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Do EV's actually do anything beneficial for the planet? (lemmy.today)

submitted 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago) by helpmyusernamewontfi@lemmy.today to c/asklemmy@lemmy.ml

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I've seen a lot of posts here on Lemmy, specifically in the "fuck cars" communities as to how Electric Vehicles do pretty much nothing for the Climate, but I continue to see Climate activists everywhere try pushing so, so hard for Electric Vehicles.

Are they actually beneficial to the planet other than limiting exhaust, or is that it? or maybe exhaust is a way bigger problem?

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[–] Thevenin@beehaw.org 1 points 10 months ago (1 children)

Hard disagree.

This week, I'm designing a circuit which would traditionally use relays, but I'm considering IGBTs instead. IGBTs weren't designed for my industry, but they're so cheap (thanks to quadcopters) that I can just overspec them and get the job done despite the lack of optimization.

Grid scale energy storage was already being researched before the EV boom -- remember when people stopped talking about vanadium-flow? EV batteries undercut stationary-optimized batteries in $/kWh because EVs are lucrative enough to drive the research that much harder. Without the EV industry as the incubator for competing battery tech, stationary storage would still cost what it did in 2010.

[–] Atemu@lemmy.ml 1 points 10 months ago

EV batteries undercut stationary-optimized batteries in $/kWh because EVs are lucrative enough to drive the research that much harder. Without the EV industry as the incubator for competing battery tech, stationary storage would still cost what it did in 2010.

Cool but that's beside the point. I don't care how lucrative a market is for some aristocrat arseholes. I want what's best for society as a whole, not the pockets of aforementioned aristocrat arseholes.

If we put all the money and effort that went into researching BEV batteries into researching and developing grid-scale batteries instead, I imagine there's a good chance we wouldn't need coal power plants anywhere on earth anymore.

I have absolutely no clue about your example but you can ask the same questions: If the R&D went into relay tech instead of IGBTs, wouldn't you think those would be even less expensive for your use-case?