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Comment by tw04 | Hacker News Reader

Huh? It sounds like it's a reason to re-design the guard rails. EVs aren't going away short of the discovery of some miracle fuel that doesn't generate greenhouse gasses. Even with a 100% hybrid fleet, the emissions will still continue to exacerbate climate change. We either figure out how to stop burning oil, or mother nature will take care of the problem (us) herself.

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Where do you think the electricity to power EVs comes from?

The power comes from a mix of natural gas, wind, solar, hydro, and coal. Coal is a shrinking component of the US power supply.

EVs are so efficient in using that power that even if you were to power entirely from coal, the CO2 produced with be no more than that produced by a 50mpg Hybrid. The US grid is not remotely as dirty as that.

Where do you think gasoline comes from?

Even if you collected 100% of tailpipe emissions EV’s would still be cleaner in the US.

Residential rooftop solar in the US already produces enough energy to cover the charging of every EV currently on the road, and we're adding capacity each year faster than new EVs are consuming it, so that'll continue to be true.

Here (central CO) our energy supply is 33% renewable (increasing each year), 35% coal (phasing out, target 2030, NM coal plants we drew from already phased out back in 2020), 18% natural gas/oil, and 14% produced by others (no direct control). The benefit of shifting the energy from gas cars to electric is that as the grid converts to increasingly focus on renewables the overall emissions drop. Many people here are also putting in rooftop solar (this is a very sunny area, even through the winter though obviously with shorter days).

Sibling comments have the answer. The math is that petrol powertrain is only 16% efficient, so coal power plant+long distance transmission+electric drivetrain still leads to less emissions.

https://thedriven.io/2024/01/31/electric-vehicles-use-half-t...

Nuclear and Solar, at least for ours.

Mine's almost entirely hydro.

Nuclear, wind, solar, and decreasingly coal.

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