Answering the internet’s most burning questions about EVs

People ask Google about 8.5 billion questions every day, so Straight Arrow News is here to help the search engine out by taking a few of those searches off its hands. You might have seen autocomplete interviews like this before, but in this one, Energy Correspondent Jack Aylmer is going to break down some of the internet’s most burning questions about electric vehicles (EV).

Are electric vehicles better for the environment?

The short answer here is yes, but not right away. That is because making an EV requires minerals and rare earth elements, materials that must be mined from the Earth and then refined — both carbon-intensive processes — all before they can be used.

This results in the process of creating an EV generating up to 80% more emissions than what it would take to build a gas-powered car, according to MIT researchers. It is only after an electric vehicle has been driven for about 15,000 miles that it will become responsible for less emissions than conventional vehicles. In other words, an EV has to drive more than halfway around the entire circumference of the planet before it becomes eco-friendly.

However, once that hurdle is cleared, an electric vehicle will ultimately be much better for the environment. Once a typical EV battery reaches the end of its lifespan at around 200,000 miles, it will be responsible for only about half of the total emissions created by a gas-powered car.

Is an electric vehicle more expensive to insure?

EVs can cost more than your typical vehicle — on average running people about $5,000 more on the sticker price — but buying insurance for a new electric car will also come at a premium.

Typically drivers of gas-powered vehicles will pay about $165 every month to insure their car, while most EV drivers will have to fork over more than twice that much at a rate of $337 per month. Collision repair and insurance data provided by Mitchell gives some insight into why this is the case.

Electric vehicles consist of more expensive parts, which, when damaged in an accident, will also cost more to fix. Mitchell found that crash repair costs for an electric vehicle usually were almost $1,000 higher than a gas car, insurance providers will charge more for EV premiums to offset the larger maintenance costs.

Are electric vehicles worth it?

This is a little less black and white, but let’s break it down. We have already covered how EVs are more expensive, from upfront costs and insurance premiums, to maintenance and home charger installation fees, these cars absolutely cost more in the short term.

Yahoo Finance estimates that when factoring in all these different hidden expenses, there’s about a $13,000 price difference in owning an electric vehicle versus a typical car. However, there is a catch.

Similar to an EV becoming more environmentally friendly over time, its affordability also improves. After about five to six years, depending on the model, an EV will eventually break even and prove less expensive than a gas car. That comes from less money spent on trips to the gas station, with EV drivers saving as much as $1,000 every year by powering their car up with electricity.

Vehicles that qualify for federal tax credits also become more affordable much quicker than those that do not. A tax credit eligible vehicle can expect to see savings in that previously mentioned five- to six-year window, while a non-eligible EV may not see the break even point until a whole decade later.

Will electric vehicles solve the climate crisis?

No, they will not, at least not by themselves. Fatih Birol, executive director of the International Energy Agency, has said so himself, telling Norwegian online newspaper Nettavisen that “electric cars will not save the climate,” and the idea that they could “is completely wrong.”

According to data from the Union of Concerned Scientists, about 60% of the cars on American roads in 2050 will be electric. However, studies done at the University of Toronto indicate that in order for the U.S. to hit its climate goals, 90% of cars will have to be EVs by then.

Vijay Subramanian, director of global CO2 compliance, cost and powertrain forecasting at S&P Global Mobility believes that “even if millions of people buy battery-electric vehicles, automakers could still fall short of hitting goals set under the Paris Agreement on climate change.”

To reach net zero emissions by 2050, the U.S. and other nations will not only have to decarbonize the transportation sector, but a number of others as well.

Can electric vehicles explode?

The chances are fairly slim, but they are also not zero. This occurs when a thermal runway forms inside an EV battery, creating a chain reaction that causes it to overheat, catch fire and then explode.

EV Firesafe is a company that has compiled extensive data on this phenomenon. It found the odds of it actually happening are really only about 0.1%. Although, when this does occur, the fire it creates can take hours and thousands of gallons of water to put out.

An electric vehicle fire burns with twice the energy of a normal car fire and takes 10 times more water to extinguish. The total amount of water needed to extinguish one of these fires is equal to about half of the average U.S. swimming pool. However, research reviewed by the University of California Berkeley indicates that gas powered cars are actually 30 times more likely to catch fire than EVs.