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More Than Electric Lyrics

frederickthesquirrel

"The power grid could handle it if 25% of cars were electric tomorrow."

I'd like to see the source for that, considering that the electric grid in some places already can't handle the current load. Rolling blackouts are common in California, and starting to happen in other states as well.

Sean Sutton

EV charging pulls about as much power as a home A/C unit. You tend to use the A/C units during the day, charge EVs at night. Quite a few companies have incentives for people who only charge their EV at night.

frederickthesquirrel

@Adam Musgrove Yet

Adam Musgrove

The majority of the grid is not anywhere near as strained.

Biden the Maga Terminator

I like how he quickly skimmed through the cobalt process.

Trent Franklin

My Chevy Volt was a "gateway drug". I average 186 mpg. When I run out of battery and start using gas, I don' t use very much. It's soooo quiet and really quick off the line.
I'm looking forward to the Ford F150 Lightning. I love the idea that it can power the home during a power outage.

Evan Panek

@Moo Choo PR having to replace a whole battery on a Volt is extremely rare, they are very solid cars, great daily drivers.

Moo Choo PR

@Loren Fok Replacing the battery cost as much as the value of the car (as it depreciate), so...

Loren Fok

What year volt? Would you recommend getting a used one? Ranges in 15-25k range depending on mileage. 15k for an 80,000 miles and I've see about $25k for a 30,000 miles

LWRC

LOL gasoline backup!!! And the EV still uses fossil fuels!!!

jvanderveen

Thank you for including the impact of gasoline production in your comparison. Many people comparing the impact of EV vs ICE only compare coal burning factories to tailpipes. INPUT and OUTPUT of both need to be considered for a fair comparison.

RaXha

@Torrel Not only that, they can be recycled, so that's another positive. 🙂

Torrel

@Henry Tudor batteries can be recycled, unlike fuel. So that's likely a bigger positive for the EV

Henry Tudor

how does the manufacturing process get there oil from to produce and distribute there EV car to the dealer as well as keeping the factory going. he missed out getting the mined products to the manufacturer to make batteries, then the disposal of said battery

Uzi Corndog

dude really stood in front of a green screen just so they could make him stand in front of a blue one

SmexyangelMike

LOL THAT USERNAME

jp Garcia

Your editor needs to watch some keying tutorials. Lots of green spillage on your face and the crappy keying job is evident on the bottom right. Other than that great video.

LEO

It is called a blue screen.

Any RD

@BobPaul this is because digital sensors have twice the number of green pixels. Blue screens are quite common for film.

Sean Sutton

Having owned an EV for a while now, the inconvenience of having to drive somewhere else and stand outside and wait for my car to refuel seems pretty ridiculous to me. How many of you would put up with a cell phone that you had to take into a store once a week to change its batteries?

noah guillen

@Torcano the Minecraftian Oh what's this solution? Sounds interesting

Torcano the Minecraftian

I have a solution to the long wait time but they hadn't done it yet it's like a propane exchange in a way it would take maybe 5 minutes I swear the first company to do it will make cash

Jeff Anderson

Well done video. I'm not convinced about evs though. Some jurisdictions are telling people not to charge their cars because of electricity demand. The need for battery replacement will be very expensive and I wonder if this nullifies the initial reduced emissions. Other issues as well. Thanks for the great content.

Nationalist Fanatic

Did you take into account the need to replace the batteries in an EV in the long run? At what interval are they replaced on average? Did you compare average mileage equally? How do they stack up if both drive 11,800 miles per year? Given EV low range that's a lot of charging too...

W K

yeah and noone realizes tree's are literally designed to eliminate co2. Our effect on the earth is so small compared to natural cycles of the earth

Adam Victor

I bought a 10 year old accord for 7k. Works great. Most electric cars will need a battery replacement after 10 years which costs significantly more than that just for the swap. So electric cars definitely are not for poor people.

07_GT500

@TruthChangeLove You think electric won't need stuff too? You still need tires brakes suspension just the same amount of money it also costs money to charge it's common sense

Lance YOXTHEIMER

Make a video on how they store these used batteries because they're considered toxic waste

Ryan Watson

While there have been some cheaper EV cars, I agree. But most early stage technologies have a price barrier for a time (i.e. internet, gps, cell phones, TV's)

Sam

Aptera is a company thats a WIP and if they suceed the batteries packs are much smaller which means a lower cost for the replacement.

TruthChangeLove

And you’ll spend 25,000 extra in gas and maintenance on the gas car in those 10 years.
The new EVs only have a 10 percent degradation in 14 years so it will last you for the life of the car.

Wayne Alejo

Y’all at Donut need to get this guy a higher frame rate camera.

ALTchannel4comments

that low frame camera bothered me too

Rick TD

Y'all need to learn about the global warming scam before buying shit electric cars.

CatInTheHat

The truth about low frame, don't exist until you click this

kyrars6

@Pedro Esquivias said the guy with a mac book

AXE

@bruh kool

Paul G

Few things you missed that are important...
1) cold weather... It's about 20 out where I am. Even after I installed a charger for my friend, it was taking up to 48 hours for a charge.
2.) End of life cycle on an e.v. is much like the beginning, less friendly.
3) when those lithium batteries reach their end, it is cost prohibitive to recycle them. So where does that lithium and cobalt go? Yikes!
4.) The grid cannot handle even 10% e.v. usage in highly populated areas without restricting usages. Coming from an electrical engineer. New building codes are pushing us the way of more electric components in houses so things are working against us.
5) when things happen in nature, there is often very limited electrical sources. So response and capabilities are diminished greatly.
You make some great points. I applaud you. But there are some barriers here. A mix of vehicle types is and always be the answer.

ALTchannel4comments

@Sean Sutton keep in mind its a kia niro EV with 32 kwh of battery, which is different than 72 kwh on a tesla (I am assuming that paul's friend has a tesla and that you have an older kia niro, so take that as you will)

Sean Sutton

Something's wrong with your installation job if it's taking 48 hours to charge a car. My Kia Niro EV can go from 10% to full in about 6 hours with my 240v charger.

As far as the grid goes - lots of places give significant incentives to charge at night when power usage (particularly A/C usage) is low. There really isn't a reason to charge your car during the day.

Likeable Cloud

@ALTchannel4comments as hybrids are both

Likeable Cloud

@ALTchannel4comments but hybrids will replace them both

ALTchannel4comments

so, all in all, gas cars will never replace electric cars, and electric cars will never replace gas cars

Myshoeshurt420

i would like to see the impact of the dead battery's through out the life of an EV like how many you will replace in your life and the recycling / disposing of them

smokeystriper

and then compare that to the impact of all the oil changes, coolant flushes, and leaking fluids from an ICE vehicle. You know, for science.

Alonzo Garbanzo

Thanks for the video, Nolan. I'm still left wondering if Colbalt is even more rare than Cobalt!

THEUrinalCake

I've prayed at the altar of internal combustion for nearly a quarter century since I became a driver, and the American V8 was my lord and savior for most of it. That being said, I think the folks dying on either the EV or ICE hill are making a mistake. I think the way forward is either through hybrid technology, or having one of each available as they both have their strengths and weaknesses. EV probably more for daily drive/A to B/Economy runs and ICE for the fun/tough stuff. We can get the daily grind jobs done easier and cleaner, then when it's party time we can let our hair down and hit it hard OG style and not feel bad about it. Though the EVs are starting to seriously enter the performance realm as well. I mostly just want to see these asshole oil companies get knocked down a peg. Corporate greed and hoarding of wealth are ruining just about everything in this country and we need to start curbing them if we want to have any kind of future at all.

