The Contradictions of Battery Operated Vehicles | Graham Conway | TEDxSanAntonio
The Contradictions of Battery Operated Vehicles | Graham Conway | TEDxSanAntonio
NOTE FROM TED: This talk only reflects the speaker’s personal views and interpretation. Several claims in this talk lack scientific support. We’ve flagged this talk because it falls outside the content guidelines TED gives TEDx organizers. TEDx events are independently organized by volunteers. The guidelines we give TEDx organizers are described in more detail here: http://storage.ted.com/tedx/manuals/tedx_content_guidelines.pdf
This talk will challenge the popular perception that Battery Electric Vehicles (BEVs) are environmentally friendly, and will argue that we are inappropriately rushing the market introduction of these vehicles. BEVs are commonly sold under the guise of being ‘Zero Emissions,’ an assertion that is not true by any definition. Brake pads produce emissions, as do
tires and even interiors under sunlight. The electricity that powers BEVs is generated by power plants, 64% of which burn fossil fuels in the U.S.—fossil fuels that contribute to greenhouse gas emissions and global warming. Even more importantly, there are significant CO2 emissions
created during the manufacture of the battery pack, meaning that in order to offset the carbon created during the production process, a BEV must drive 40,000 – 100,000 miles before being environmentally comparable to a gasoline-powered vehicle. Hybrid vehicles, on the other hand,
which combine much smaller batteries with efficient internal combustion engines, have been shown to be a much better option for lowering global CO2. Unfortunately, they do not receive the same marketable ‘kudos’ or policy backing as full BEVs. We are headed down the wrong path by
rolling out BEVs before making the manufacturing and electricity generation CO2 neutral. Dr. Graham Conway is a Principal Engineer in the Automotive Division at Southwest Research Institute. For the last ten years he has been immersed in evaluating automotive technologies and consulting for car companies and suppliers. This gives him unique insights and perspectives on the industry. He is passionate about making vehicles more efficient to ensure the future of the planet and has a message to share about some common misconceptions about electric and non-electric vehicles. This talk was given at a TEDx event using the TED conference format but independently organized by a local community. Learn more at https://www.ted.com/tedx
Watch Germany freeze this winter and realize that currently solar and wind can not run a power grid.
Don’t forget that any vehicle built with transportation in mind, still needs lubricants. Grease for bearings. Brake fluid , coolant for batteries, materials to make seating and carpeting. Windmills use gallons of oil and grease, notoriously leaky. Not to mention, killing off birds. Solar farms require lots of space and great weather plus the batteries for storage. You can’t farm the solar fields for food and they draw heat in to the area where they are located and cause, get this, hot spots where they are and that changes the environment.
Sorry, but you lost me when you posited which are intermittent and unreliable.
Had you advocated for then you would not have lost your credibility.
TED speakers = feed from the devil’s FUDGE HOLE !!!!!
And don’t get excited about the present battery electric cars they have only a short existence I have a feeling
EV = will lower demand for gasoline
The cost of producing battery’s include All batteries since battery producers make batteries for Everything from TV remotes to E bikes and Gas burning cars , Four to eight batteries are used in a Gas burning auto lifetime . Thats Equal to one or two E car batteries , Same rules apply . So its a shared Cost . This Myth is a Compounded Myth. With Bias on Both sides . Plus production of Lithium batteries Co2 Emissions has steadily Dropped 2013 to 2022 by 2/3 with more efficient methods being explored along with bigger manufacturing more-volume Equals less CO2 per battery .
I Believe In Climate Change Also, Weather/Climate Change Is A Natural Random Event And It Does Change!!
You can cry all you want but you won’t stop electric cars. I think you would have made the same video if you were around when the model A was introduced.
Gavin Newsome must have missed this video
What’s wrong with steam generators from the mantle layer in the ground?
The future is electric? 12 people just froze to death because we can’t even provide enough power to heat homes, but we are going to now power hundreds of millions of vehicles???
