How the type of vehicle affects carbon footprint – Gas car vs Hybrid car vs Electric car
With an increase in awareness about pollution due to cars, there is a rising demand for environmentally friendly cars. But, what cars are more environmentally friendly – petrol/diesel cars natural gas hybrid cars, or electric cars? How is the environmental friendliness of a car calculated? These are some questions you may have in mind. Well, it’s all decided based on the carbon footprint of your car. The smaller the carbon footprint of the car, the more environmentally friendly the car is considered. We will be discussing in detail what carbon footprint is all about.
So, how promising are the celebrated alternative fuel cars like gas or hybrid or electric cars with respect to their carbon footprint? And how effectively can they reduce atmospheric pollution? There have been debates regarding the carbon footprint of electric car production. For example, the production carbon footprint of hybrid cars and electric cars may negate the environmental cleanliness that these cars claim to have. This debate has gained some traction regarding their effectiveness in reducing pollution.
This means we are now questioning how much smaller of a carbon footprint hybrid cars and electric cars have when compared to conventional cars. Read along to find answers to your questions as we will be doing a detailed analysis of the carbon footprint of each type of car. Here we will be discussing in detail the following points:
Finally, you will get a clear picture of which types of cars are more environment-friendly and why the carbon footprint of hybrid and electric cars tends to be lower compared to the carbon footprint of conventional petrol/diesel cars.
What is ‘Carbon Footprint’ and its significance?
We are living in a fast-paced world where there is a continuous race for progress, and as a result of the race, we often have messed up nature and our atmosphere without thinking about it. Due to our negligence, there has been a huge accumulation of greenhouse gases in the earth’s atmosphere.
Carbon footprint is defined as the total amount of greenhouse gases released into the atmosphere by any individual, product, event or organization either directly or indirectly to support any activity by humans. It is usually expressed in equivalent tons of carbon dioxide (CO2).
The accumulation of greenhouse gases stops heat from Earth escaping into nature and thus increases the global temperature. According to some research, by the end of the century, the global temperature may rise more than 2 degrees Celsius, or 3.6 degrees Fahrenheit.
These carbon emissions can become the reason for many in-ground climatic changes like extreme heat or cold in summer or winter and changes in the monsoons causing untimely rains, floods, or drought. The melting of glaciers due to the heat and rising sea levels are other dreaded adverse effects of global warming due to carbon emissions.
Carbon Footprint of Cars
There are several sources of carbon emissions in our environment. But, guess what could be the main source? Do you see the increase in the number of motor vehicles day by day on our roads? Well, we all dream of buying the latest model cars for our use and seldom think of a reason for not buying our dream car. It’s quite natural to not think about the effect buying a modern car today can have on the environment.
But, if we really think about it, we see that each car contributes to the carbon dioxide in the atmosphere, and during each of our drives, we are polluting our environment. A typical passenger vehicle emits approximately 4.6 metric tons of carbon dioxide per year.
Luckily, many people today are becoming more aware of the hazards of carbon emissions and are moving to more environmentally friendly alternative fuel options like natural gas, electric cars, etc.
Many people now opt for environmentally friendly vehicles. Today, the question is which type of vehicle has the least carbon footprint and is best for the environment.
Here we discuss in detail how carbon footprint varies on different vehicle types. There are always questions on the carbon footprint of petroleum cars vs diesel cars vs gas cars or the carbon footprint of electric cars vs hybrid cars. Here we will be taking vehicle type and analyzing and comparing their carbon footprint.
How Cars Cause Increase in Carbon Footprint
In the US, 28.9% of the total carbon emissions are from the transportation section, due to emissions resulting from the combustion of petroleum products in the internal combustion engines. This means the majority of emissions come from passenger cars and light-duty trucks including SUVs and minivans.
Coming to how cars can increase the carbon footprint, let’s take a look at the emissions from a conventional car.
All these emissions from cars contribute to air pollution, ozone layer depletion, and an increase in the levels of greenhouse gases (like carbon dioxide, hydrocarbons, nitrous oxide, and ozone), leading to global warming.
Carbon dioxide emission from cars is not just the emissions from the tailpipe while driving the car, as you may be thinking. It would be best if you also considered the emissions caused by its production and the extraction of fuel and disposal. All these things together are just a small subset compared to the emissions from a car’s exhaust pipe, but they do contribute to the vehicle’s carbon footprint.
Carbon Footprint of Petrol/Diesel/Gas Cars
Now, the question is what type of car is more environmentally friendly or emits less carbon dioxide. Well, as we already said it depends on the fuel used, the type of vehicle, and its fuel consumption.
SUVs that have more powerful engines have higher fuel consumption compared to smaller cars, which means having higher than average carbon dioxide emissions. The average SUV had emissions of around 131.7g/km in 2016 across the European Union compared to 117.5g/km for a medium-segment car or 107.2g/km for a small-segment car.
Now, coming to the fuel used. People have debated which is more environmentally friendly – petrol/gasoline cars or diesel cars.
You may have heard that back in the 90s, it was believed that diesel was a more environmentally friendly fuel and the carbon dioxide emissions of diesel vehicles tended to be lower. This is because diesel engines emit less carbon dioxide per kilometer, owing to their higher mileage and the fact that per kilometer diesel engines burn less fuel compared to a petrol engine car. Even governments gave incentives to buyers of diesel vehicles to encourage them to buy them and thus reduce the carbon emissions in the country.
