Also, gas is single use, but lithium and cobalt are infinitely recyclable. When you calculate the environmental cost of producing your EV's battery, it's not really appropriate to assign all of that to just one car, because a lot of it will get recycled.

This is the best argument I can think of when people start to talk about how awful lithium mining is for the planet. Yes, it does genuinely suck that we have to dig these giant holes in the ground, but at least when we find what we're looking for we don't ship it across the world and then literally set it on fire.

The CO2 effects of gasoline use will far outweigh any effects of mining for EV materials.

Thank you! That was exactly what I was looking for.

In terms of impact, think of it this way - As long as you sell your ICE car to someone else, it's still being driven and maybe it's displacing the purchase of a new ICE car, which is what we really want to prevent. Ideally we would just stop producing new ICE vehicles completely and repair/maintain/sell the existing fleet until it's no longer needed. Hopefully new EVs will also be driven for a very long time, and their on-going environmental impact will lessen as power production decarbonizes going forward. People focus a lot on 'personal' impact, but as long as the car is still being driven, it doesn't really matter who is doing the driving.

It’s not a trivial exercise.

I think it’s important to look at the future pollution and compare without going into the sunk cost fallacy. The pollution from your existing car cannot be taken back and I think there is no point to make this pollution "worth it".

Producing a new vehicle, that will generate a lot of pollution too, may be better over time. It will depend on your electricity grid and how much you drive.

You old vehicle may also go on the used market and replace a much more polluting vehicle. It’s difficult to take into account all parameters.