Electric, hydrogen or Internal Combustion Engine cars? LCA provides the answer

There is a number of very good reasons to know what Life Cycle Assessment is: one of these, is that it can answer questions like "what is the most environmentally sustainable* choice between electric and conventional cars?". 

And one more good reason is that it can also provide an answer for hydrogen cars.

So, what is the short answer? I'm very tempted to reply "It depends": uncertainty is a part of life. But in reality, we have an answer and this very good study provides all details.

https://sphera.com/spark/hydrogen-fuel-cell-cars-the-second-bet-for-clean-vehicles/

Now, it's a bit sad to read that conventional cars (aka Internal Combustion Engine) are not the winners of the competition. From today, I will look at my beauty (below) with different eyes (but I already have a good excuse not to get rid of it....and yes, I will tell you why it is a sustainabile excuse).


But...what about hydrogen and electric cars? Well, it depends of course on the energy grid mix used to recharge the battery, the production of hydrogen and some other factors. But the fact is, as of today, that electric cars are the winner of the competition.

Good news: Tesla has lowered the price of the Model 3 yesterday by around 3k euros.

Bad news: The Model 3 is still too expensive for me.

I will have to drive my '94 Miata still for a while I guess.



*Environmental sustainability is quite a complex subject. Here I refer to the quantification of the impacts on climate change.




 

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