Factcheck: How electric vehicles help to tackle climate change

In response to recent misleading media reports on the topic, Carbon Brief provides a detailed look at the climate impacts of EVs and finds:

• EVs are responsible for considerably lower emissions over their lifetime than conventional (internal combustion engine) vehicles across Europe.
• In countries with coal-intensive electricity generation, the benefits of EVs are smaller – with similar lifetime emissions to the most efficient conventional vehicles.
• As countries decarbonise electricity generation, emissions from driving and manufacturing EVs will fall.
• Comparisons between electric vehicles and conventional vehicles are complex. They depend on the size of the vehicles, the accuracy of the fuel-economy estimates used, how electricity emissions are calculated, what driving patterns are assumed, and even the weather in regions where the vehicles are used. There is no single estimate that applies everywhere.