Matt Powers

I'm an avid supporter of environmental movements, but I think the conversation of ICE vs. Electric is a bit of a distraction. I think that as consumers we like to believe that by buying a different type of vehicle, we can solve the climate crisis, and continue as we were. In reality, I don't see the switch to electric vehicles being more than a drop in the bucket of transitioning to a more sustainable future. It just handily fits into a narrative to sell us more stuff. This is a lateral move, not a solution. A true change would be switching to massive transit networks, developing bike/pedestrian friendly zones without cars, and reworking how we think about travel. Do I think this is likely to happen? Unfortunately not, and so Tesla figured they could sell a lot of cars in the meantime.

I work with battery technology regularly, and I also echo some of the comments of caution regarding life-span & demand for batteries. Batteries are already in extremely high demand, and only accelerating. What happens in 8 years when they all need to be replaced? I think the storage component is the biggest drawback, which doesn't really factor into this analysis (at least not in terms of replacing it), and potentially draws the environmental impact of the two even closer together. I think it's important to drive what you like, know the impact is has, and find ways to make meaningful change that you desire. Cars are a very obvious source of greenhouse gases, but every choice you make has the potential to make a difference as well. The cooling & heating of your home, your diet, the companies you support, etc. You can drive yourself crazy thinking about the best ways to make a difference, but finding the happy medium and walking the line with awareness is probably a good start

W K

people who drive electric cars and think its good for the environment are the same people that buy the fabric bags at grocery stores.

Andrew Costello

What about the added emissions when it comes to replacing the batteries in the electric cars. That also adds to its emissions.

Skeptic Talk

Even if they are better for the environment, there's a few parts to this whole equation he didn't talk about. Maintenance costs (which will cause more environmental impact) and this goes with battery replacement, expense, and environmental impact.

The expenses on these from what I can tell are MASSIVE? Maybe someone can elaborate on this? A lot of the newer electric cars have an 8-10 year battery life where they won't hold much of a charge anymore after that and there's severe degradation. The cost to replace these batteries....anywhere from $5,000-$20,000 dollars depending on the battery which is an insanely huge expense....don't let that bother you though $rolls eyes$.

Replacement of these lithium batteries has an impact on the environment again obviously. Someone will have to replace that battery every X number of years or trash and replace the entire car (again this is beyond the cost $$$$ many normal people can afford). I have a 1998 Buick Century with 120k miles on the engine, and it's still using the SAME ENGINE it was built with almost 25 years ago.

Basically these cars seem like a money and time sink pit in general. If you go on a road trip say 500 miles you'd have to spend an additional X number of hours stopping and recharging a long the way. Yikes! I'm sorry to say, but the technology isn't there for this until we can find something better than conventional batteries.

If we can find a way to store energy that isn't heavy, costly, and easily degrades over time like current batteries then we would be good to go.

FoxDog

This was one reason I didn't like ev in general when you aren't using the car the battery is depleting so over time it just wears down like a cellphone battery....yeah there's no solution to cheaply maintain it which sucks vs maintaining a engine.

Cayenne Pacific

I totally agree with all your points. Very well said. And it also means if everyone has electric cars and the electricity grids aren’t strong enough to handle all the power demands, there’s gonna be so many blackouts in cities and the cost of electricity will increase substantially making the running costs of electric cars even higher than petrol cars. The government think they’re trying to solve a pollution problem which they’re on the right road but by doing so they will create even more problems while trying to solve a problem which is why I’m skeptical on the electric car future and all ICE car sale bans.

Plus replacing the battery which will cost as much as a new car?? Therefore creating planned obsolescence and either forcing you to buy the newer model, pay so much cash for a replacement battery or living with degraded driving range. No thank you. 🙁 I’m happy a petrol/ gas car for now which will still have the same range even 10 years after it’s purchase.

Christopher Lee

Nolan: those freaking Chargers
Also Nolan: nothing matches a V8 turning gas into noise 😂

DB Class 407

@Rhett Salsbury EVs can have vibrations and feel as well. It's less on the engine, and more on the tires, which I consider more important.

Rhett Salsbury

@DB Class 407 it ain't just the noise, its the vibration and feel of the engine as well

DB Class 407

@Misato Katsuragi Pleasing noise is subjective anyway. What could be pleasing to you can be annoying for everyone else.

Misato Katsuragi

@DB Class 407 no

Daniel

Hey Donut Media. I’m doing research for this exact topic for school, and was just wondering if I you had the sources that you used for your information?

Rui Silva

Hey man.
I really like how you started the video. You rightly started by stating the problems of water consumption by lithium mining and (some) of the problems of Cobalt mining. However, the wrap-up felt that he falls short on proper analysis of the whole picture as you ultimately you only compare CO2 emission without proper mention the consequences of the other 2 problems. I acknowledge time constrains but you could even raise some questions so your viewers may consider.

For example, what is more urgent, the water problem or the Carbon Dioxide? To which one of them are we closer to a solution? How those wasted waters from mining are influencing the populations, the habitats of animals and which kind of components do they have? Also, burning coal releases particles to the environment and is extremely dirty...
However, is it really smart to burn organic material with a much higher energy output for these frivulous applications? What about graphene batteries? Aren't we rushing ourselves after Lithium?

I believe that in this way you protect your point while still guiding your viewers to what they should look for and consider when thinking about this.

Just a few suggestions :)
Regards!

Rui Silva

@Patrick Franco maybe yes or maybe not. I just think it is important to be coherent and assertive.
Furthermore, oil spills are indeed a problem but solution is much closer than for the other problems. You can easily/cheaply produce enzymes that degrade the spilled oil. Same goes for CO2 capture and convertion - however for now is not that simple or cheap as the first option.
On the other hand, reverse osmosis for fresh water production, neutralization and decontamination of soils are all of them very expensive or impossible.
Once again, my point was just to do a constructive critic and not to undermine your work. Sometimes is just about raising the questions so your viewers keep it in the back of their minds (even yourself).
✌

Patrick Franco

You know that even if he would've mentioned that, it's still more than likely that gasoline was wayyyy worse for the environment, due to the insane oil spills that have occured in decades past. Remember that.

Savantharion Hive

Hey man, great video and great comparison. I really loved it especially giving all the facts and numbers. We often judge more than is necessary and we don't even have all the information so you filled that gap really well. Even I didn't have all the info and the petrol refinery is really the biggest issue. However what about biofuels - how eco-non-friendly are they?

Lloyd Wills

Still only thirty percent of energy used is to turn the wheels.

Mateus M. Côrtes

You forgot to talk about the mining waste and how a lot of countries still use termeletric generated energy. But overall was a great video! I can't wait to buy my eletric i3...

Angie

Can we give this man props for how he explains things. He makes it so easy to understand what he’s talking about!

Jannis-Joel Fehl

@D H not that much for a car since u dont have to replace the whole batterie because the cars batteries are made out of about 16 modules where almost every time only have to replace one module which is maybe 1000-3000$ and since u save a lot of money on nit having to make oil changes etc thats not to much

Brandon Tresch

not rlly

rootbeer33

What about battery disposal after the battery is out of commission(20 years from now when all the cars running currently die)???

Peder Lettstroem

I agree. That is why I subbed.

Vincent Koenst

You mean can we give the script write props lol

Peter H

I see story after story going on about the environmental effects of lithium batteries: look, we don't bury 12V lead-acid vehicle batteries in the ground, we re-cycle the battery's lead for new batteries. Up to now all we had was small cell phone and cordless tool lithium batteries to deal with. In these relatively small volumes (compared to EVs) there was not a whole lot of incentive to re-cycle. Now that we will need much larger quantities lithium, more work needs to be done to re-cycle these batteries to give lithium mining a chance to catch up to EV demand (I read that California is currently using old worn out EV batteries as backup for solar and wind farms, so they are not all going into the landfills there).

Next, we do not have to rely on China for lithium, we already have some here (as does Canada). There is a geothermal energy plant by the Salton sea in southern California (note the Salton sea is currently fairly toxic from evaporation over the years and farm runoff) that uses hot underground brine water to generate electricity. That hot underground water happens to be loaded with minerals (obviously: lots of hard water in the southwest) and one of those minerals is lithium, and quite a bit of it! One estimate is that there is enough lithium there to meet all of the United States needs, and forty percent of the world! Joe Biden has already invoked the Wartime Production Act to get companies to investigate environmentally friendly ways to extract lithium in the United States.

