Major car manufacturer says says emissions from making EVs can be 70% higher than petrol models

Volvo also claims it can take up to 9 YEARS of driving before they become greener!

Volvo’s report shows the higher CO2 impact of manufacturing (grey) its C40 Recharge electric car (three bars on the right) compared to a petrol XC40 model (left bar). However, the EV has a far lower carbon footprint during use (light blue) – no matter how green the electricity mix.
  • Volvo claims carbon-intensive production for battery and steel makes its C40 EV more polluting to manufacture than an XC40 with a petrol engine
  • It says at current global electricity mix, it needs to be driven almost 70k miles – 9 years based on average UK mileage – to offset its higher production emissions
  • This can be reduced to less than 30k miles if EVs are charged with green energy
  • It has called on world leaders to accelerate the clean energy investment
  • Swedish maker is publishing emissions transparency reports

More here:

Volvo has said that emissions from the production of electric cars are far higher than a petrol equivalent, as it called on world leaders and energy providers to significantly boost investments in green energy to reduce the carbon footprint of plug-in models.

The Swedish car maker said that over a car’s lifetime the electric version will become greener overall, though this will only be achieved after covering between 30,000 and 68,400 miles – taking between four and nine years for the average UK motorist. 

The claims were made to coincide with the COP26 climate summit last November in Glasgow and as part of a revolutionary new transparency approach adopted by the brand, which includes publishing its latest ‘Life Cycle Assessment’ report for the pure-electric £57,400 C40 Recharge. Or read here.

https://www.volvocars.com/images/v/-/media/Market-Assets/INTL/Applications/DotCom/PDF/C40/Volvo-C40-Recharge-LCA-report.pdf