Study casts doubt on electric vehicles' climate-saving credentials

[fishwax]

5. the study is pretty limited, though

The one convincing conclusion that it reaches--that electric cars aren't an environmental panacea--isn't exactly controversial. I don't think anyone should really think otherwise. And it's true that in certain energy infrastructures (like Germany's which relies heavily on fossil fuels) they can wind up producing more CO2. Even the study acknowledges that elsewhere in Europe the math shifts towards the Tesla.

And certainly the production of the batteries creates additional problems. But the production of batteries is becoming increasingly efficient, and that trend will likely continue. They can also be repurposed once they're no longer fit as car batteries. So the carbon footprint of the batteries will, in all likelihood, decrease as the technology becomes more widespread.