Don’t forget each FART the worker cuts who is digging material out of the ground !!!!!
Also renewable energy has a high cost, things like the blades on wind turbines are supposed to last 20 years but in reality they last 3 to 7 years and they cost a lot of energy to make them.
What does plants breath? CO2…what do plants emitt….02…well solution is simple….plant…more plants not solar farms or wind farms but..tree farms!
I still say the world is screwed……
not sure how many conventional vehicles there will be left to choose from, many of the automakers are planning to offer only electric vehicles for sale in the next decade
Some good points made here. But do you think the gas you put in your ICE just magically appears at the pump. Just as BEV supporters forget how the electricity gets to the plug. the TED host has (or seems to have) forgotten to include the energy and CO2 needed to get that gas to the gas station, including building oil rigs, drilling, shipping, refining, shipping again, etc. In some jurisdictions, for instance where I live, the power is 93% nuclear, wind, and hydro. EVs are a no-brainer here, but still not for everyone. You can’t just dismiss electric vehicles outright now because they don’t solve every problem, but you have to start somewhere. The question do you want to press a button and instantly switch all ICE to EV is idiotic. No one is suggesting such an impossible scenario. But we can start where it makes sense. The path to benign transport will be a combination of BEV BHEV Hydrogen ICE FCEV, yes and even ICE which continue to become more efficient. It’s too early to tell which technology will win out. The point is many paths will have to be pursued.
This won’t come about without some intervention from government. Remember that the safe, awesome, efficient, powerful, reliable ICE vehicles we have today are the direct result of aggressive environmental policies forced onto car manufacturers for decades. All of these current measures have been fought at every turn by auto companies and enthusiasts alike.
OMG,,, Ive been saying for years and years that you have to look at the big picture for the total environmental impact they have from all the facets to make a vehicle including all the impact from obtaining the materials to build them and then what is their environmental impact when they end up in a junk yard and the environmental impact that these huge batteries create. THANK YOU seeing the bigger picture. Maybe you have also addressed in other talks or communications the environmental impact of all aspects of all vehicles. I have also wondered or questioned but never researched how long a gas or hybrid vehicle lasts compared to an electric. How many electric vehicles get scrapped because the cost to replace the batteries are too high. One other thought i had was I was in the auto repair business for years and out since electric vehicles really became popular. We were just seeing electric and hybrids not long before I got out of the business and my experience was most of the gas vehicles that we saw in CA were going over 200000 to 250000 miles so the 1800000 miles on a gas vehicle on the last 10 years seems low to me.
Enlightening thank you.
Battery tech is no where near what it needs to be to make EVs even remotely useful.
that could change soon, but until then lithium battery packs are not the solution
paid for by big auto industry
It takes time to rebuild the power generation system, but there’s another major point, heavy equipment negatively affects our eco system 😔
Solar YES, wind farms NO. All countries should invest more in "Nuclear" energy, totally clean, long lasting, etc. This would be able to power all of the cars homes and businesses.
Floink = for your medeocker IQ
Can you imagine being blocked in electric car the whole night during snow storm..
He’s quite wrong, all CO2 is in the cycle. Plants convert It to oxygen that we all, including the horse, breathe. The big problem is that more co2 is being produced, than is getting converted. As long as we keep paving over grasslands, cutting the rainforest and building cities where jungles once stood, you will get an excess of co2.
Volcanoes produce more co2 than mankind, nature always handled it. We’ve reduced the natural filtration by far too much.
Climate change has been happening since the start of time. First they tried to push the next ice age, that got debunked, then it was global warming, and that doesnt work when its freezing and temperatures where you live fall, so they came up with Climate change. No one can argue that, becuase the climate is always changing. Maybe you should stop and think about why narratives are used to push agendas. There in lies your hoax………….. If you had a clue about science you might be dangerous.
He forgot to add that the battery packs don’t last an average of 180 k miles
PLANT MORE TREES!
