thanks for stopping by. I'm so glad you decided to come along for the ride with us. But I've got a quick favor to ask you. Once you finish today's episode, if you could take a few minutes to leave us a review on your favorite podcasting platform, we would really appreciate it. Give us a rating, five stars, I hope (laughs), or tell us what you liked, or leave us a comment or a question about what you've heard in today's episode. But if we haven't yet covered a topic that you're interested in hearing more about, let us know. We would be happy to go over it in detail in a later episode. If that sounds good to you, let's get back to the show. 

(01:17):

Hello, everyone, and welcome back to another episode of the Fleet FYIs podcast. How are you all doing today? I hope you had a wonderful Thanksgiving, if you celebrate in the US, or if you were about a month earlier in Canada, and you're able to celebrate the holiday with everyone that you love, and of course, eat all of the Thanksgiving leftovers in the last few days. Today I wanted to dig into a topic that I've been noticing so many people as in forums and comment sections and new launch announcements worldwide, and that is: will electric vehicles really have that much of an impact on the environment? 

(01:55):

We've all been told the zero tailpipe emissions vehicle may be the solution to climate action mandates and policies. But what if it's not as simple as that? Fleets all over the world are quickly turning to electric vehicles as a solution to combating climate change. It makes sense, especially as transportation is the largest contributor of CO2 emissions, making up about one fifth of global emissions every single year. It's leading fleets and their managers to wonder whether or not the best solution truly is going electric, or if it's more of a sustainable balance. 

(02:28):

Now, if you're a frequent listener of this show, you will know that this is more the side of the fence that I tend to stand on. Balance is always great, it's kind of like diversifying your portfolio when you come to investing too, right? No all eggs in one basket, it has to be spread out. But we're not talking about investing in this show, we're talking about fleets. And let's go back to the one fifth of global emissions coming from transportation. That statistic alone is pushing governments everywhere to push for electrification. 

(02:55):

This we're seeing, no doubt about it, with incentives for consumers and manufacturers alike. Think tax breaks, cost reductions, et cetera, and those are actually proving to be quite fruitful. As a result, global EV sales saw a 39% year over year increase in 2020 alone, which is pretty big. But getting into why you all clicked on this episode to begin with, at least I hope so (laughs), what does this, or could this mean for the environment, the saving in of electric vehicles is a fantastic first step, as we begin to move away from thought to be dated, carbon intensive activities for more sustainable practices in all industries, not just transportation, but it is worth questioning, though, just how environmentally friendly are EVs?

(03:39):

Right now they tend to be the go-to green solution due to their zero emissions claims, but what I'd like to talk about in this show is, how valid are these statements exactly? As the forecasted number of EV sales continues to climb with nearly half of passenger vehicles sold by 2030 expected to be electric, it's worth digging into the good and the bad of how these vehicles are actually impacting our environment. So, are you ready? Here we go.

(04:15):

Let's begin with the. How do electric vehicles compare with their traditional counterpart, which is an internal combustion engine vehicle? I'm glad you asked. (laughs) Though electric vehicles have not been on the road long enough fully to understand their lifetime benefits, the research available currently shows pretty promising results, at least in my opinion. In just about a year, one electric vehicle can save an average of 1.5 million, with an M, grams of CO2, compared to an internal combustion engine vehicle of similar size. Just one. 

(04:48):

Now, if you ask me, that figure is pretty impressive. Now, adding an increase of electric vehicles on the road, and this number will quickly add up to an even more impactful figure worldwide. I will say, though, it can be a little bit tricky just to gauge how sustainable an electric vehicle truly is because it's not as simple as saying, "I'm gonna buy an electric vehicle and now I'm immediately more sustainable. It only really becomes a greener option than a traditional internal combustion engine vehicle after spending a decent amount of time on the road. This is due to the substantially carbon intensive manufacturing of electric vehicles that is eventually offset by a lack of tailpipe emissions throughout the vehicle's lifetime. 

(05:29):

For example, a Tesla Model 3 only becomes more environmentally sustainable than a gas powered Toyota Corolla after it's spent about 13,500 miles on the road. This number is just about the average miles per, driven per vehicle, um, each year. Now, if I'm not mistaken, that figure is right around 12,000 if we're looking at, you know, the average amount that people would sign up to, say if they were leasing a vehicle or something along those lines. And just so we're clear, we are talking about consumer vehicles here, not commercial fleets, that number does tend to be higher. But another point that I'd like to touch on is this. 

(06:03):

So, it's not just how do they compare, but a lot of people are actually asking what are some of the weak points in electric vehicle sustainability? I sure do love these poke the bear style questions, especially if you know me, you will absolutely (laughs) know that. Um, but it's especially true because I think that they remain incredibly important to ask when you have a perceived solution as the quote, unquote, perfect way to make sustainability goals and targets without exploring each and every avenue that could be used to achieve the same goal. In this case, when we're talking about sustainability targets, it could be achieved by alternative fuel, hydrogen powered vehicles, I mean, there's a lot to do here, even just looking at the data of your internal combustion engine fleet. 

(06:45):

But we're not getting into that in this show, right now we're talking about EV sustainability, but you get my point. So, despite promising zero tailpipe emissions, electric vehicles have a long way to go when it comes to cleaning the manufacturing process. And I wanted to dig into what that entails just a little bit. So, to start off with the manufacturing process itself, the manufacturing or electric vehicles or specifically their batteries, is the most energy intensive aspect of electrification. EVs run on rechargeable batteries, this I'm sure you already knew, and it's usually a lithium ion model. And those batteries are made up of rare elements like cobalt, lithium, nickel and graphite, you know, there's a few others thrown in there as well. 

