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Electric Vehicles and Batteries

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Published 9 September 2022

Electric vehicles and batteries

We’re not yet at peak electric vehicle (EV) uptake but everyone will have been seeing more and more on the roads - even Teslas are a common sight on Wellington’s roads these days!

You might be considering getting hold of one, or have started using one at work. Here we’ve answered some of the EV frequently asked questions we get to demystify some of the common concerns.

Why do we need EVs?

Sustainabilty Trust supports the EV transition as an important part of behaviour change required to meet our carbon targets and tackle climate change. Aotearoa has committed to reaching net zero emissions of long-lived greenhouse gases (carbon dioxide and nitrous oxide) by 2050. Reducing transport emissions, which have risen steadily over the past 30 years, is critical for meeting this commitment.

In 2020, transport contributed 30% of long-lived gases in Aotearoa and it was the largest emitter for carbon dioxide. EVs help tick two of the Climate Change Commission’s transport recommendations to Government: reduce emissions from cars (light vehicles) and start work now to decarbonise heavy transport and freight.

Are hybrid cars just as good for the environment?

Hybrids have been a step in the right direction, but they produce about 65% of the emissions of an average combustion engine car. Plug-in hybrids produce 30%. Fully electric EVs also eliminate the tailpipe pollution combustion engines produce; this is a significant benefit given that air pollution in New Zealand is responsible for over 3000 premature deaths every year. EVs also have quieter engines, so if you’re someone who enjoyed the new-found quiet streets when we went into lockdown in 2020, EVs will support a return to those peaceful neighbourhoods, for people and wildlife too!

Should I scrap my fossil fuel car now and move to an EV?

The answer to this is actually dependant on how often you drive. If you’re a high mileage car owner, moving to an EV would be better because most emissions from cars are generated during their driving life, which means you’d buy an EV and only take a few years to be in ‘carbon credit’. However, if you have an efficient vehicle and drive very little, you could probably keep it for a few years and buy an even better EV down the line.

The car you already own is also a carbon sunk-cost. The emissions generating during its manufacture have already been emitted. So it’s down to whether you’d generate more emissions running your existing car over the rest of its life or whether you’d generate less by buying an EV, including the manufacturing emissions.

Don’t the raw materials required for batteries cause huge problems in other countries?

There are just some differences in the resources need for EV versus fossil fuel manufacture. There are a number of important materials needed for batteries. One of these is cobolt, which is added to lithium as a stabiliser, otherwise lithium is quite a reactive metal. 75% of cobolt comes from the Democratic Republic of Congo, which has an abundance of cobolt. Like any resource found in large enough quantities, this has resulted in cobolt-related conflict in the area, and concerns over safety and child-labour. However, these concerns are not commonplace and most cobolt is actually sourced ethically and under sound safety and regulatory standards. There has been a lot of work to improve the ethical sourcing of cobolt over the past decade.

Likewise, lithium is also receiving growing attention because sourcing it is very environmentally costly, predominantly related to extreme water usage per tonne of lithium, and polluting ground water. However, there are more sustainable solutions on the horizon. New Zealand’s government has, in 2022, given money to a Taupo-based company working with new technology to extract lithium from lithium-rich geothermal brine water!

Does it matter how I charge my EV?

We think so and that is why we install EV chargers in homes. We work with Thundergrid to install the INCH Pro charger which are ‘smart’ and energy efficient chargers. When coupled with the Load Guard sensor, the charger can adjust charging power to other consumers to prevent overloads.

EECA thinks so too and have recently released a Green Paper on improving the energy performance of EV chargers. ‘Smart’ products can engage with the electricity system and respond to market signals by changing when and how they use electricity. These products are commonly referred to as controllable distributed energy resources (DER). Harnessing controllable DER will mean lower electricity bills at the household level.

Want to know the difference between AC and DC chargers? Confused about charging cables? Our friends at EcoGeek have produced this great guide and video to take the confusion out of EV charging.

To get a quote on how much it would cost to get an EV charger installed at your house, click the button below.

Shouldn’t we focus on having less vehicles on the road?

Yes! The Climate Change Comission has told Government that there should be low emission alternatives to vehicle use. Electrification is important but still has impacts so we need to reduce our overall vehicle kilometers. This means investing in public and active transport like cycle lanes. There are so many other benefits that come with a reduction in vehicles on the roads; reduced noise, fewer collisions, better health outomces and more space for our communities.

