Reducing climate-damaging CO2 emissions is certainly the most important reason for many people to buy an electric car. You can find out how environmentally friendly e-cars actually are here.
Not all CO2 emissions are the same: electric vehicles are commonly referred to as emission-free because, unlike a car with a combustion engine, they do not produce any CO2 emissions when driving. However, it should be noted that CO2 emissions are also generated during the production of vehicles. The production of the electricity required to run an electric car also produces exhaust gases that are included in the environmental balance. But this much in advance: despite everything, electric cars are clearly an environmentally friendly solution.
Road traffic currently accounts for around a quarter of all CO2 emissions in the EU; cars and trucks are responsible for the majority of these. For this reason, certain emission limits apply to road traffic, which were tightened again in October 2020. This means that the car industry will have to adapt to even stricter guidelines for CO2 emissions from new cars by 2030: According to these, CO2 emissions must fall by 60% compared to 1990, and by 37.5% compared to 2021.
The EU limits stipulate how much carbon dioxide a new car sold may emit on average. The climate targets are intended to help sustainably reduce emissions in road traffic and thus achieve climate protection targets. Until now, new cars may not emit more than 95 grams of carbon dioxide per kilometer in 2021. This value applies to the so-called "fleet average per manufacturer". This means that the average of all vehicles registered in the EU this year should not exceed a certain value. To ensure that manufacturers who predominantly produce heavy cars are not disadvantaged, the limit value is adjusted according to the average weight of the registered vehicles. In addition, manufacturers will receive incentives, so-called "credits", for zero and low-emission vehicles with a fuel consumption of less than 50g CO2/km. These are given a stronger statistical weighting in the calculation of the fleet average.
For many manufacturers, not even the current targets are within reach; the most recent European average was 118.5g CO2/km. The EU limits can only be achieved if more and more all-electric cars are sold. By 2030, a share of 35-40% of new registrations must be electric vehicles.
Overview of the fleet limits:
A fleet limit value of 95g CO2/km currently applies. At the same time, the changeover to the new and more realistic WLTP test procedure is taking place. As a result, the values will be adjusted upwards by approx. 20 %, i.e. to approx. 115g CO2/km in accordance with the previous NEDC test procedure. Depending on the values of the new test procedure, the limit values from 2025 will be specified as a percentage reduction compared to 2021.
E-cars are environmentally friendly and therefore essential for a climate-neutral future. They start life with a minus in CO2 emissions due to the energy-intensive production of the battery. The cleaner the operating electricity is produced, the faster this minus is amortized. Due to the German electricity mix, which still has a high proportion of coal, this will take a little longer than we would like. Nevertheless, according to the German Federal Ministry for the Environment, Nature Conservation, Building and Nuclear Safety, an electric car already produces significantly less CO2 over its entire life cycle than a combustion engine. The expansion of renewable energies will increase the climate advantage even further in the future.
Tip:
Charging your electric car with electricity from renewable energy sources is particularly climate-friendly. Ideally, the electricity should come from your own solar system: in combination with a photovoltaic system, electric cars are extremely environmentally friendly, cost-effective and independent.
But how much electricity does an electric car need? Manufacturers specify consumption in kilowatt hours per 100 kilometers (kWh/100 km). How far you can actually drive with the charging power depends on various factors. Generally speaking, the larger and heavier a vehicle, the higher its power consumption. It is not only how efficiently the electric motor works that is decisive. Losses also occur during charging, which means that more energy is consumed than is ultimately stored in the battery.
Currently, a long range is not necessarily only achieved with an energy-efficient vehicle, but above all with large batteries. It should be noted that speed and temperature can also have a significant impact on range. Nevertheless, the energy costs per kilometer driven are significantly lower than with combustion engines.
The battery is the heart of an electric car and is largely responsible for its range and price. Battery technology has made great leaps forward in recent years. The energy density of batteries has almost doubled while prices have fallen significantly. This means that electric car drivers now get more power for the same money with less weight.
The more charging cycles the battery allows, the slower it ages. Manufacturers generally give an eight to ten-year or 100,000-160,000 km warranty on the battery. This means that the capacity of the battery will not fall below 75% of the initial value during this time.
Lithium-ion batteries lose capacity depending on time and intensity of use. However, they are not worthless, as they can still be used for many years in second-life applications, e.g. as stationary energy storage for wind power or photovoltaic systems. As a rule, they still have an energy content of 70-80% of their original capacity after approx. 1,500-2,500 charging cycles. It is therefore neither economically nor ecologically sensible to dispose of them at this stage. They can continue to be used in so-called "second life" in stationary operation. The advantage of stationary operation is that charging and discharging is slower and more gentle. This means that the battery can be used for another ten to twelve years.
The raw materials contained in a battery, such as lithium and cobalt, are very valuable and can be recovered through recycling. Electric car batteries are not yet recycled on an industrial scale because not enough batteries are available for recycling. The legal situation is also lagging behind in terms of recycling efficiency: experts are therefore currently calling for legislation to regulate the recycling of used batteries.
In order to achieve the highest possible recycling rate, a process involving several steps is required:
As things stand today, the majority of battery materials can be recovered, but some of the process steps are still very energy-intensive and expensive.
When it comes to the reuse and recycling of batteries, much more is already technically possible than is currently required by regulations. The time up to the point at which larger quantities of used batteries are recycled must be used to create clear framework conditions for the processes.
The entire life cycle of the vehicle must be taken into account in an environmental balance sheet: the manufacture of all components, operation and the energy required for this, losses between the power station, power socket and vehicle battery, maintenance requirements and finally recycling and disposal. Realistic consumption values should be used in all these phases of life.
The carbon footprint of an electric car, or more precisely the specific climate-relevant emissions per vehicle kilometer over its entire service life, shows that the greenhouse gas emissions of a purely battery-electric vehicle are significantly lower than those of comparable vehicles with combustion engines, even when the German electricity mix is taken into account. The expansion of renewable energies will further increase the lead, although comparable vehicles with diesel or petrol engines will also become more efficient. An electric car that is newly registered in 2025 will already produce 32-40% less CO2 emissions over its lifetime than a modern combustion engine.