(07:27):

But the mining of these elements requires vast amount of electricity, water and manpower, resulting in high carbon emissions. Um, and that is what you find a lot of humanitarians very concerned with when it comes to, you know, mining for the raw materials for these batteries. [inaudible 00:07:44] vehicles are made, and higher range is expected, larger batteries will inevitably be needed. And what this means is that larger batteries will actually require greater amounts of raw elements, this I'm sure is no surprise to anyone. But that ultimately produces an even greater carbon footprint, when you look at it in that perspective. For now, this quote, unquote, unclean process, is considered a necessary evil, in order to reap the lifetime benefits of driving emissions free electric vehicles. 

(08:12):

However, what I really think is that as we eventually shift our focus from mass electrification to making electric vehicles, and the manufacturing process behind the more sustainable, this process, it can't be and it shouldn't be overlooked. Now, the secondary component to this argument is what is thought to be a dirty electric grid. Now, if you don't know what I mean by this, the thought that an electric grid could be dirty means that it's not running on renewable energy, it's running on coal power or fossil fuels. And the biggest, I think, aside from the mining process for these raw materials for batteries, the next biggest major conflict in electric vehicle use, or more so the charging process is, like I said, the electricity they run on, or the dirty grid. 

(08:59):

Charging and driving an EV where energy is mostly or completely renewable, as you would probably assume would lead to far less carbon emissions over a lifetime, vehicle lifetime, than driving the exact same vehicle somewhere else. Here's an example for you. In Costa Rica, where the grid is powered by 90%, give or take, renewable energy, you would probably have a much more sustainable electric vehicle, you would think, versus driving in the same electric vehicle in a place like Wyoming, whose grid is powered by less than 0.5% of renewable energy. It just makes sense. Now, this comparison shows just how much EVs rely on cleaner electric grids to reach their fuller potential in combating climate change. 

(09:42):

And as long as grids are powered by fossil fuels, or by burning coal, it's thought that in totality, electric vehicles will never be able to live up to their zero emissions claims. If we're taking on the well-to-wheels perspective. Kind of like how Jim Castelaz touched on in a recent episode surrounding the green zones or low emission zones in Santa Monica, and how the electrification movement is impacting last mile delivery solutions. Now, if you haven't listened to that episode just yet, you absolutely should add it to the queue after this one, I think you'll enjoy it. Or if you feel like reading the show notes instead, you can always head over to our website, which is www.Utilimarc.com, which is U-T-I-L-I-N-A-R-C, .com, just to read some of the show notes that we have from recent episodes. 

(10:25):

Now, before I go on too much of a tangent surrounding (laughs) our previous episodes of this show, I wanted to lastly touch on a lost opportunity, which surrounds the recycling during the manufacturing process. It's not that the mining for elements is a major contributor to EV's totally carbon emissions, the good news is that nearly 50% of these materials in batteries are actually recyclable, which, you know, for environment lovers, or even just people that are interested in sustainability alike, that's amazing news. Rare minerals like nickel and cobalt and lithium, can be recovered from exhausted batteries and repurposed in new ones, which is amazing. The catch however is that the large scale recycling solutions are not yet widely available. 

(11:12):

As a result, less than 5% of lithium ion batteries actually end up being recycled, which isn't exactly the statistic that I like to say, or talk about on this show. I wish it were a lot higher than that. But this doesn't seem to be a problem now as, you know, EVs are so new that not many are to the point where they need to be recycled quite yet. But I do think that this could be a major problem going forward, if the proper infrastructure is not put into place, and you start to have a lot of EVs on the road, and you don't have a way to recycle the raw materials from the batteries itself. 

(11:56):

But the question you've all been wanting the answer to, especially right now, are electric vehicles as good for the environment as we think? In short, the answer is no, not yet. But one day hopefully that will change. The thing that I really want to stress here is that whilst they do undeniably create a lower carbon footprint than internal combustion engine vehicles and trucks, these results can take a lifetime, and by lifetime I mean vehicle lifetime, of use to become true. Ultimately for electric vehicles to be truly a zero emissions solution from wells-to-wheels, it will require a massive overhaul of the current manufacturing processes and the grids that support them. Essentially, electrification is not the final destination for fleets, but rather it's one of the many steps towards creating a sustainable society and operations strategy that fleets can hopefully look forward to in the future. 

(12:50):

I'd love to hear your thoughts on the topic, though. Do you think that electric vehicles are the number one answer for fleets looking to achieve sustainability goals, or do you think it'll be a little bit more complicated than that. Personally, I'm the latter. Let me know by sending me an email, tag me on LinkedIn, or use the hashtag #utilimarcsfleetfyis. You all know how to get a hold of me by now, so I really hope you do. Anyways, that's all from me for now. I look forward to chatting with you again on Thursday, ciao. 

(13:19):

Hey there, I think this is the time that I should cue the virtual high five, because you've just finished listening to another episode of the Fleet FYIs podcast. If you're already wanting more content, head over to Utilimarc.com, which is Utilimarc with a C. U-T-I-L-I-M-A-R-C, .com, for the show notes and extra insights coming from our analyst to you. That's all from me this week. So, until next time, I'll catch you later.