Climate change CAN NOT BE STOPPED !!! IT is a hoax to pay $$$ to try to stop attributes of what the CLIMATE is going to do !!! It will not be stopped !!!
Climate change = distribution of $$$
Bill Gates = foolish globalist turdo
No the electric isn’t better
We’ve completely missed the degeneration and rapid degradation of these “green” machines
These efficient wind turbines and solar panels….fall apart before they would ever break even
Requiring…NEW production….and NEW CO 2
wouldnt any CO2 released become a part of the cycle?
This video is two years old and already obsolete. Two years ago the EV was still novel. Today it has over five percent of the new vehicle market. Next year it will have ten. The year afterm, 20. By 2028 fifty percent of the new car market will be EV. We are witnessing the Model T era of electric cars. There still weren’t service stations in 1907 America. If you took a trip in your Model T you had to take spare gas, tires, spark plugs, belts, inner tubes, tire patches…well, you get it. Today we have the same situation with EVs except they’re probably more reliable than the ICE vehicle. The only problem is charging stations, just like 1907 gas stations. There are new charging stations being built weekly. By the end of 2025 charging will be simple and batteries will be a couple of generations ahead. All the "contradictions" in this video are tenuous at least and mostly no more. The carbon footprint of electric cars, even with coal generated electricity is 30% of ICE cars. It’s time for this technology and it’s time to save the world.
Is he saying that the CO2 from cars and power plants isn’t absorbed by plants but CO2 from horses does???
Demoturds = are good at fart cutting into a tank !!!!!
Put a box around an ev when u make it , tons of co2!! Get rid of co2 and the planet dies. Put a box around solar panels and wind turbines when made Humm co2.
If i go to electric vehicle. I won’t a Drone.
Seems like there is a recycling component at the end that is missing from the analysis? How much co2 is used to recondition a vehicle as it may be advantageous from the electric auto
climate change is a lie that has made the world poorer and more polluted and the rich MUCH richer
Co 2 = is very GOOD !!! not bad !!!!
In addition to Brian Smith’s insightful comments, mining for the battery raw materials is absolutely ravaging the forests of South America and other areas, killing thousands of acres of vegetation and hundreds of thousands of animals. Sadly, renewable energy sources have been proven in Sweden and Germany to be pathetically in efficient (10-30% at best) with a massive reliance on other energy sources – primarily coal – during the many hours when Solar and Wind are not producing, causing these countries to revisit nuclear power. See Michael Schellenburger’s TEXTalk on renewables.
EVs pollute at the factory in production and in production of electricity to charge them. They aren’t ready for the great travel distances in the South West US. Don’t get fooled. 😳
The CO2 from the horse is recycled but the CO2 from a car is not? It is all recycled by plants.
Instant plot hole
We extract oil the —>car emits CO2—-> plants use the CO2 to create oxygen.
So the difference is that the horse uses oxygen and the car doesn’t. So we would be creating oxygen that isn’t used.
There is a problem with the climate change debate. It’s that one side is arguing a hypothesis that can’t be proven by scientific method, and it’s conclusions are made using the data they choose. Meanwhile the other side has to argue against it.
How do you disprove a claim where one side says I’m right no matter what?
Read Revelation you will know how the world ends nothing we can do to change the ending. I agree we should be good stewards of what was give us. God protects His creation. BTW we destroy the world more by pulling all the materials needed to create a battery 🤔.
the averve electric car battery lasts almost 100,000 miles. So the average electric car will not use 1 battery in its lifetime, but 1.8, which adds to its Carbon footprint significantly. Also he does not mention how we get power at night and/or windless days. Either the renewables electric system has to be almost 2x bigger than today so we can store energy in batteries,, or we need other now renewable systems for use at night, such as nuclear or coal or gas. So the electric car scenario is much worse than he portrays it as.
You greenies are going to send us back to the Stone Age.