If you are interested in becoming a vehicle free household, or reducing your fleet size, check out Mevo and CityHop. If you are outside of Wellington check out this resource from GenLess. We see vehicle sharing as the way forward, all part of the circular economy transition.

Do EVs actually produce fewer emissions than fossil fuel cars?

According to GenLess, the average New Zealand petrol or diesel car emits about 2.4 tonnes of greenhouse gas per year – the equivalent of burning a tonne of coal. Because in New Zealand we have high levels of renewable electricity production, an EV produces 80% fewer emissions than an equivalent petrol or diesel car.

Isn’t EV manufacturing more destructive than manufacturing fossil fuel cars?

All new vehicles require the extraction of resources we haven’t previously needed. It’s not only EVs doing that, and demand for batteries of any kind contribute to driving up demand for key resources. Size matters too. SUVs are larger, they use more materials in their production than the car they are based on. As an example, a Volkswagen Golf versus a Volswagen SUV is an extra 200kg of metal, plastic and rubber – the weight of several people which equals more raw materials and more energy to be produced. Extra weight also means worse fuel economy, whether fossil fuel or electric.

Do the batteries get recycled?

Batteries have a long life; EECA estimates that an EV battery should last 10-20 years before it no longer provides useful range. They can also be reconditioned for a second life, for instance for energy storage, but will reach the end of their useful life eventually. In 2020, the Ministry for Environment estimates that 1,000 electric vehicle batteries reached their end of use; by 2030 that number could reach 84,000 each year. Mis-managed large batteries also pose risk of fire and if they end up in the landfill or the environment, toxins such as heavy metals are released.

At the moment most batteries with no further use will be dismantled and sent offshore for recycling. The Government is developing a product stewardship regulations for batteries. Product stewardship means people and businesses take responsibility for the lifecycle of their products, either voluntarily or in response to regulatory tools. The scheme may mean that a disposal fee is attached to imported EV batteries, which would be used to help fund end-of-life processing and materials recovery.[SR1]  Lead acid batteries in fossil fuel cars also reach the end of life and need to be replaced and recycled responsibly.

Can our grid infrastructure cope with us all moving to EVs?

If we all switched to EV’s tomorrow, the answer would be no. But work has already begun to make sure infrastructure can meet EV requirements as the number of them increases. New Zealand Transport Agency Waka Kotahi has provided national guidelines for installation of chargers and is working with the public and private sector to keep EV infrastructure up with demand. In the meantime, EVs themselves continue to improve, with charging times on the decrease and capacity to charge on the increase.

How do I know if I can have a charger at home?

Sustainabilty Trust has trained our home performance advisers to offer analysis and advise about EV chargers and have accumulated experience and knowledge regarding frequently asked questions and misconceptions. This includes the capacity of the system in the home, the state of the wiring and switch board, earthing, and reviewing other applicances which may take a big draw on available power.

I don’t have space to charge an EV at home, what do I do?

Don’t worry. The public network is growing all the time. We’ve even got a public charging station at the Trust; all the fees go to our Curtain Bank. Check out Thundergrid, Chargenet, Waka Kotahi map and the Wellington City Council map of EV charger locations for more spots where you can top up.

If EVs are so great why doesn’t Sustainability Trust have them?

We do! 6 of our 13 cars are fully electric and the rest are hybrid. We have had one short range electric van that has been put to use by our Curtain Bank and Wilderkids holiday programme and shared with our friends like Kaicycle. We’ve found we don’t need this as much as we thought, so it is going to a new home with Kaibosh soon and will be delivering rescued food in Kāpiti. We will be transitioning the rest of our van fleet to electric, but at the moment our vans have a lot more life left in them. Our target is to have a fully electric fleet by 2026.

Haven’t you forgotten about e-bikes?

We have focused on EV vehicles in this post, but electric bikes are a big part of decarbonising transport in Wellington. Chat with the brians at Switched on Bikes, Ekerua ReBicycle and Bicycle Junction. Switched on Bikes has a Subscribe to Ride programme; electric bike leasing with the option to buy. Ekerua ReBicycle is working to make e-bikes more accessible to more people starting with having having cargobikes for families to lend to see if they suit their lifestyle.

References and where to find out more: