A major new study has dealt a blow to virtue-signaling “eco-warriors” by confirming that electric vehicle (EV) owners have a higher “carbon footprint” than those who drive regular gas-powered cars.
Electric cars have become the ultimate status symbol for “woke” celebrities and those claiming to be “saving the planet” from “climate change.”
However, scientists now say that buying an expensive electric vehicle (EV) is actually doing more harm to the environment than helping it.
Researchers from the University of Turku, Finland, found that on average EV drivers have a larger “carbon footprint” than drivers who own gas or diesel cars.
For their paper, published in the journal PLOS Climate, Nils Sandman, Elisa Sahari, and Aki Koponen analyzed questionnaires sent to thousands of random adults in Finland regarding lifestyle choices, car use, environmental opinions and how they felt about EVs.
While their cars may produce lower emissions, the researchers say that EV owners’ more ostentatious lifestyles mean they contribute more to “global warming” overall.
The average EV owner churns out half a ton more CO2 per year, with owners of high-performance electric vehicles producing almost two tonnes more pollution.
Electric vehicles might be the ultimate status symbol for Hollywood’s eco-minded elite but a new study shows that EV owners actually have a bigger ‘carbon footprint’ - The researchers surveyed almost 4,000 Finnish people about their car ownership, background, and lifestyle.
The participants also provided answers about their housing, transport, and purchasing habits which scientists used to estimate their “carbon footprint.”
Overall, someone who owned an internal combustion engine vehicle (ICEV) which runs on gas or diesel created 8.05 tons of CO2 or equivalent greenhouse gases per year.Considering that environmental concerns are a major reason for purchasing an electric vehicle you might expect EV owners’ emissions to be lower.
However, the average EV driver actually has a slightly larger “carbon footprint” than those who opt for cars powered by fossil fuels, producing 8.66 tonnes of emissions per year.
The researchers also noticed that there was a big difference between the two types of EV owners.
EV owners who said they were most concerned with the economy and reliability of their cars produced much less pollution – contributing just 7.59 tonnes per year.
Owners who said they were more concerned about their car’s performance on the other hand were significantly more polluting than any other group.
On average, performance-minded EV owners create 10.25 tonnes of polluting gases every year.
That gives some EV owners a “carbon footprint” nearly double that of those who don’t own cars.
People without cars produce just 5.75 tonnes per year, the study found.
This, the researchers note, is because wealthier people in general have a larger “carbon footprint.”
By using an EV, they use more electricity, which is most often produced at a coal-burning plant.
They also consume more goods, the production of which tends to release “greenhouse gases.”
EV owners typically drive more and travel more.
Ultimately, the researchers found that the use of an EV did not overcome an overall larger “carbon footprint.”
In fact, EV drivers cause more harm to the environment overall, the study concludes.
https://slaynews.com/news/ev-owners-larger-carbon-footprint-regular-car-drivers-study-finds/
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