[Edward64]

Originally Posted by Solecismic

They cost more emissions in the long run when you consider battery production, weight, shortened life, difficulty to maintain in colder weather. Already, people around the world are being told if they have them they can't charge them at peak times.

This is an interesting topic re: are EV's significantly better than gas, internal combustion engines when factoring everything such as extraction of minerals, production etc.

From what I've been reading on current articles, it does seem overall EV's will be better for the environment as a whole when factoring in "duration, life of vehicles". But there are other articles that say to the contrary and it's not clear to me if there are bias involved (on either side).

I figure MIT is pretty reputable.

Are electric vehicles definitely better for the climate than gas-powered cars? | MIT Climate Portal

Are electric vehicles definitely better for the climate than gas-powered cars?

Although many fully electric vehicles (EVs) carry “zero emissions” badges, this claim is not quite true. Battery-electric cars may not emit greenhouse gases from their tailpipes, but some emissions are created in the process of building and charging the vehicles.

Nevertheless, says Sergey Paltsev, Deputy Director of the MIT Joint Program on the Science and Policy of Global Change, electric vehicles are clearly a lower-emissions option than cars with internal combustion engines. Over the course of their driving lifetimes, EVs will create fewer carbon emissions than gasoline-burning cars under nearly any conditions.

They also talked about the batteries.

One source of EV emissions is the creation of their large lithium-ion batteries. The use of minerals including lithium, cobalt, and nickel, which are crucial for modern EV batteries, requires using fossil fuels to mine those materials and heat them to high temperatures. As a result, building the 80 kWh lithium-ion battery found in a Tesla Model 3 creates between 2.5 and 16 metric tons of CO2 (exactly how much depends greatly on what energy source is used to do the heating).1 This intensive battery manufacturing means that building a new EV can produce around 80% more emissions than building a comparable gas-powered car.2
:
In countries that get most of their energy from burning dirty coal, the emissions numbers for EVs don’t look nearly as good—but they’re still on par with or better than burning gasoline.

I think below is where I land. Basically, we're pretty mature with carbon based vehicles and just beginning with EVs. There is much greater efficiency gains to be had with use of EVs.

And while internal combustion engines are getting more efficient, EVs are poised to become greener by leaps and bounds as more countries add more clean energy to their mix.
:
“Once we decarbonize the electric grid—once we get more and more clean sources to the grid—the comparison is getting better and better,” Paltsev says.