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| Fig. 1: Tesla Model S Charging. (Source: Wikimedia Commons) |
California leads the United States in number of electric vehicles on the road. [1] According to a report by the International Council on Clean Transportation sales rose by 29 percent from 2015 to 2016, totaling 400,000 electric vehicles on the road. [2] However, this is under 10 percent of California's goal, by 2030, which set by Governor Jerry Brown. The International Council on Clean Transportation believes that California can achieve this goal. According to sales reports, large cities, including San Francisco, San Jose, and Los Angeles lead the state. [2] It can be concluded that wealthier areas lead these sale numbers, and in order to meet this goal, these less wealthy areas will need to increase their electric vehicle sale numbers. California continues to push sources of renewable energy, with the California State Legislature signing a bill, requiring the state to get 100 percent of its electricity from carbon free sources by 2045. [3] With California's large population and 26,199,436 registered drivers, emissions from vehicles remains the largest emitting sector, accounting for 37 percent of emissions. While this projected increase in electric vehicles in California will require updates to the energy system, less emissions via transportation will greatly decrease California's overall carbon emissions.
Electric vehicles are energy efficient and reduce emissions. Fig. 1 shows a 100% electric vehicle charging. Due to the fact these cars use a battery, they produce zero tailpipe emissions. However, due to the electricity and power needed to charge these electric cars, they are still emitting toxic fumes into the environment. [4] Based on a study from the Agenda, electric vehicles will actually increase air pollution compared to new internal combustion vehicles. New vehicles emit only 1% of what they did in the 1960s, and a lot of data on electric vehicles is compared to these older vehicles, leading to a misrepresentation of data. This energy comes from somewhere - powerplants, which often use non renewable resources. California, which is implementing policies to use more renewable energy, has the highest electric rates in the continental US, 50% greater than the national average. [4] On the other hand, electric vehicles will reduce greenhouse gas emissions. However, the EIAs projection on the number of new electric vehicles, the overall reduction in CO2 emissions from 2018 to 2050 would only equate to around one-half of one percent of the total forecast U.S. energy-related carbon emissions. [4] Transportation is already the largest sector for California's energy consumption. An increase in electric vehicles, as projected, would only increase these levels of consumption beyond the 38 percent.
Consequently, due to the pollution caused by this demand for electricity, electric vehicles, all over the nation, and especially in states like California are less environmentally pure as we believed.
© Hannah Howell. The author warrants that the work is the author's own and that Stanford University provided no input other than typesetting and referencing guidelines. The author grants permission to copy, distribute and display this work in unaltered form, with attribution to the author, for noncommercial purposes only. All other rights, including commercial rights, are reserved to the author.
[1] K. Alexander, "Electric Cars Make Inroads in California - But Fast Enough?" San Francisco Chronicle, 7 May 18.
[2] N. Lutsey, "California's Continued Electric Vehicle Market Development," The International Council on Clean Transportation, May 2018.
[3] N. Bullard, "Electric Vehicles' Day Will Come, and It Might Come Suddenly," Bloomberg, 31 Aug 18.
[4] J. Lesser, "Are Electric Cars Worse for the Environment?" Politico, 15 May 18.