There is a similar situation for cobalt and nickel from coal mine waste. In this case it could be double win with the removal of these toxic waste sites (see the article: 'In coal country, a new chance to clean up a toxic legacy').

masoud johnson

Great video 👍🏾. It's nice to finally find a video that helps settle the facts but still shows the issues associated with EV car production.

Stephanie D

Thank you for the video. I found it interesting. It's hard to understand everything involved regarding this issue, but you made it easy to understand by putting it into this format. I know this episode is about the footprint, but I put a link below re: an emerging issue regarding the batteries of E Vehicles. What i find interesting too, is that some of the most outspoken Climate Change advocates have their own jets. And one celebrity sent his jet off from where he was staying, to his favourite bakery/cake shop to get (treat) his staff with his favourite sweets.

Caleb Singer

The only thing I can’t get behind is how long it takes to charge them. This makes road trips more difficult

Conner Sheeeckells

Finally, something educational and entertaining to do for school

SIMPlicity

i did this topic for my thousand word essay without realising this is where i remember the information from

Nate Bailey

Same

Academia Engineering

I’m currently doing a project in my science class now for homework, and I’ll present this video to my class for my project presentation next week for science class.

Brad Ferkovich

I know this is about a year late Nolan but this just popped up on my list. I agree with you and I'm honestly looking forward to the new technology coming out in the next few years. However, you forgot to mention anything about the battery packs when they become defective, or.out of service. There no real place that recycle these packs. The companies that " do" end up sending them to areas that end up just burring them ( alot like the wind blades of all that s "green energy" wind mills...look into the huge tracts of massive graves that dot the Wyoming and Nebraska landscape) Big companies have tried to make invade the upper northwest states looking for buried plots of land that some are rather close to water tables and flowing water. S. Dakota, N. Dakota, Montana, Wyoming, parts of Utah. And it goes from there. These battery packs are the biggest hang up as to why these all electric e.v. are more dangerous to the environment than fuel powered cars. Maybe not in the immediate future but in the long run. As of now, it's far worse.
The only way it would be able to work is if they made a battery pack that last 1,000 miles from n a charge, and a least a 20+ year life expectancy rate. Hopefully, they'll be able to find a proper way to recycle or properly dispose these packs other than ditching them in the ocean or burring them in you back yard.

Love ve the content, very informative! And yes, like I started earlier, I do look forward to alot of these new technologies coming out here soon. I believe it's a step in the right direction.

Stuart Clough

Great video.
Once the recycling issues are tackled, only the first EV you buy will have that enviro penalty. Subsequently the recycling of your old ev means less impact!!

Mark Ingham

Lots of pretty good info. I seemed to have missed if you added the impact of the oil extraction and refining to the ICE cars (over all or per gallon). From what I have read, that adds about another 5ish pounds of CO2 per gallon that is burned,... or another 2500 lbs a year. (haven't addressed any oils, or other fluids in ICE or their disposal or production either :))

Niiice Toyota and Fummins

One big thing I like to mention is a vehicle that has been on the road over 40 years is better for the “environment” than a new throw away car anyday

Brendan M

Reduce, reuse, recycle is specifically in that order for that reason...

jdslyman

So, a 1975 Cadillac Fleetwood Brougham is better for the environment than a Tesla or a Prius- got it. If you're gonna get less than 10 MPG, you might as well do it with some style👍 Fuzzy dice and a leisure suit are thrown in.

Reverend BlueJeans

I really wanted an electric car but unfortunately my accountant would not let me get one. Cheap used car is so much better.

Reverend BlueJeans

Yes. Also price is a good indicator of how much resources a machine uses. Used car is much cheaper than a new electric car.

Christopher Abramor

Still my personal preference is for mild-hybrids like the Corolla (or as modern F1, Le Mans, WRC or most premier class racing cars). Making the battery the smallest they can to maximize power efficiency, that way you have the best of both worlds: Maximizing power, fuel economy, mileage, and the vehicle price is still competitive.

Victor Keller

I literally have a Ph.D. in engineering in this topic. The video is mostly right. Nicely done! A little oversimplified, in reality it's a little more complicated than that. But I think he mentioned that.

MDDeGrande1994

@Victor Keller Suuuuuuure you do

You have a Ph.D as armchair engineer lolll

Andrew Pastore

@abu m7md He said in a previous comment you can google University of Victoria Victor Keller thesis to find it.

Victor Keller

@João Pimentel Ferreira Firstly, you have to be careful with online sources. "veveritas" is not a reliable source. Their graph isnt super off, but it can be misleading. But I am afraid its more complicated than that. It depends on a multitude of things like how far you drive every year, how often you plan to own the vehicle for, the current and future electricity mix where you charge and even time of the day you charge (marginal generator are not necessarily the same during the day or at night). But you arent wrong that public transport is way more environmentally friendly. Not to mention that it saves a ton of space. That said, people dont seem to want to take it, for a multitude of reasons. However, investing in public transportation does not mean you should not push for BEVs. Also, some of the things you suggested arent always possible. What do you do if you live somewhere with poor public transportation? Just not go anywhere and wait until someone decides to add your neighborhood to the public transit line? As to the "moving closer to your job", it is not always possible. I live in Vancouver. Unless you were planning to donate $3,000,000 to me, I wont be able to live anywhere close to work any time soon.

João Pimentel Ferreira

Victor, when you look at the total CO2 emissions over the life cycle of a car, adding up all the emissions for which it is responsible, you can see that a hybrid or electric car (with the current energy mix in Europe) is only slightly better than a conventional car. The idea of zero emissions for electric vehicles is an industry hoax to ease the consumer's environmental conscience when buying another car. Basically it is greenwashing. And hence how can you do really something for the environment? Keep your old car with good maintenance and controlled emissions, since buying a new one demands much more energy and CO2 emissions; use public transport since they emit much less CO2 or pollutants per passenger-distance travelled; use the bicycle as modus movendi because bicycles demand much less energy and emissions of CO2 to produce and drive; if you have a permanent and stable job find a house as close as possible to your job, because it is greener to use a diesel car 5 kilometers per day than an electric car 50 kilometers per day; or do what Homo Sapiens was already doing for 120 thousand years till the "automobile revolution", i.e., walk. Our ancestors walked several kilometers per day as they wandered the planes of Africa and later the valleys of Europe, so why do you insist in taking the car for a distance of less than 1 kilometer?

source: https://www.veraveritas.eu/2020/10/green-cars-are-like-virgin-prostitutes.html

Footies the cat YT

Great video but you left out a very important part, when a internal combustion engine burns fuel it is only about 30% efficient so all the pollution made to make that fuel and it was only 30% of the energy that was used to power that vehicle.

Trevor Murphy

one more thing the reason why I think we don’t have flying cars it’s because not everybody is a pilot and have a drivers license and the number one reason the world governments don’t wanna give people instant access to go anywhere they want if you have a flying car there’s basically no borders I just thought I’d throw that out there to make people think about it

Trevor Murphy

I had a question pop in my head only a few minutes into this video from the point electric cars were on the market and today how many are still on the road how is the battery life of a car over for five years old

Galang Luthfi Pramana Rangkuti

i love how you enlist all the data's by number. it's so crucial for decising something. soooo should we plant more trees?

Bryant Valdez

"turning gas into noise. Im going to get that tattooed on me someday." may i recommend the lower back area?

