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Originally Posted by Brian Swartz
No, they actually don't. The emissions caused by production are definitely an issue, but even without further improvements on that front - there are some promising technologies that appear to be coming soon - they are still a better option than standard internal-combustion vehicles. The charging issue of course depends greatly on what we do with the overall power-generation infrastructure.
The other point of course is that we just have to get off of using oil for as many products as possible as soon as possible as the world supply continues to head in the wrong direction.
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We've been hearing about promising technologies for decades. Electric grids will fail if they don't emerge soon. England is already headed back to coal to keep the lights on. Germany's in worse shape because predicting a warmer-than-average winter to make the numbers work and getting a colder-than-average start means serious trouble on the horizon. They are spending a fortune keeping the lights on, and that means poorer countries are having difficulty getting fuel and those blackouts are already starting. Our only hope - that we learn from the lessons Germany and other countries are going to experience the next few years.
You have factor in so much when you replace the gasoline method with electric. Mining, the availability and transport of (enormous amounts of) copper and rare-earth metals, construction of the batteries, the shorter lifespan, the increasing inefficiency of charging as the batteries slowly die, the increased need for charging capacity (already a huge issue - people in Finland were just told they shouldn't use the heaters in their electric cars as they go through a long sub-freezing period), the cost of replacing a useless battery and all the materials that went into its production, the cost of recycling and the damage that does to the environment. When you add it all up, especially combined with the increasing cost of electricity, the additional weight you have to transport, and the eventual end (surely it musk end) of the subsidies... it's very bad for the environment and even worse for the financial health of those who invest in the technology. I wouldn't get a Tesla even if the government subsidies dropped the MSRP in half.
The only answer with today's technologies (it was going to be hydrogen just around the corner 20 years ago, and hydrogen is making a comeback in today's speculation) is to ban personal transportation. But that's not realistic for those of us who live outside of major city centers. So, herd us together in mega-cities like London or Beijing? I hope it doesn't come to that.