E-bikes not e-cars are the real green solution

It may sound like a spoiler but this is what new research shows: electric cars too are harmful to the environment and could be more harmful to health than petrol and diesel vehicles. This is because for electric vehicles combustion emissions occur where electricity is generated rather than where the vehicle is used. The environmental and health footprint of cars is positive only when power is produced from clean sources, say scientists from University of Tennessee who studied emissions and health impacts of five vehicle technologies in 34 Chinese cities. In China, 85 per cent of electricity production is from fossil fuels, about 90 per cent is from coal.

The study found that the power generated in China to operate electric vehicles emit fine particles at a much higher rate than gasoline vehicles. In terms of air pollution impacts, electric cars are more harmful to public health per kilometer traveled in China than conventional vehicles, the study concludes. However, electric-bikes yielded the lowest environmental health impacts per passenger per kilometer. With over 100 million e-bikes purchased in the past decade in China, e-bikes represent the single largest adoption of alternative fuel vehicles anywhere in the world.

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