Electric Vehicles Are A Mistake

By Solomon Langer ‘25
Many maintain the preconceived notion that electric vehicles significantly benefit the environment. However, this is not the case, as in reality, how their batteries are manufactured only creates further harm to the environment. 

Electric vehicles use lithium batteries, which require vast amounts of cobalt, nickel and lithium. Though utilizing batteries over gasoline would appear beneficial at face value since this reduces carbon emissions coming from the car itself, mining for these minerals has catastrophic effects on the climate. 
According to Columbia University, “Side effects [of mining lithium] include the use of large quantities of water and related pollution; potential increase in carbon dioxide emissions; production of large quantities of mineral waste; increased respiratory problems; and alteration of the hydrological cycle.”
The federal government wants electric vehicles to make up half of car sales in the U.S. by 2030. To reach this goal, the Biden administration's infrastructure law funds states to build more charging stations. Last year, Florida alone was approved for over $70 million in funding to expand electric vehicle infrastructure. 
Sophomore Shayne Cytrynbaum, President of the GOA Climate Activism Club, said, “The economics simply do not support continued gas car production.” 
However, millions of people in the United States are employed in the production and servicing of motor vehicles. Therefore potential switch to electric vehicles puts all these jobs in jeopardy, which would cause the economy to suffer immensely.  
According to the U.S. Department of Energy, electric cars are zero-emissions vehicles. These electric vehicles do not run on gas or emit carbon dioxide on the road, yet that does not mean they are the green transportation solution to climate change.
The primary sources for electrical generation in the US, which would power these vehicles, are all extremely detrimental to the climate. The US Energy Information Administration recently released data from 2022 on the most common sources of national energy production, with fossil fuels like natural gas, coal and petroleum producing over sixty percent of the electrical energy created in the US. Coal makes up twenty percent of the fossil fuel industry and is the worst material for the environment; however, is efficient and inexpensive. All of these harmful tactics are used in generating electricity to charge electric vehicles.
“Gasoline car dependency is also directly tied to increased rates of asthma and pulmonary cancers, and the automobile industry has long been accused of systemic racism and classism,” said Cytrynbaum. 
High rates of asthma and lung cancers are disproportionately high in lower-income communities and communities of color. Although this could be due to other external factors such as poor living conditions or the use of illegal drugs, gasoline-powered cars and their harmful emissions can be causes of this as well. 
Yet transitioning to an all-electric car model could continue this systemic racism and classism. The average price of an electric vehicle is about $62,000, more than $12,000 over the average gasoline-powered car. This high cost would further sectionalize the American economy and increase classism.
    Although electric vehicles are a possible solution in the future, our current environment and economy cannot take such a catastrophic change so suddenly.