Gael Cervantes

@David Subotin NO WAY FOR REALZZZZ?!?!?!?!? WOW U R SO SMART AND FUNNY 🤣 Almost as if that's the fkn point of the joke 🤣🤣🤣 but na he couldn't have possible meant that. .that's too complex for our mortal minds. Unlike you, we aren't geniuses who could have guessed that

Jay Bjorn “Bjorn in the USA”

I have a friend that has a six-figure Porsche EV. The speakers Create noise to make it sound like a gas car. It really is awesome and it also shifts. Just wait a couple years and it will be the norm. My only complaint is stop damning are rivers and let’s make cleaner energy without messing up the environment!

Vayan Malik

10:42

Above

Laughs in 2022

Damodara O'malley

🤣🤣🤣 perfect!

drttrus

Nolan, did you account for the emissions AND dollars cost of that EV battery needing to be replaced after however many miles of use?

Heath Bailey

Great content. This is an important discussion. So many people are misinformed about this subject I get tired of hearing it too. Thank you for your unbiased opinion.

a day in the life

Recycling batteries check so you're including the carbon footprint when the batteries are part of the car but the usage of the gasoline to run the car isn't included in this scenario so you should factor that in

Hal Van Hercke

This is the kind of video that makes all your others even more credible.
Nice job!

BigYke

Seriously loved this video, glad we can finally put this argument to rest.

I I

CA is a toilet, EV will clean it up🤣

Sam

@Brion Wreede Yeah Elon is pulling a very stupid move for making electric semi trucks.

Lebohang Mohapi

'glad we can finally put this argument to rest' You're obviously trolling

Peyton Ponder

Still missing a lot of issues with bringing evs into the infrastructure

Mariana

Not even close

Simon Sez

Good episode, good research. I would however like to hear your supportive argument regarding weather or not our electrical grid could handle 25% instant EV. Texas couldn’t even support their grid during a snow storm as is. We still have a ways to go.

Jannis-Joel Fehl

I mean a snow storm and too much evs is a whole different story tho

Darien Butler

Love these educational videos! 💪🏾

Doc Holliday

I have to say i found this video very informative, but i have to say the distance one gets out of an EV vs Gas engine is one of the biggest draw backs for me. Great for commuting not for long distance travel.

DarkClarity

@Some random GUY sure and? They still used their brains and standardized a charger.

Some random GUY

@DarkClarity europe has high population density

DarkClarity

It's getting better and better over time. If you get an EV on the more expensive end at this point it's the same range. We just have to wait for the EV prices to get better. And in Europe at least they have some brains so they standardized chargers for EV'S. So there are no issues getting stuck without a charger there.

I’ve thought about this quite a bit, working in an open pit copper mine. I find it quite ironic when I hear people say that electric cars are better for the environment. There is a lot of environmental damage that goes into electric cars. People like to eat the meat, but they don’t want to see how the cow is killed.

Sean Sutton

Wait until you hear about the environmental damage from drilling for oil.

Torrel

Once the materials are out, they be recycled. Fuel can't be recycled. Once it's burnt its gone

jasonmoyer

"Better" doesn't mean "perfect". We're comparing EV to Gas/Diesel, not EV to riding a bicycle or walking everywhere.

wellfuckyoumr

“ICE engine”

Internal combustion engine engine.

Scott Nope

ATM

That one guy

omg my god

Andy XoX

In Car Entertainment …. 🤔

NX3

SVD Dragunov (the D in SVD stands for Dragunov)

James Monke

Thanks man! I did an entire project just by watching this video. And it was fun to watch!

Kyle Glover

Nolan, in your calculations of total emissions over the “life” of the vehicle, did you factor in battery life? Ie 20 year vehicle life it is unlikely that 1 battery is going to make that. So did you account for that? If not then you missed 2, 3, 4 times the amount co2 from EVs. I, like you, don’t care either way, I am just curious :) what was your factored battery life?

Chad McC

Individual cells in the ev lithium battery pack don't get replaced. The whole battery must be replaced at once. Lifespans of ev batteries are found ranging from around 12 to less than 20 years. It's an extensive process as well that requires separation of the vehicle body. Some ev batteries will be recalled and replaced as well do to manufacture defects or design flaws. Cost of these replacement packs will also outweigh the value of the car after a period of about 10 years as the packs cost range around $15k-$23k.
There's hope that newer battery technology that doesn't use lithium with longer lifespans is around the corner. There's articles that mention Toyota is heading development on such batteries.

CrimsonThief

@Rick TD I don’t know where you heard that from, or who told you that a lithium ion battery lasts 7 years, but they either lied, or were misinformed. I’m not going to debate about the clear implications of global warming or climate change, that’s beyond my field of expertise. However, a warranty will cover a 7 year battery failure in almost every conceivable scenario. Which immediately negates the “thousands to replace” argument. Secondly, batteries are lasting longer than 7 years anyways. There’s not even an unexceptional situation that I can think of which would permit that. At that point you are talking about defunct batteries which are no longer manufactured. Currently nothing precludes abnormalities, but if we try to speak on exceptional situations as being a baseline, then we aren’t being realistic.

CrimsonThief

Now a good argument for Co2 emissions is replacements under warranty! This is a prevalent issue in the EV sector. Warranties will usually replace the battery before they actually need to be replaced at no cost to the owner. This is wasteful because ordinarily the battery would probably just last the entire lifetime of the vehicle, but why risk it when you can just get a fresh one for free? If you are ambivalent towards climate change and Co2 emissions, then this is an optimal bargain for an EV owner. I personally don’t care who makes money myself as long as Co2 emissions are lowered, so this is a point of frustration to me.

CrimsonThief

@Hamguy Bacon The fact is that the batteries just don’t need to be replaced that often. 10 years is a worst case scenario for a lithium ion car battery. A more accurate statement would be 15 years, and that is most likely to be caused by normal usage degradation. If you are keeping a Tesla around for 15-20 years, you will likely just buy a new car before you replace the battery.

CrimsonThief

@Kyle Glover I can’t personally cite any third party data, but this is widely accepted. People aren’t changing their Tesla battery three or four times over the course of 300k miles. Most gas cars aren’t even driving beyond 200k before we start running into some serious engine problems. So it’s just not realistic to say the Co2 emissions are 4x the estimate of the video based on the assumption people are changing out a $13k battery 4 times. It’s just so unreasonable to take the most unlikely scenario and try to frame it as an average. If we go by the average; Tesla batteries only lose 5% of their range after 100k miles. You don’t need to replace the battery until it has lost 20% of its range. At this rate, and assuming the battery range loss doesn’t exponentially increase, that is 400k miles. People aren’t putting that many miles in their car. The fact of the matter is Tesla batteries will rarely, if ever, need to be replaced in their lifetime. That making the initial comment outright inaccurate.

AKA "Christmas" rides

could it be that synthetic fuel could be the quick answer to keep gassers on the road with electrics?

Ray Sarkissian

Also Nolan, when someone buys an EV, in many states, they qualify for “tax credit”. So If you owe money to the state, that’s how you’re able to get money back. If you don’t owe any money, you’re getting nothing back.

Kert Sison Tare

This video explains CLEARLY and more satisfying to watch than any other videos that I've watched so far related to this matter! Kudos!

DJ Axel Carter

I've shared the shit out of it to my PetrolHeads

David Lawrence

Nice video, lots of good data. I will warrant that only the CO2 costs are considered (primarily) when discussing the environmental impact. Lithium mining and refining produce a good chunk of toxic waste, can’t numbers but essentially the brine after refining has some not so nice chemicals. A lot of the iron and aluminum in all cars can come from recycled sources as both elements are very recyclable (iron alloys are infinitely recyclable with oxidized matter being the only waste, and aluminum is easier to recycle than to refine from ore). This is a super complex issue that people on both sides fail to fully grasp. I’ve gotten a lot more centrist on the issue since starting my engineering education and learned more about what the source issues are

David Lawrence

@dontlaughtoomuch11 well, not quite what you say. I used to think that EVs were a fad type of social phenomenon and that burning oil in its various forms would continue for centuries at the same rate we currently consume it. While fossil fuels are technically renewable on a long term basis (eventually graveyards may become petroleum wells due to natural processes, but don’t quote me on that since I’m not informed on those processes), they certainly cannot sustain current levels of energy consumption indefinitely. Really, no form of energy will sustain high consumption levels indefinitely due to thermodynamics. Power plants produce power (in the form of electricity) more efficiently than do ICE mechanisms in cars simply due to scale of production. There are losses in transmission to charging points, losses in battery charging, losses in battery charging, and (of course) losses in electric motor power expenditure. However, these losses are still slightly lesser than current ICE technologies except for the continued use of used vehicles which is a fantastic use of existing products.

