Even though electric vehicles do not produce any emissions when they are driven, they still produce emissions when they are manufactured and when they are powered from the grid. So, they cannot significantly cut emissions.
Fact:
While EVs emit about 75 percent more CO2 during their production (mainly due to the battery, which is absent from legacy vehicles), they quickly compensate for this by emitting far less when on the road. Even if powered entirely from the grid in Australia, an EV emits far less CO2 than an internal combustion engine (ICE) vehicle. It overtakes the ICE vehicle at around 38,000 kilometres and saves on emissions for every kilometre after that. Given that an Australian commuter drives an average of 12,600 km per year, or 34.5 km per day, the crossover point with an ICE vehicle is just three years.
In Australia, the crossover point is also determined geographically. In states like NSW and Queensland, where fossil fuels still power most of the grid, that point is higher than in ones like Tasmania and South Australia, where the grid is mostly powered by renewables. In the latter two cases, the crossover point is 23,000 km, or 22 months.
Of course, if an EV is powered entirely by renewables, then its crossover point is lower again and the emissions saved a vastly greater. In Australia, a majority of EVs are powered at this way. And once EVs are actually made using renewable energy, they will have a very low carbon footprint indeed. This is already happening at Tesla’s factory in Texas, which is powered by 70,000 solar panels on the roof, with a gigantic battery complex to run the plant on cloudy days and at night.