EV batteries are harmful to the environment, but they are still better than gasoline cars. This is why

Tenke Fungurume Mine, one of the largest copper and cobalt mines in the world, is owned by the Chinese company CMOC, in the southeast of the Democratic Republic of Congo. Minerals such as cobalt are important components of electric vehicle batteries, but the mines that produce them can harm the environment and people nearby. Image: Emmet Livingstone/AFP via Getty Images

Earlier this year, NPR’s podcast was released The Sunday story reached out with listener questions about electric vehicles. You can listen to the resulting podcast here. We also take some of the most frequently asked questions and answer them here on NPR.org.

Electric vehicles are also called ‘zero-emission vehicles’. But the batteries inside are not emission-free at all. In fact, making those batteries takes a lot of (mostly non-clean) energy and harms the environment in other ways, a fact that has become common knowledge following widespread media coverage.

Does that environmental damage negate the green benefits of giving up gasoline? Or, as Nissan Leaf owner Jennifer Sousie put it, “Does the production and eventual disposal of the batteries completely negate all the good that the zero-emissions aspect of my car does?”

The answer is no. This is why.

Batteries do more damage initially, and less damage year after year

With everything required to extract and process minerals – from giant diesel trucks to fossil fuel refineries – EV battery production has a significant carbon footprint. The result is that building an electric vehicle does more damage to the climate than building a petrol car.

But the petrol car starts to catch up as soon as it completes its first kilometer.

If you look at the climate impact of construction and use a vehicle – something called a “life cycle assessment” – study after study has shown a clear advantage for electric vehicles. The magnitude of the benefit varies – by vehicle, the source of electricity it runs on and a host of other factors – but the general trend is clear.

“The results were actually clearer than we thought,” says Georg Bieker of the International Council on Clean Transportation, who wrote one of those reports. (This is the group that Volkswagen busted for cheating on its emissions tests. Holding industries accountable for whether they actually reduce emissions is the entirety of the ICCT. thing.).

Building a battery is an environmental cost that is paid once. Burning gasoline is a cost that must be paid again and again.

The environmental costs of gasoline continue

Several listeners asked NPR about the negative impacts of mining, beyond carbon emissions. There are several: they disrupt habitats. They pollute with drain water or other waste. And people can suffer in other ways: worker poisonings, child labor, violations of the rights of indigenous communities and more.

Thea Riofrancos is a political scientist who has raised the alarm about these consequences. She’s glad people are asking these questions – and she’d like to see them done for more than just electric cars. “The fact that mined products are in virtually everything we use should give us pause,” she says.

And, she says, anyone weighing an electric car versus a gas-powered car should think just as carefully about the other side of the equation: the costs of relying on fossil fuels.

“A traditional car needs mining every day, every time it’s used. It needs the entire fossil fuel extraction complex to power it,” she said.

Carbon pollution from burning gasoline and diesel in vehicles is the largest contributor to climate change in the US. And there are other costs: oil leaks; financing for corrupt oil-rich regimes; the diseases and preventable deaths caused by fossil fuel pollution.

Add that up, she says, and if you’re concerned about all the damage that mining brings, you’ll still want to choose an electric car over a comparable gasoline-powered car.

New technology and better practices can reduce the footprint of electric vehicles

There are several ways in which electric car production can become cleaner.

Public pressure and a shift to mining in regions with stricter regulations, such as the US instead of China, could reduce the damage done in mines. New technology, such as a mining method called “direct lithium extraction,” could produce minerals with a much smaller footprint.

Batteries change too. A group called Lead the Charge evaluates automakers on their efforts to clean up supply chains and source materials ethically; there is a wide range of reviews.

If you want to avoid cobalt in your battery right now due to the horrific mining conditions, you can look for an LFP battery, which is made without cobalt – they’re used in vehicles like the Tesla Model 3 and Ford Mach-E. In the future, sodium-based batteries could be an alternative to lithium.

And last but not least, battery minerals can be recycled. This will only meaningfully reduce the need for mining when large numbers of electric vehicles on the road have reached the end of their lifespan. But ultimately the same molecules of lithium and nickel could be used for many generations of cars – something that cannot be said of fossil fuels. (Recycling batteries is also important because it addresses environmental concerns about the risks of disposing of them.)

What’s best for the planet? Smaller batteries, fewer vehicles

Meanwhile, Riofrancos has advice for people looking to minimize their impact on the environment today.

First ask if you need a car at all. Riofrancos is a big proponent of bicycles and public transportation, which have a much smaller footprint than an electric car. But she also knows firsthand that many parts of the US aren’t designed for car-free living – after years as a bike commuter, she now lives in Providence, Rhode Island, where that doesn’t work. (She tried.)

She and her husband recently replaced their vehicle. “I wasn’t going to buy another gas car, knowing what I know about the climate,” she says. “But I also have a lot of questions about EVs, knowing what I know about EV supply chains.”

So after careful consideration, she bought an EV. But not just any EV. A used Chevy Bolt, that’s one small EV – smaller batteries require less mining. And since it was used, it had become both more affordable and the impact of production had already been more than offset by the gasoline it saved.

A battery pack and a GMC Hummer EV stand outside an event in Lansing, Michigan, in 2022. Thea Riofrancos says car buyers concerned about the environmental impact of battery mining may choose a smaller EV, instead of a behemoth like a Hummer, to minimize the damage. Image: Jeff Kowalsky/AFP via Getty Images

Listeners concerned about the consequences of battery mining are asking the right questions, Riofrancos says. And the answers are more complicated than “yes” or “no” when it comes to electric cars – they can include what kind of electric car, what size and type of battery, and whether you should buy a car at all.

“You know, there is no perfect world, but there is a better world and a worse world and everything in between,” says Riofrancos.

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