Charging an EV may be more expensive than you think...

"It is often forgotten that the purchase of any new appliance or electronic device has an

associated environmental cost viz. the emissions embodied in its manufacture (and in all the

other stages in the process of getting the new car into the showroom).

Mike Berners-Lee reports that ‘the embodied emissions of a car typically rival the exhaust pipe emissions over its entire lifetime’. For example, he estimates the footprints of a new car to lie between 5 tonnes CO2e (Citroen C1) and 35 tonnes CO2e (Land Rover Discovery).20 There is no reason to believe that the embodied emissions of an electric car will be substantially less than those

of a petrol/diesel car.

Indeed, until they become part of a circular economy, the batteries in an electric car may increase the emissions.

Therefore, given that a diesel car typically has lower emissions per kilometre than a petrol

car and that diesel engines are well known to be capable of being driven well over 100,000

miles, it may make sense to keep hold of a diesel car until it becomes too unreliable to use.

By then the price, embodied emissions and environmental impact of electric cars may have

fallen to well below what they are today"