So I wouldn’t say I fell for propaganda. Rather, I realized that current existing methods of locomotion are inherently less efficient. If I could make a blanket decision then I would want to have every car powered by a fission or fusion (if they became mass producible) power unit feeding either steam engines via liquid boiling or some method of direct electric harvesting of those processes.

You see, I am a mechanical engineering major who got into the field because of amateur racing. I love combustion engines and I don’t think they will be wholly replaced within my or the next generation unless some technical innovation occurs that is equivalent to how the steam engine replaced the horse/mule. EVs and similar drivetrains are in their infancy just as ICE were a hundred years ago, and it took that long for ICEs to develop to their current levels of well to tailpipe efficiency and I certainly don’t think they have achieved their full potential although they are close.

Until we can make our electric production more efficient and get EV battery manufacturing standardized across the industry, then I don’t think EVs will be a sufficient method to meet transportation requirements in addition to general engineering advancements.

dontlaughtoomuch11

"I have gotten a lot more centrist on the issue" =>So you fell for the propaganda, that Electric Vehicles are the "future" and not an unaffordable joke?! German engineers (not exactly amateurs) have stated that it would take us AT LEAST until 2035 until we mastered the technology for environmentally responsible extracting method for the chemicals needed for the batteries, recyclable batteries, fast charging etc. etc. EV's are a complete disaster in the current state!

Lauren Arndt

I think you should do a video on consumer costs between the two vehicles. Yes, gas prices fluctuate, but electricity is expensive too. Batteries are expensive as well, and there's the warranty games manufacturers play on both cars when something breaks.

Greg Noel

good point that should be included. electricity prices are regualted and are far more stable than gas prices. also, if youre charging at home its typically 1/10-1/4 the cost of buying gas depending on al the factors. so a drastic spike in electricity (less likely than gas) would still have you winning. Then theres solar panels. we put enough solar panels on our house to power our house and both EVs. we'll never buy gasoline, natural gas, or electricity again. i make it all myself.

Arri Reid

I appreciate the very educated response to all those concerns the only thing I would say is I'm unsure if our electrical grid could handle a near total or complete shift to EVs in its current state because I have read before that the U.S. does consume basically its max power capacity and actually quite frequently borrows from Canada. Not saying bit can't handle it but it might be one of those things where we may become more energy dependent because the demand has increased.

Arri Reid

@Sean Sutton yes however in the U.S. at least A/C is more of a seasonal thing and isn't a strain year round vs a complete shift to EVs would have that year round constant stress on the system. Even during heat waves electric companies sometimes have to allocate certain resources to support the high demand caused by electricity. I forgot where but I also read that power transmission lines are expected to last around 25 years and that's measuring our current usage, so I'm curious how that will change moving towards EVs. There is alot of things that go into this electric future infrastructure wise that we have to think about ahead of time.

Sean Sutton

As far as the power grid goes - an EV pulls about the same power as an A/C unit. A/C units tend to run during the day, you charge your car at night when the EV is off.

Redlinesixtynine

@Rowdy That was in reference to the colder weather situation in the previous sentence. There is no denying that. Their performance declines.

Rowdy

@Redlinesixtynine how are they not efficient? With a diesel you get 30% efficiency at most, with EVs it's at least 75%.
ICE cars are only so good at heating, because that's the main thing they do

avfusion

We don't buy power because we're at the top of our supply. We buy power because it's cheaper than paying a Peaker-plant to come online. We're not limited by supply _per se_, we're limited by the ability to react to power differences at different stages of demand. At a point, it becomes cheaper to buy foreign power. That's the long and the short of it.

Steven DeFehr

Good video! Maybe still not in-depth enough !
Think about the mining operations needed for the, copper, silver, iron ore, aluminum smelting, oil for plastics ( dashboards , and seats) to build wind farms , solar panels, the charging stations networks, the giant windmills . The west maybe easy for charging stations but Imagine the undertaking of just putting charging stations in developing countries like India, South American countries, African countries? Wow so much to consider and think about all the new giant holes in the ground worldwide 🤩
Time to buy shares in mining companies ✔️
Cheers everyone from western Canada ‼️

Stefan Czyżewski

I just realised that my friends presentation for school is the exact same, word-for-word, as this video. Lol

J P

Even the hair loss prevention part? I cracked up because I read this comment before his advertisement

Elite Turtle

@Anime freak ummm no. It’s not a crime to plagiarize at school. Only if you make money is it a crime

thedrunknmunky

Work smart not hard. Clever. How’d they score?

Shift

Dang he's sponsored by Keeps, too?

goldenegg

@Crystal Lynn hm ok

W K

Nice video. There are a few variables left out though. The other environmental impacts of worn out batteries (nickel metal hydride vs lithium) and the fact that oil is going to be extracted and used for other purposes, regardless of whether or not automobiles run on gas or diesel. Then again, the debate doesn't matter because, for good or ill, the industry is going to do whatever governments dictate. So, it looks like internal combustion engines will become museum pieces and child labor will continue unchecked because people have been tricked into believing CO2 and cow farts have more of an effect on our climate than the sun and water vapor (think specific heat capacity of CO2 vs water vapor and percentages of each in the atmosphere).

matimanya

The governments are going to do whatever the industry dictate. I think is that way

C San

it will be a lot messy to actually calculate the details. Less demand on fuel means less hour use to dig the hole and all refinenary /extration operation. And also ICE car will break more often and require more spare parts (ICE engine has more moving part compare to a e-motor), and a lot more oil/fluid to maintain the efficiency of ICE car, such as auto oil/engine oil/differential oil, heck it use brake pad often too.

BA AB

Idk how anyone would think making batteries would pollute more than mining oil than refining it twice then burning gasoline to deliver that twice refined oil to a tanking station so that you can burn it again.

kinster02

I think he needs to redo myth #2 because Cali and Texas are having grid problems to the point that, they are telling you not to charge your car.

J A

Great video, clears up a lot of myths from facts!

knute armstrong

8:39 that's a nuclear power plant and the gas coming off the top is just steam. Nuclear reactors are incredibly clean energy.

Anxious Earth

@Martink9191 That is incorrect. Water did not make Chernobyl 'react'. In fact as an RBMK reactor, it uniquely differed from other reactors in that water was not used as the moderator(which speeds up reaction) and had a positive void coefficient(more heat, less water to slow down reaction, creating more heat)

Other reactors used, heavy water which did function as a moderator and created a negative void coefficient- the hotter it gets, the more water evaporates, leading to slower reaction and cooler temps

Matt Cortelyou

@Robert I wasnt clear. Energy that is already in a usable, refined form is just moved into a different usable refined form with extreme loss of energy through heat and machines. This is a debate that has been going on long before my time and the professors that i work with have all shared their opinions on it. This is where i get my info from the men that have been in this since before i was born. But ill find some bias article to convince you. Nuclear is considered clean because the plant dosnt release any green house gases. The issue is the use of 1000s of gallons of diesle to run the mines than 1000s of gallons of diesel to transport than an extreme amount of energy to refine into a useable form of energy from the plant. After all this energy is expended the pellet or rod that is made powers the plant for around a month. Ill attach a link to a source that shows how much infrastructure, mining, transport and refineing takes to make one pellet. Not to mention how much resources that have already been put into this technology. Nuclear can never pay off its debt to the environment. And btw i think reactors are safe now. Ive seen enough info that im convinced the new saltwater reactors are fail safe but not environment safe. https://www.world-nuclear.org/nuclear-essentials/how-is-uranium-made-into-nuclear-fuel.aspx

Matt Cortelyou

@Ariel Cabrera I get that. Not what I ment.

mamoochie

Martink9191 Right right, forgot the final step

Jeff.