But that was way back in the 1990s. Things have changed a lot now. Today, petrol cars come with improved designs of petrol engines using catalytic converters. Now, it turns out that petrol engines with catalytic converters are equal to their diesel counterparts with regard to carbon dioxide emissions. The average carbon dioxide emissions of diesel cars (121.5 g CO2/km) and petrol cars(123.4 g CO2/km) are so close by with just a difference of 1.9 g Carbon dioxide/km.
In fact, petrol cars are considered a better option and much more environment-friendly than diesel vehicles, which have higher emissions of NOx and particulate matter like soot. However, petrol and diesel cars still do contribute to a larger share of carbon emissions.
The next cleaner option to petrol/diesel is natural gas vehicles. These use compressed natural gas or liquefied natural gas which is cleaner compared to petrol or diesel. However, the combustion of natural gas also produces carbon dioxide (117 g CO2 compared to 161.3 (diesel) and 157(petrol/gasoline) and has a significant carbon footprint.
Carbon Footprint of Hybrid Cars Vs Electric Cars
So, the fight for a clean car is between electric and hybrid cars.
Electric cars run with an electric motor that is powered by energy from rechargeable batteries which can be charged by plugging into electric sources. Whereas, hybrid cars are usually powered by two sources – an internal combustion engine and an electric motor, which uses energy stored in batteries. But, in the case of a hybrid electric car, the battery is charged through regenerative braking and by the internal combustion engine.
An electric car emits no exhaust from the tailpipe and might seem to have zero carbon footprint. But wait, to calculate the carbon footprint of a car, you ought to consider the carbon emissions during manufacturing and charging as well as with driving. So, let’s now find out which is more environmentally friendly – hybrid cars or electric cars by analyzing each of the stages.
1.Production
Coming to production, the manufacturing of hybrid and electric cars consumes more energy than conventional cars. Their manufacturing process involves additional processes, which involve the consumption of more fossil fuels, and which results in the emission of more greenhouse gases.
According to the Union of Concerned Scientists (UCS), the manufacturing of electric vehicles causes 15%- 68% more emissions than the emissions during the manufacture of conventional cars.
Also, the production of hybrid car batteries utilizes more energy than required for standard car batteries, resulting in more emissions of gases like sulfur dioxide.
2. Charging/Energy Source
As you know, an electric car obviously needs to be charged. The environmental friendliness of an electric car depends on the source of energy you rely on to charge with. To put it simply, an electric car is indirectly responsible for all emissions that are produced during the process to generate the power required to charge the car. It is often called “upstream emissions”.
Hence, if the electricity you use to charge the cars is from non-renewable sources like coal power plants or nuclear power plants, your electric car will be indirectly generating carbon emissions.
But, f you are using electricity generated from solar PV cells in your household, it is a completely clean source and thus no carbon emissions. However, that is very expensive and it may not even be possible for your household to generate the amount of electricity needed to power these types of cars.
However, as nations are moving towards cleaner methods of energy production, the source of the electricity used to charge an electric car is definitely going to be cleaner than gasoline. Hence these emissions would be much lower than the real exhaust pipe emissions from conventional cars.
3. Driving
Electric vehicles obviously have zero emissions from the tailpipe as they do not burn any fuel.
However, hybrid vehicles still have an internal combustion engine and burn conventional fuel, and thus produce carbon emissions. However, the emissions from a hybrid vehicle are 50% less than emissions from a conventional vehicle.
4.Battery disposal
Battery disposal is a critical and sensitive issue for vehicles, be it conventional, hybrid or electric. We all know that it is important for car batteries to be disposed of properly, as they may contain many chemicals that can be harmful to the environment.
Conventional car batteries are often dismantled in recycling centers and recycled for use in other products. Batteries of hybrid and electric vehicles can be either recycled for use in other applications or even reused for several purposes like as a backup power source for retail centers, hospitals, etc. Thus, they beat conventional cars with respect to battery disposal as well.
Even with all these emissions during manufacture/charging, the electric and hybrid cars offset the carbon dioxide emissions from a conventional car in the first few months of using itself. Undoubtedly, the carbon emissions from the tailpipes of petrol/diesel cars make their carbon footprint significantly higher than the hybrid or electric car production’s carbon footprint.
Now, coming to the answer for hybrid vs electric cars, it all narrows down to the source of electricity from where an electric car is going to be charged. In states or countries that use more clean power sources, electric cars beat hybrid cars in creating lesser carbon emissions. However, in the states or countries relying on conventional power sources, hybrids may outperform electric cars in terms of fewer emissions.
Calculate your driving emissions (Your Car’s Carbon Footprint)
Now that you have seen the carbon footprint of different types of vehicles, are you wondering how to calculate the carbon footprint of your car? Here is a simple carbon footprint calculator where you just need to enter your car details to know its carbon footprint. Check out here.
Conclusion
Electric and hybrid cars are more environmentally friendly with the least carbon footprint followed by gas cars. And the highest carbon footprint is for petrol/diesel cars obviously. However, purchasing electric/hybrid cars might be too expensive for many people compared to the cost of conventional cars.
But, considering that the environment is everyone’s responsibility, even if you cannot afford an electric/hybrid car you can think of other ways to reduce carbon footprint, such as more walking or cycling, using public transport, etc. Carpooling is also an effective way to reduce carbon emissions from cars. Think of how much carbon emissions can be avoided if you could use carpooling for daily needs like going to work or for kids going to school using carpool apps like GoKid. Every small effort to go green counts to make a big impact on our environment. Let’s make the earth an even better place to live.
