Mr Bean helps with our Q&A: Should I buy an electric car?
Since the Biden administration passed the Inflation Reduction Act with rebates for electric cars, I wonder if this is the time to make the switch.
It’s all too common for environmentalists to boast about their electric cars, but cars are a problem in myriad ways - not just when they have internal combustion engines. Here’s how I responded to a question about this in 2023.
Q: Since the Biden administration passed the Inflation Reduction Act with rebates for electric cars, I wonder if this is the time to make the switch. I like my car and it’s still in good shape, but shouldn’t I be driving an EV to do my part in reducing climate change?
A: This is one of those questions where the answer is, “It depends.” EVs are the future. If you need to buy a car and have the money, you should, yes, buy an EV. (Sad, isn’t it, that Elon Musk will profit if you buy a Tesla?)
On the other hand, if your current car is doing the job, there’s a solid argument for not buying an EV now. EV technology continues to improve, and prices will come down.
Thank all the goddesses! Mr Bean has come to my rescue with an oped:
“I love electric vehicles – and was an early adopter. But increasingly I feel duped,” says Rowan Atkinson. “We need also to acknowledge what a great asset we have in the cars that currently exist (there are nearly 1.5bn of them worldwide). In terms of manufacture, these cars have paid their environmental dues and, although it is sensible to reduce our reliance on them, it would seem right to look carefully at ways of retaining them while lowering their polluting effect. Fairly obviously, we could use them less. As an environmentalist once said to me, if you really need a car, buy an old one and use it as little as possible.”
Perhaps most important is a factor that politicians ignore: if you switch to an EV, you’ll be selling or trading in your current car, and someone is going to keep driving it. 1
This is a point I’ve been asking car experts and economists about since the days of Cash for Clunkers: When deciding to buy an electric car, how do I factor in what will happen to my old car? Everyone says it’s a great question, but no one has had an answer.
The economists pointed out that new products are more efficient to use and often require less energy and water and fewer raw materials in their manufacture, and that the older products can be sold in the used market.
That’s true, but it wasn’t an answer to the question we’re asking.
That old car won’t just disappear from the planet. Someone else will drive it, using gasoline. At the end of its life, it’ll go to a junkyard. What then? How much energy will it take to process and recycle the materials and how much pollution will be created?2
As we work towards a transition to renewable energy, it is easy to focus on shiny new cars and sleek electric trains without also working out details for disposal, re-use, and re-manufacture. For example, we’re talking about building high-speed train lines in the United States. But we also have a large network of old train lines. Some of my colleagues would like to rip them all up and replace them with electric trains. They don’t want to hear about modest upgrades that would let us get passenger service going quickly. And no one seems to be thinking through how to divide funds between the “state of good repair” backlog and new, visionary projects.
We can “go big” with these recovery bills but there still won’t be enough money for everything we’d like to see done, especially when infrastructure has been neglected for decades. (Believe it or not, many of the tunnels, bridges, and railway lines in the United States are close to 100 years old. I’m all for making things last, but this is ridiculous.)
Does it make sense to spend $43 billion (yes, billion) on repairs to the Northeast Corridor train line between Washington and Boston without simultaneously making some of the changes required actually to modernize, including the transition to renewable energy?3
What happens to the gas-guzzlers, diesel trains, unneeded planes, and out-of-date fridges?
Once again, we’re focusing on the immediate action, the purchase or installation or urgent repair, and ignoring everything else. This won’t take us to a sustainable future. The concept of a circular economy and life-cycle analysis need to become part of our thinking, with tools accessible to ordinary citizens and used by policy makers.
When it comes to automobiles, the greener option is probably to keep driving whatever you drive now while reducing your overall mileage by carpooling, walking, or riding a bike, and taking buses and trains whenever possible. But if you need a new car, or are definitely planning to buy one, there’s really no question: you should invest in the future with an EV.
PS: I have just learned, from the Atlantic magazine terrific climate newsletter, that US car rental companies have jumped all over the EV thing (probably plan to pocket plenty of government rebates) without ensuring that they’re going to be practical for their customers. Here’s the article: “Good luck charging your surprise electric rental car.”
“With no forewarning, no experience driving an EV, and virtually no guidance, what was supposed to be a restful trip upstate was anything but. Just a few hours of highway driving would sap the battery, leaving me and my friends scrounging for public chargers in desolate parking lots, the top floors of garages, and hotels with plugs marked for guests only. It was a crash course in EVs for four people who had never heard of CCS versus CHAdemo, the 80/20 rule, and Level 3 chargers.” —Saahil Desai
Is this happening in other countries? It’s sadly typical of the United States, as I know after spending a decade on the Train Campaign. An uncoordinated rush when there’s public funding to be had, no proper strategy in place, and uneven, inconsistent infrastructure thanks to a system often that leaves road management as well as train operations to county and state authorities, even though we all travel across these borders continually.
Travel safe! And tell me what you’re driving or riding this summer!
Yes, wretched right-wing journalists and politicians in the US, Australia, and no doubt elsewhere seize on an oped like Atkinson’s to denounce wind turbines and solar panels, too. That’s no reason to be less rigorous about planning for a truly sustainable future.
Remanufacture is one of the crucial but neglected issues in green business. Ray Anderson, CEO of Interface and a prominent author and speaker, knew this. (Here’s a TED talk he gave in 2009.) I only met him once, in his office in Atlanta, and he agreed then to be the honorary editor in chief of Berkshire Publishing’s Encyclopedia of Sustainability. His kindness and encouragement still mean a lot.
The $43 billion was one projection. In early 2024, an allocation of $16.4 billion was announced by the White House. Read the release.