Great video. You forgot to mention there is also 6kWh electric energy per litre fuel required. So that even ads to an higher imbalance for ICE.

Andrew Costello

Every 10 to 15 years the batteries have to be replaced adding to the 17 ton C02 and Colbalt levels it consumes. Which then makes it worse than the 50 tons of C02 from the internal combustion engine.

vanderhoof

Good, articulate take; I liked this. I think there's validity (and at least for now) and a place for both types of energy in cars. It's a bit like the real leather vs. "vegan" leather argument; it's going to depend on a few factors to determine which is "better" than the other, and not all verdicts will be the same for everyone. I think that putting all of our stock into a singular solution though is where we humans have a problem. We stand to have a greater impact on the environment by changing the way we live. Consume less, drive less, take care of things and make them last (BUILD things to last), have smaller families, vacation less and/or closer to home... If everyone lived with that kind of mentality, I highly doubt we'd be in the situation we're in.

Rich Farfugnuven

I have read that if we start delasinating H20, we can use the brine to mine lithium more environmentally consciously...We could refill the CO River Basin and use the brine for lithium batteries.

AnAngryManatee

Nolan: “that’s if they drive the national average of 11,800 miles per year.”

Me: laughs and cries in 30k plus a year...

J Tipton

@That One Gamer I've owned my car for 2.5 years and have 21k miles on it lol

9manny99

That One Gamer You should meet me. 11K or less.

A Mdz

@That One Gamer i drive my semi truck 150k year. Nice too meet you!

TrollSuperStar

@That One Gamer What? I drive 10-15k kms / year. I work 3km away, 1km or less to a few stores and markets, lots of bars and restaurants around. I usually walk or bike to work, most of my kms are from vacations.

Spartan Codak Blue

Laughs cause I put 60k on mine last year and 40k on it so far this year XDXD 11k is a freaking joooke

Phil Winch

Does anyone know how battery degradation and eventual replacement effects these numbers? Gas cars don't need their more environmentally harmful parts replaced with the same frequency as EVs.
Also curious how an EV compares to a used gas car as I heard a while ago that it's better environmentally to get a used gas car than it is to get a new EV and I'm not sure if this is still true.

Phil Winch

@Sean Sutton from what I've read, they are intended to have a lifespan of around 12 years, or 150,000 miles. Diesel engines usually reach 200,000 miles before trouble starts, and a good one can reach 300,000. I also want to clarify I am actually pro EV, but it's closed minded to assume they will fit every use case, or that getting an EV is automatically better for the environment than getting something like a used diesel.

EV battery degradation over time is hard to relate to dino-juice vehicles. After 150,000 miles in an EV your range is about 2/3 of what it was new. That drops significantly if you have harsher use conditions like very hot environments, or you charge to 100% battery or use it below 20%. Sure they can reach higher distances total than some diesels, but at that point your range isn't suitable for long journeys.

I'm not saying they don't have their place, but rather that if we were to go blindly into replacing all cars with EVs, it would be an environmental disaster. They aren't suitable for everyone, and using them as a blanket alternative rather than using for example a second hand diesel for some people's use would hurt the environment rather than help it.

Sean Sutton

EV batteries last vastly longer than a typical transmission or ICE motor.

Phil Winch

@Ecoideaz Ventures not intended that way my man. firstly on batteries - they are one of insanely few moving parts, and parts on EVs have a far lower incidences of replacement because of that. Although it puts a lot more weight through suspension and frame, it's definitely counteracted by there being fewer small bits to go wrong.
That being said, it's not nitpicking to point out that the heaviest component of the car loses efficiency to the point that the car will need an eventual replacement or scrapping. They still may have some use in evening peak loads on the grid which definitely helps, but that isn't suitable for the majority of the batteries which have been put through unknown hot and cold cycles. Also the batteries (being the heaviest part of the whole car) needing to be replaced is almost the same environmental impact as a new EV. Allot of the impacts of EVs are barely talked about, like for example the carbon footprint of battery disposal/battery replacement.

On my second point - the idea of EVs at the moment is to replace cars on the road to help the environment. If the environment would benefit more from you using your own car for another 5 years, over you buying a new Tesla, then it's a bit counter productive to get people to sell a working car and buy a new EV if the goal is environmentally responsible choices. If that's the goal then the main aim should be urging people not to buy a brand new gas or diesel car, rather than to switch to an EV.

I'm actually genuinely interested in the numbers with all the benefits and all the negatives, rather than big things like used gas cars and battery replacement not being considered.

Also this isn't me hating on electric vehicles - I actually think they are really cool bits of kit. I'm just trying to work out a fair comparison rather than bits missing from the equation.

Ecoideaz Ventures

This is called classic nitpicking - none of my friends who own an electric car have ever been to a repair garage in the last few years. in fact a garage owner friend complains that he is losing his market since electric cars have very few moving parts and less wear & tear!

P4TRICCS

Bit of out dated for now.
This year 2 company made a factory that can recycle 98% of a battery... The company place called Hydrovolt if i remember correctly

Arkvoir

i'd love to see the same comparsion but with Ethanol powered cars

WJCTechyman

Now you forgot to mention the fact that tires and roadways still require vast amounts of crude oil to run. Now, electric mass transit is infinitely better for the planet than cars period. You don’t have the health and safety problems with lithium ion batteries and most of the trains can be easily recycled. That’s another positive you didn’t really take into account with internal combustion engine vehicles is they are already very recyclable. Also, engines can burn a variety of fuels and we can probably synthesize a cleaner burning fuel, and have. Emissions are a big problem with any engine and we haven’t really solved the carbon dioxide issue at the tailpipe which can be done too. Digging up the trees in lithium- and cobalt-rich regions just compounds the problem of emissions because foliage thrives on CO2. If anything cars in general aren’t feasible for the environment. Electric trains are.

C K

Yes trees remove CO2 from the atmosphere, but how do you know the amount of CO2 removal from the trees lost in clearing for a mine, is greater than the CO2 removal overall from the electric cars that mine helps produce, that go on to replace many thousands of gas cars?

C K

@Libertarian 1 People use the best most reliable, efficient, convenient and cost effective option available. There's no large scale public train service in Florida, so people drive and take a bus , keeping big oil happy. But there is in Japan, multiple European countries etc. Big oil lobbying prevents large scale public electric train service in the US. That kind of lobbying doesn't exist in the countries I mentioned above.

Libertarian 1

People prefer cars and planes or they would use trains. Most major cities in the US have gone billions of dollars in debt building light rail which al most no one uses.

Dane Thompson

Few issues with this thought process though. I, along with many others, don't live somewhere that mass transit is even feasible in the first place. Plus, in the United States especially, we have the space and freedom of movement where not owning your own personal transportation would be highly limiting for anyone who lives a life outside of work and home. Urban centers, this might work for some. But that's obviously not everyone. Plus, even if I did have access to reliable public transit, I personally wouldn't use it. My work allows me the freedom to go on my own schedule and I would not want to rely on a public transportation schedule. Plus, not having to deal with crowds of strangers is enough of a reason to have a car for most people. I could go on. Cars will always have a place and necessity in society in some capacity.

Jim Bob

@Enthusiastic Zestful Villainy maybe so but cars are hardly even the problem, automotive emissions worldwide accounts for only around 10% of emissions, but it always seems to be the main focus of co2 emissions. If we built more nuclear reactors, emissions would drop like crazy, coal powered plants would be rendered useless, I don’t see why cars take all of the blame, agriculture industry pollutes more than vehicles do via methane, and cars can run on methane, not sure why that isn’t being taken advantage of either.

