Americans are obsessed with big vehicles. Last year, the top three best-selling vehicles were trucks. Most buyers don't need these large vehicles and use them as luxury items and symbols of possibility, rather than to tow things. In an effort to follow the worldwide zero emissions trend and to cater to their customers’ love for big vehicles ,car companies are creating electric versions of their huge bestsellers.
The bigger the electric vehicle, the larger the battery it requires. Lithium demand for the batteries could increase 40-fold by 2040, requiring 300 new mines to meet the industry demand. Building a mine takes nearly a decade and costs hundreds of millions of dollars. There are enough materials to make batteries, but mining for them carries environmental and human rights consequences. Bigger batteries mean bigger problems.
Even if electric vehicles keep getting cleaner, they are not completely zero-emissions, as the energy required to build them, especially their batteries, and the electricity from the grid that powers them is powered at least partly by fossil fuels.
However, we can address climate change by using electric vehicles, but positive effects on the environment will be felt only if people choose vehicles that really fit their needs and if they drive less.
Source: MIT Technology Review