When will EV emissions regulations begin to tighten up?
The switch to EVs is certainly coming, as seen by the rising interest in electric cars.
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Updated November 2026. This was first published on 16 August 2022. The idea is the same. Any number below is what the original piece said then. It is not a new count.
Key takeaways
- The switch to EVs is certainly coming, as seen by the rising interest in electric cars.
- Also, this transformation is occurring to lessen our transportation-related emissions, at least theoretically.
- But, Even though this sounds wonderful on paper and EVs have been shown to be environmentally friendly in the long run, the competitive EV market has pushed many businesses to advertise the longest ranges they can.
The switch to EVs is certainly coming, as seen by the rising interest in electric cars. Also, this transformation is occurring to lessen our transportation-related emissions, at least theoretically. But, Even though this sounds wonderful on paper and EVs have been shown to be environmentally friendly in the long run, the competitive EV market has pushed many businesses to advertise the longest ranges they can.
Competitive range figures help a car stand out from the competition and may also catch the attention of many buyers who may still be worried about range anxiety. Naturally, there are a variety of ways for manufacturers to obtain significant range statistics, such as reducing a vehicle’s drag coefficient, improving the efficiency of the powertrain, reducing weight, or simply fitting a larger battery pack.
But when a producer foregoes some of those methods, the simplest fix is frequently to just stuff a bigger battery pack in it. But that is a risky habit to develop, as evidenced by cars like the Hummer EV.
The Ford F150-Lightning, Rivian R1T, and most famously the Hummer EV are examples of new heavy-duty electric cars that best illustrate why using a huge battery works while simultaneously showing why it does not actually address the larger issue of emissions. Similar to their ICE equivalents, these massive pickup trucks are predictably less efficient than EV passenger cars, but this larger form factor brings additional issues that further reduce their efficiency.
For starters, these electric vehicles lack the aerodynamic edge that most EVs have over their gas-powered competitors due to their truck-like form. What is worse is that a car’s aerodynamics become a bigger efficiency drain the faster you travel, and electric cars already have trouble maintaining efficiency at highway speeds. This is seen in the Ford F-150 Lightning’s struggle to average 60 MPGe. is still very respectable for a full-sized truck but falls short of smaller EVs’ performance against ICE rivals.
Due to their average efficiency, vehicles like the F-150 and R1T require enormous batteries, like the 131kWh battery in the Lightning and the 135kWh pack in the Rivian. But, given that same approach is also used to increase the capacity of vehicles’ petrol tanks, allowing them to go farther between fill-ups, doing that is not always a bad idea. The fact that the biggest source of pollution for electric vehicles comes from the creation of batteries, But, makes it a less than ideal condition.
In a video made by Engineering Explained, he calculated that about 150 kg of CO2 were produced for every kWh in an EV’s battery. In other words, just by installing their batteries, the Rivian R1T and F-150 Lightning would have produced 20 metric tonnes of CO2. So, the fuel efficiency gap is more critical than ever before in order for these electric vehicles to catch up to their gasoline-powered competitors. Also, Engineering Explained discovered that every kWh of charging generated about 0.5kg of pollutants. It is also important to remember that a typical gasoline car emits around 6 tonnes of CO2 as it leaves the factory, and that an average F-150 emits 366 grammes of CO2 every mile.
Using this data, as well as the fact that an F-150 Lightning typically goes 2.3 miles per kWh, over the course of a normal vehicle’s lifespan of 150,000 miles, the Lightning would be responsible for 52.2 tonnes of pollution, as opposed to the 60.9 tonnes produced by its gas-powered equivalent. Although it is a 15% improvement over its fuel-burning counterpart, the Tesla Model 3 boasts a staggering 65% decrease in emissions when compared to ICE rivals.
But when it comes to cars like the Hummer EV, which averages just 47 MPGe and has a massive 212kWh battery, things really start to get nasty. It would emit an alarming 79.6 tonnes of emissions over the same 150,000-mile span! Yes, this Hummer is excessive in every aspect, especially considering its shed-like aerodynamics, 9000-lb curb weight, and 1000 horsepower. it is not amusing that it has more than 65,000 reservations.
Even with even worse emissions than a Ram 1500 TRX, a direct gasoline rival, the truck would be lucky to sell more than 65,000 units during its entire manufacturing run. That begs the question: What good is pushing automakers to make electric vehicles (EVs) if they may theoretically be just as harmful to the environment?
Why Stricter Emissions Standards Must Be Implemented for EVs.
Yes, I am aware that, if any, electric cars produced in the future will not be as inefficient as the Hummer EV. But, there are other huge vehicles that have comparable inefficiency. Many European automakers still struggle to produce vehicles with impressive efficiency ratings, such as the mediocre 78 MPGe rating for the Audi e-tron or the unimpressive 89 MPGe rating for the little Polestar 2. If the main justification for EVs is that they are better for the environment, who cares about excessive performance? It may be argued that these options are very efficient given the performance they provide.
The EPA’s updated gasoline vehicle emission criteria state that fleet average fuel economy for company passenger cars should reach 67 mpg by 2026. The efficiency rating of the EVs a firm offers is probably taken into account in this average statistic. if they only average 78 MPGe, like the eTron, they are not going to be much of a help in raising that average. As seen by automobiles like the Ford Maverick Hybrid, a large vehicle that nevertheless manages to average about 40 mpg, these criteria almost certainly will not take long to have most gasoline vehicles comfortable averaging 50 mpg.
To guarantee that they continue to provide a significant improvement over ICE automobiles when manufacturing emissions are taken into account, EVs should start being subject to regulations that are comparable to those that are imposed on gas-powered vehicles. With the IONIQ 5 and EV6 both averaging about 115 MPGe, Hyundai and Kia are now the only non-all-electric manufacturers making an effort to have an efficiency that rivals Tesla. Since greater efficiency will allow for the use of smaller battery packs to deliver a competitive range. in turn results in lower production costs, I believe that efficiency will naturally become the top priority for manufacturers when producing EVs. This will allow the company to operate at higher profit margins.
Making battery manufacture and recycling as ecologically benign as feasible is a very separate matter, though.
Questions and answers #
What is the main point? #
The switch to EVs is certainly coming, as seen by the rising interest in electric cars.
What else did the original piece say? #
Also, this transformation is occurring to lessen our transportation-related emissions, at least theoretically.