Francisco Garcia

Great explanations. However, at 8:42 in the video, what you showed as emissions from an electric power plant was actually steam from the cooling towers of a nuclear power plant. This steam is no radioactive, but rather it is isolated from any radiation. A lot of people mistakenly show cooling tower steam as scary "smoke" when in fact it is quite the opposite, as nuclear power plants emit very low CO2. They are the type of power plant we should want more of until this nuclear fusion power is figured out.

Shep Leonard

@Anxious Earth Depends on the nuclear reactor type.
Molten-salt reactors are safe and clean.

Empyrean

@Billy Wampler- I feel ya. What about small modular reactors? They’re beneficial too. Compared to a traditional power plant.

Anxious Earth

@Hasan Jafri Lol, the explosion is not 'huge'. Reactors are not nukes.

fish

Well made, very informative!

gene

Great Video.
I would like to see more about the battery, as others have suggested.
What you said is informative, but when does it need to be replaced?
(Is it at a certain mileage, time in service, or both?)
What is the environmental impact of discarding the old battery? Can they in any way be "recycled"?
What will a new battery cost, and can we change it ourselves (in our garage, or under the "Shade Tree") or does it have to be done by the manufacturer?
With my 22 year old ford still going well at nearly 200,000 miles, I have to wonder how many "Clean" batteries would it have taken to get to this same point with an EV.
Thanks!!

Jonathan Swadling

@Mr. Funkalicious Splendiferous most of what you have said is utter bollocks. EV batteries production costs have dropped by an order of magnitude, to around US$100/kwh. This means a typical 77kwh battery would cost around US$7,700. Even with margins and installation costs that isn't going to even come close to half the new cost of an EV.

There absolutely is a healthy second hand market for EVs.

There are 11 year old Leafs still on the road with original batteries. These are batteries with atrocious thermal management and therefore shorter lifespans. Current gen EVs are warrantied for 7-8 years, so they're sure as hell not reaching life in 7 years since manufacturers don't want to do free replacements. Indications are, based on lab testing and high mileage real world examples, current gen batteries will outlive the car - there are EVs out there with many hundreds of thousands of km on the clock, and there are rumours the first million km battery has been achieved.

Recycling is absolutely possible, but will only happen after repurposing - after end of vehicle life there's a decade or more of use in applications like home solar or Nissan using old Leaf batteries to power machinery in their factories.

Rick TD

It will cost you thousands of dollars to replace the batteries and you'll be saving the planet from a problem that doesn't exist.

Mr. Funkalicious Splendiferous

The batteries only last about 7 years. The cost of replacement is about half the cost of the vehicle new, and, in general, has to be done by the manufacturer. This is why there is no real secondary market (used vehicle market) for EV's, making them disposable cars. At this rate, you would have had to replace your vehicle 3 times in the time you have owned your current vehicle. Not only that, because the recycling process is so difficult for Litium Ion batteries, they are NOT recycled currently, in general.

434 E

Yeah there better until it hits the junkyard because batteries don’t decompose hence why gas powered cars are 100% better for the environment

nick v-m

Great video, concise and informative. My only beef is that you somewhat glossed over the potential long term effects of EV batteries and their production. You touched on disposal and recycling but didn't go into much detail. And you mentioned the impact on the local people and culture. How will the water shortage ultimately play out? While a metric like CO2 emissions is pretty good for measuring impact, I don't think it quite covers the actual impact of EVs. How much damage is coal-burning electricity generation causing (coal mining, etc)? Not saying your conclusion is incorrect; but maybe not as disparate as outlined, if all the factors are taken into account.

Chu Lik Wong

Most electric production of sufficiently developed countries are not coal power plant. For example 19% of power generated in US are coal. However China produce 56.8% of their power from coal while India is 75%, that partially contributed to the heavy air pollution in these two countries. China already started to phase out their coal power plant.

Derek Gaston

Great video! One quibble: please try not to show nuclear cooling towers when you talk about emissions. All that’s coming out of there is water vapor….

Isaak Welch

@Alex Wood which is a nonzero amount, but is miniscule in the scheme of things.

Alex Wood

Nuclear energy is also bad because of the nuclear waste the plants produce

Isaak Welch

@Charles Holliday some co2 is good, but too much is a big problem.

Charles Holliday

@Sir Calvin. Can you expound? As a fellow carbon based life form, I think of CO2 as the stuff of life. We could use much more of it and we would all be better off. If you are worried about CO2 affecting the overall environment, you have to ask yourself why it is going to be so bad when the earth has been there (higher CO2) without any detrimental effects?

Glen and Friends

.....and water vapor has a greenhouse effect far worse than carbon dioxide

one2 3four

great video. I hear more issues about electric cars like 'disposal of batteries' and 'charging times' as some of the bigger oppositions.

Brendan M

Honestly, the only way for EVs to succeed is that we have to fully develop the recycling process, and it cannot be a duplicate of the plastics myth

Brendan M

@the brink charging times are getting shorter and shorter

the brink

True. If you're a big enviromental person the non recyclable batteries should be your answer to not buy one and for convenience, I'm not waiting 45 min at the best time to recharge.

Oliver Knight

If you could convert an ic engine to eco fuel that would work well for a video

50TRADESOFGRAY

When I can’t sleep I let Nolan take up my headspace with car knowledge

Max Strange

We think that any so-called environmental "impact" or emission is bad, as if the Earth cannot handle ANY impact that we do. That is just plain wrong. We underestimate the Earth's ability to do what it was created to do, to handle human productivity. Plus, electric cars are for the rich.

