The Myth of Electric

I was having a conversation with a friend about this blog. I said, “I think I’m going to write about the myth of fast charging.” He immediately fired back, “how about the myth of electric?” Well that was just rude. Electric vehicles have a lower cost of ownership and zero emissions. What could he be talking about?

The reality is that electric vehicles don’t really have zero emissions. They just transfer emissions from the vehicle to the power plant generating the electricity used to recharge the batteries. I’ll eventually get to the fast charging topic, but for now let’s look at emissions. There are many definitions of “carbon footprint.” For our purposes we will define it as the amount of greenhouse gases produced, specifically the amount of carbon dioxide (CO2) produced.

Today’s diesel engines have very low carbon dioxide emissions compared to those of just a few years ago. I’m going to compare an electric bag tractor to one of the new diesel bag tractors. Two assumptions: (1) the diesel engine is 65hp and produces 800g CO2 / hp-hr. (2) The power plant producing the electricity generates 650g CO2 / kwh, which is the U.S. average.

The electric tractor will generate 10,439 pounds of CO2 per year.20kwh/day x 0.650kg/kwh x 365days/year x 2.2lbs/kg = 10,439 pounds

The diesel tractor will generate 74,534 pounds of CO2 per year.
3.5hr/day x 65hp x .51ave hp/rated hp x 0.8kg/hp-hr x 365 days/year x 2.2lbs/kg = 74,534 pounds

Clearly there is a huge difference in favor of electric vehicles. Over the course of 10 years, the diesel tractor will produce 640,950 more pounds of carbon dioxide than its electric counterpart. That’s a huge carbon footprint!

Do you disagree with my numbers? Enough to make up 640,950 pounds?

There’s no “myth of electric.” It lowers your cost of ownership, it lowers your carbon footprint, and it’s still zero emissions at the airport. GO GREEN!