Electric vehicles are much heavier than internal combustion engine (ICE) vehicles, so may cause car parks to collapse if adopted in large numbers. Fact: This myth emerged in the wake of the collapse of a second-floor parking garage in New York in April 2023. Initial reports suggested that the cause was an excess of cars that had been parked there – something that was not actually true. Then fears started to circulate there would be more such collapses if EVs became the dominant type of vehicles in America, as they are heavier than ICE vehicles.  In fact, there is no evidence that car parks will collapse if they are populated with EVs. It’s true that EVs are up to 50 percent heavier than ICE vehicles, but most being sold are smaller models, which weigh no more than an SUV. Private car parks, of course, don’t have this problem as they are mostly on the ground floor of apartment buildings, where there is no danger of a collapse. 

Electric vehicles are dangerous if caught in a flood. Their batteries could easily explode. Fact: The battery pack in an EV is designed to be safe in water, even if fully submerged. So, in the unlikely event that the car gets caught in a flood, it will be perfectly safe.

Electric vehicle batteries are prone to catching fire, and those fires are very difficult to put out.  Fact: The reality is the exact opposite, when it comes to the frequency of EV fires. The Australian firm EV FireSafe keeps track of passenger EV battery fires worldwide. Between 2010 and June 2024, only 511 such fires occurred globally – and this, despite some 60 million EVs being on the road. In Australia, only 14 such fires had occurred between 2010 and April 2026 – 2 from arson, 3 from garage fires spreading to the car, 5 from high speed collisions and 1 from a bushfire. The other 3 were still under investigation at the time the figures were compiled.  The American insurance company AutoInsuranceEZ has looked at the number of fires occurring in three different categories of vehicle in the US. Per 100,000 cars, the respective figures are 25 fires for EVs, 1,530 for internal combustion engine (ICE) vehicles, and 3,475 for hybrid vehicles. In other words, you are 60 times more likely to experience a fire in an ICE vehicle than in an EV, and 139 times more likely in a hybrid. That said, it is true that fires in EVs are harder to put out than in ICE vehicles, but that is a problem for firefighters, not for drivers. In fact, it is far easier to escape an EV fire than an ICE fire, as the EV fire takes much longer to take hold.

EVs are not appropriate for Australia, as the distance between the major cities is too great. Fact:  Most EVs sold in Australia today have a range of between 300 and 500 kilometres, so if distance is a priority, it can be attended to very easily. In addition, the federal government has committed to having a fast-charging station every 70 to 100 kilometres around the country, so distance will no longer be a problem for those owning EVs. These fast-chargers can a hundred kilometres worth of power into a car in just five minutes. True, this is not as fast as filling up at a petrol station, but the cost advantage is likely to make the wait worthwhile. And, of course, even faster chargers are in the pipeline. BYD has now installed chargers in China that can put 900 kilometres into a car in just 9 minutes. The author (Ken Enderby) charging his EV in Goulburn, in country NSW [Source: Ken Enderby]

EV batteries only have a life span of 10 to 12 years, so producing them is expensive and wasteful. Fact: EV batteries now have a lifespan of up to 20 years. Manufacturers like Tesla, BYD, MG and Nissan give an eight-year/160,000-kilometre warranty for their cars. At the average distance driven each day by passenger vehicles in Australia (34.5 km), this equates to a 12-year warranty. Tesla batteries are even more impressive, degrading by 10 percent after 250,000 kilometres of driving. This means an average driver could expect the battery to last 19 years!  But that is not the end of the story. When a lithium battery does reach the end of its life in an EV, it can be used for another 10 to 12 years in a different form – as a home battery or as part of the electricity grid. In Japan, recycled car batteries are being used to power street lights. And when the battery finally degrades to the point where it is no longer usable in any form, its critical materials can be 100 percent recycled. 

Hybrid vehicles are much better than internal combustion engine (ICE) vehicles, as far as emissions are concerned. They are the way forward, not EVs.  Fact: Hybrids are significantly better than ICE vehicles, when it comes to emissions. They emit about two thirds as much carbon over their lifetimes as their petrol-driven counterparts. (Plug-in hybrids emit slightly less than this.) EVs, by contrast, emit only a third as much CO2 as ICE vehicles, and only a quarter as much if powered by renewables. If they are also produced using renewables, then their carbon impact is just 4 percent that of legacy vehicles. 

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.

Big batteries, home batteries and EV batteries all use cobalt, which is mined under appalling conditions in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Those who promote these technologies are as responsible for these conditions as the mining companies themselves.  Fact: Most modern batteries no longer use nickel manganese cobalt (NMC) technology. Instead, they use lithium iron phosphate (LFP) technology, which does not contain cobalt. In Australia, all of the big batteries being installed around the country use LFP, as do all the major brands of home batteries.  As far as EV batteries are concerned, 60 percent of all those manufactured globally use LFP technology rather than NMC. The figure is 70 percent for vehicles made in China.  The devices that do all use cobalt are mobile phones, laptops, tablets and power tools. Every single one in them contains it. So, if people are concerned about cobalt mining in the Congo, they should be protesting against the use of these devices, not batteries. Interestingly, it is also used in oil refineries to remove sulphur from crude oil, to produce cleaner fuel. So, the fossil fuel industry is also dependent on it.

EV batteries contain nickel, which is highly polluting to produce.  Fact: This myth was given voice in an episode of Spotlight on Australian television in April 2025. The program alleged that nickel produced in Indonesia is highly damaging to the local environment, and that this nickel is used in Chinese-made EVs. The implication was that EV are no less damaging to the environment than internal combustion engine vehicles.  Nothing could actually be further from the truth. While it’s true that Indonesian nickel mining is environmentally unfriendly, it is not used in EV batteries; it’s the wrong grade. The countries that produce the correct grade are Canada, Russia and Australia, where the mining process is far less harmful to local ecosystems.  But this is largely irrelevant, as 60 percent of all EVs use Lithium Iron Phosphate (LFP) batteries, which contain no nickel at all. [Nor do they contain any cobalt. See the following myth.] The figure for Chinese EVs is 70 percent, a fact that was ignored in the Spotlight episode.  In fact, 70 percent of all nickel mined globally is used to produce stainless steel. This is where Indonesia’s nickel goes. So yes, campaign against Indonesian mining practices, but not against EVs. They are not the culprit in this story.

Electric vehicles are barely any less polluting than their fossil fuel counterparts, so it’s a waste of time promoting them.  Fact: Electric vehicles are way less polluting than vehicles powered by internal combustion engines. Even if they are powered entirely by ‘dirty’ electricity from the grid, they still produce 70 percent fewer emissions than cars powered by fossil fuels. If their energy is sourced purely from renewables, then their emissions are next to zero. And, of course, if the electricity is sourced from rooftop solar, then the cost to the owner is negligible. An electric vehicle charging [Source: Ken Enderby]