Blitz’s Garage

Nice video. I just wanted to add a couple notes for clarification. I work in the utility industry. There are two issues with the power generation and supply for EVs. One is simply we don't have the capacity. I know you said this was incorrect in the video, but the US power grid only has roughly a 10% surplus during peak load. And that surplus is not tangible across the entire grid at any one given time. While it would support a sudden spike in EVs, the grid would be in stretched pretty thin in some areas with high population densities and those areas could experience "brown" or "dirty" power outages. These already occur on occasions when the system is stressed by unusual weather conditions such as those seen in California and New York in the past. There is another related issue. Coal fired or liquefaction plants converted to natural gas are dependent on volume and that volume delivery is directly associated with environmental events. In the middle of the winter, during a severe cold snap, a generation plant my need to dip into the reserve to feed the electrical system, but is unable to because they are not able to get the volume due to the residential customers, high volume and distribution operators drawing down the gas supply before it reaches the power plant. This occurred in the midwest in 2021. The volume of gas available was not enough to supply the demand and the states of Oklahoma, Kansas, Missouri and parts of Texas had to cycle scheduled blackouts to get the grid back into a stable state. The generation company was forced to mass purchase natural gas that was in storage in order to meet demand at a much higher cost per mmcf. (We knew some folks in OKC that recieved power bills between $3k and $5k for a single month of power, but luckily president Trump issued a state of emergency that allowed the government to subsidize the cost.)
Secondly, your recap didn't take into account the infrastructure itself. Transporting the amount of power needed to supply the move to electrical power has been discussed for years, and no one has a sure fire bullet as to what will be needed, and upgrading the current infrastructure could in itself take decades. It's also not economically feasable to upgrade the grid in one step even if you have a good understanding of the future demand because the cost to meet expected demand far exceeds the amount of money the vast majority of operators are capable to generate. I'm not saying that it is an impossible endeavor, just a lot of guys hacking at calculators in a closet trying to get a decent idea as to how much load they will be expecting, and a heck of a lot of money for infrastructure upgrades. Honestly the current EV infrastructure is not much more than those gravity hand gas pumps you find in third world countries at the moment. Imagine what the electrical grid would be required to handle if every gas station you know of only had charging ports. We're talking in the trillions for infrastructure upgrades when we can't even keep our bridges maintained properly. Then there's the lack of taxes for road use ...
Third note. Most of the oil that comes into the country is from Brazil. The reason we import is because Brazil has what we call heavy crude. The crude found in Texas, Oklahoma and even Alaska is a lighter grade that takes less refinement, but doesn't have the value of Brazilian crude which is more suitable for producing a broader range of products per volume. I also found your figures a little high there, but I'm only familiar with onshore wells. Most wells, even frack wells can produce for years with hardly any emissions. More emissions are generated off the coast of California and Florida daily in naturally occurring releases. Things decompose, gas and oil are created. It's a natural process regardless of what the environmentalists want to say. I'm not saying that our dependance is a good thing, but I find a lot of times that these numbers are heavily skewed, or in the case of power generation, white lies to draw new avenues for revenue generation.
Clarkson did some research on the creation, processing and shipping of lithium batteries used in the Prius. His findings were that the shipping and environmental impact of creating, shipping and assembly in conjunction with use and eventual disposal, generated an equivalent or higher level of emissions over the life of the vehicle then an equivalent gas powered low emission car. I know this was specific to a certain car, but it's also something that should be considered. Does a battery that's shipped 9k miles by a diesel ship create less pollution than a gas powered VW beetle? I can't answer that question honestly.
Forth note. Have you ever looked into how we deal with pollution created from creating solar cells and the disposal of wind turbine blades? It should also be considered, especially turbine blades, since well, we can't recycle them in any way and they are piling up. Hydro power, while the cleanest, really causes numerous other issues with the environment. There is no sure fire way to generate electricity today with minimal environmental impact. Those wave generators are interesting though. Just remember, Newton was right ;)
Thinking about combustion engines and electrical cars. A plain old metal oil burner can pretty much be recycled from top to bottom. Many of these new EVs are using exotic materials that can't be simply ground down and remelted. We simply don't have a way to deal with the materials currently. Would going to EVs truly solve our problem? Who creates more emissions, a person that buys a fairly low emission oil burner and drives it 200k miles, or a person that buys a new EV every couple of years? If you want to lesson the impact on the environment then there would need to be a stipulation on how long you would be required to retain that EV or have a buyback program to ensure the vehicle remained in service long enough to meet some desired degree of acceptable pollution. 
We would also need to formally tax, and tax heavily, the power utilized in the charging process to pay for emergency services, roads and infrastructure. There are also other things that people don't consider what about possible electrical shock for police, fire and EMTs? What about training firefighters to deal with the battery cells and the special equipment they will need. If a battery cell is ruptured it could set off a chain reaction that can't be extinguished for days. Top Gear's Richard Hammonds wreck with the Rimnac is a good example. It burned, self reignited and was extinguished continuously for 5 days. An EV fire is a scary thing and currently there are not enough fire departments with the training and equipment to deal with resin, exotic material and large scale lithium battery fires.

At any rate, I think that the video was well put together and thought out. I definitely can't fault you for missed points because this is a massive undertaking that we are forcing into motion. I imagine I'll be long gone before everything is sorted out, but I have found the whole thing intriguing to watch. A good friend once said to me "we are all in it together". As I get older I realize just how correct he was when he said it.

Tonya Mustacato

I wish more people would understand this .

Erin O.

@blitzgariage As I read your point of view on the subject I couldn’t help but notice how well spoken and written you are. How have you achieve this level of writing? Your vocabulary is excellent and your grammar was used correctly? Any advice would be helpful.

Skyline RS*R

you should have made a video explaining all that, would smash I reckon!

Andrew Doerhoff

Change bad…. Liquid Dinosaur make go vroom vroom good.

That’s what you sound like.

Jake Z

@Terry Meadows it’s called bait

Josip Calis

I love you, you helped me understand this situation, you basically saved my future. Again, love you and thx man. Much love from Germany.

cyborgzulu

I guess it all depends on how the electric components are created vs gas powered. They are making batteries out of graphite now with minimal greenhouse gases

Mario Sanchez Sr

I bought 3 electric vehicles and now my elecric company has increased the cost per kwh because of gas prices. My bill went from $232 in Jun 2021 to $587 Jun 2022. What is worst ?

Keitomine Productions

Imagine they make mass produced hyper cars gas/electric cars that get good range but are also fast. Just not super car fast

Christian Guevara

Solid State batteries...that should revolutionize energy storage for years to come.

DB Class 407

They are quite heavy, though. Not for transport, great for grid.

Nathan

Dyson have just create them but for now it's very expensive..

Magic Man Preza

@Terje Johnsen yes thorium is much better and safer

Mcnuggatron

@Jonus Jonus I agree fission should be used widely, big fan of it- just wanna make that clear. I do think they should be modified in some way to be less susceptible to terrorist attacks, but that's a whole other topic.

But regarding fusion, I believe with the current money and effort being invested, it will take many many years; but china may see it as an opportunity to acquire world power (they've been investing more and more into it if I'm not mistaken, and whichever country figures out fusion will obviously benefit quite a lot)

If I'm right, and they dump more and more into it, the U.S and other super powers will almost certainly respond by attempting to out fund them- at which point China will increase funding as well, and so fourth. Sortve like the space race, and the nuclear arms race

Jonus Jonus

​@Mcnuggatron I would much prefer fusion to fission, unfortunately I dont see it as a viable option for many many years. Today we have a good understanding of how it will work, technically speaking, like we understand the physics and mechanics behind it all and we know its possible. Unfortunately that doesn't translate to the practical world. While we understand the physics we are only now starting to understand how to contain these forces. Its now down to an engineering problem which could take a long time to solve. I hope Im wrong about that cause for sure, fusion is the better option, just saying fission is proven and something we can put into wide scale use right now...

Axian Mapping

I liked the video and I do agree. However I feel like the reason some people hate EVs is because they feel like that their gasoline powered cars are being slowly but surely pushed out and replaced. This could be especially true in EU regions as regulations there are getting extremely serious, in Germany there are cities where you can only enter with EVs. I feel like that if EVs were only presented as an eco-friendly alternative to gas cars rather than them being forced in advertisement campaigns, car people would maybe like them more in general.

Crae S

I think in the future V8s, V10s, etc might actually be more common.
But more of a car enthusiast or richer peoples hobby.
Most will use an EV as a daily commuter. But those interested will have an ICE in the garage for leisure, track days, etc

pinaato

The main issue with electric cars for me is how far more rare earth metals are needed to produce them, this envolves many more resources that have been mined by workers in extremely poor and dangerous conditions, often even children. I don't see this as a solution to climate change.

Cheyne Best

The tesla has pretty great speaker system to convert electricity to Soundwaves matching your purrrrfect sounding octane fueled beast

Heres Jonny

Nolan: I know you're busy
*100k views in 2 hours
Everyone: Yeah not really that busy

Renee Rehe

Also, partly because it's Nolan, not one of these new guys with no charisma.
The dude modding the miata is ok too.

John S

Thank you for convincing me to go full electric

Emile Van Der Merwe

Wish this video was a hour long we are supposed to start a assignment on the environment when the video is finished🥲🥲

Frydee

what about charging? more EVs mean more chargers. and an entire nuclear powerplant can only charge up to 3 or 4 average parking lots. and in a country such as mine where there is only 1 nuclear powerplant, what would be an issue

unsocial jt

tbh i feel like this, i dont know how this would work in a reality but economy cars should go EV but sports and super cars should be able to stay Gas powered, your car should have a certain amout of HP to be considered a sports car, EV can also be made into sports or super car (e.g. Lotus Evija & Tesla Model S Plaid), so basically every manufacturer should go EV but their sports/super cars should remain Gas powered (e.g. Whole Nissan line-up is EV except the GT-R and Z) that would heavily outweight the gas powered portion of vehicles on the road to like 10-20 percent of all road vehicles being gas powered, right? Manufacturers should be restricted to how many gas powered sports cars they can make also to like 2 or 3. Open to criticism and similar ideas in the comment i will read them.