Dirty Little Secret? Electric Vehicles Proving To Be The Dirtiest Form Of Transport Available

 Last summer, California highway police pulled over pop star Justin Bieber as he sped through Los Angeles in an attempt to shake the paparazzi. He was driving a hybrid electric car—not just any hybrid, mind you, but a chrome-plated Fisker Karma, a US $100 000 plug-in hybrid sports sedan he’d received as an 18th-birthday gift from his manager, Scooter Braun, and fellow singer Usher. During an on-camera surprise presentation, Braun remarked, “We wanted to make sure, since you love cars, that when you are on the road you are always looking environmentally friendly, and we decided to get you a car that would make you stand out a little bit.” Mission accomplished.

Bieber joins a growing list of celebrities, environmentalists, and politicians who are leveraging electric cars into green credentials. President Obama once dared to envision 1 million electric cars plying U.S. roads by 2015. London’s mayor, Boris Johnson, vibrated to the press over his born-again electric conversion after driving a Tesla Roadster, marveling how the American sports coupe produced “no more noxious vapours than a dandelion in an alpine meadow.” Meanwhile, environmentalists who once stood entirely against the proliferation of automobiles now champion subsidies for companies selling electric cars and tax credits for people buying them.

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thetruth01 - 7/3/2013 1:32:57 PM

+3 Boost

yawnnnnnn.
Here we go again. Cherry picking studies that only question the benefits of electric cars, most do not even downright state that they are less green, and then wrapping it up in a dirty little headline.

Some of the author's faults:
-The aforementioned cherry picking.
-Questioning the sources of funding for studies showing electric benefits, but not doing the same for the opposing studies.
-Relying on incomplete data, such as guessing how difficult it may be in the future to extract raw minerals (but negelecting how much waste goes into the more and more complicated extractions of petroleum.)
-Factoring in the damaging effects of production of the vehicles, almost all of which occur in the production of ANY car. (complaining about aluminum hoods and copper wiring, really?)
-Unproven fears of baterry disposals.
-Lies. Similar emissions to a lifetime of low-sulfur diesel emissions? I call serious BS here.
-Throw in fears about China, jabs at celebrities, and pitches for walking or using public transport.

Not a whole lotta credibiity here. But hey, it got me to click!

CarCrazedinCali - 7/5/2013 2:47:10 PM

+2 Boost

seems like a lot of facts to me... electric cars are not as green as people believe

Holydude - 7/3/2013 11:59:24 PM

-1 Boost

Probably written by some Oil-backed PAC or conservative hooligans.

rreid32 - 7/4/2013 12:17:42 AM

+3 Boost

Electric cars DO have a dirty secret - a radioactive footprint - one that will out last the cars many hundreds of years. The following link summarizes the ecological damage http://www.evcorporation.com.au/radioactive/ The production of millions of electric cars using today's rare earth metal technology will create a radioactive waste problem for generations to come. The alternative is to use induction drive motors or fast track the development of Switch Reluctance motors. SR motors are being developed by Australia's CSIRO and Swinburn University in Melbourne.