No Alternative

If German and other European politicians are to be believed, electric cars are the only cure for all our CO₂ problems. Apart from the fact that their attitude puts an end to any possibility of using other essential solutions such as hydrogen and e-fuels, it is well worth taking a look at the actual CO₂ footprint of electric cars in order to understand them properly. Christian Hanisch, Engineer at the company No Canary, recently published on LinkedIn an interesting summary on this subject. According to his calculations and the information in the 2019 Tesla Impact Report, the production of the Model 3 has a Global Warming Potential (GWP) of 11 t of CO₂ equivalent. This results in a greenhouse potential of 5200 kg of CO₂e per battery pack. In the case of a 50-kWh battery, this gives a GWP of 117 kg CO₂e/kWh. Tesla says that customers will be able to cover 12,000 km every year for 17 years in a Model 3. This is unlikely to be achieved with one single battery pack. …