• While the European institutions agreed in June on the end of the sale of thermal cars from 2035, posts with erroneous information on electric cars circulated again.

  • A very shared visual indicates that to manufacture an electric car battery “which weighs 450 kg”, it is necessary “to dig, move and process 225 tons of raw material”.

  • False figures according to Olivier Vidal, research director at the CNRS, at the Institute of Earth Sciences in Grenoble: "We certainly do not exceed 25 tonnes of ore, or 10 times less than what is announced", calculates -he.

The end of the sale of thermal cars from 2035 was adopted by the 27 Member States of the European Union on June 29, a new step to help achieve climate objectives.

And since the European Parliament voted in favor of this text on June 9, publications criticizing electric vehicles have spread on social networks.

In June, a visual was again widely shared on Facebook: it indicates that to manufacture an electric car battery “which weighs 450 kg”, it is necessary “to dig, move and process 225 tonnes of raw material”.

"Electric cars don't save the planet, they destroy it," the post concludes.

On Twitter too, the environmental cost of electric vehicles is pointed out, a user denounces its “negative CO2 consequences”, in a tweet shared more than 600 times.

Other photos have resurfaced on Facebook: those of an Autolib cemetery in Loir-et-Cher where the batteries are said to be leaking (an infox which dates from 2021 and which we had dealt with here).

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The figures mentioned in the viral visual are "false", judges Olivier Vidal, research director at the CNRS, at the Institute of Earth Sciences in Grenoble.

Aluminium, steel, manganese, copper, cobalt: for a 320 kg battery (Zoe city vehicle type from Renault), “we certainly do not exceed 25 tonnes of ore, i.e. 10 times less than what is announced”, you calculate -he.

In September 2021, the Bureau of Geological and Mining Research had estimated, with AFP which had fact checked another version of this visual, "that we were around 21 tons" and not 225.

In addition, it should be kept in mind that the weight of a battery is generally between 250 kg and 300 kg.

More powerful electric car models logically have a heavier battery to ensure their autonomy: Tesla batteries weigh between 430 kg and 600 kg.

A 450 kg battery, as mentioned in the visual, is therefore one of the most energy-consuming models.

“It's a lot, comments Olivier Vidal.

And this is not necessarily representative of the European fleet", even if he observes that the manufacturers tend to produce electric vehicles which are "the exact copy of the thermal ones, with the same performances", a "nonsense" to their eyes.

“An electric vehicle pollutes three to five times less than a thermal one”

Furthermore, the estimate given is not plausible.

“0.45 tonnes of battery for 225 tonnes of raw materials, that makes an average concentration of metal in this displaced material of 0.2%, continues the research director.

It's ridiculous, it corresponds to the average concentration of cobalt in the deposits.

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Since the sources of this estimate are not indicated, it is not possible to know whether the life cycle analysis (LCA) is taken into account.

LCA makes it possible to assess all environmental impacts.

But even taking into account the analysis of its entire life cycle, "the electric vehicle pollutes three to five times less than a thermal vehicle", underlines Pierre Lefaivle, transport manager of the Climate Action Network, based on a tool developed by the Transport and Environment Association (ATE).

The latter makes it possible to compare the difference in CO2 emissions between thermal and electric vehicles.

The importance of the energy mix

To manufacture an electric vehicle, “it is certainly necessary, at present, twice as much energy as to produce a thermal vehicle, mainly because of the battery, concedes Oliver Vidal.

But the additional manufacturing cost is recovered from 80,000 kilometres”.

This is why a country's energy mix comes into the equation.

There is no interest in developing electromobility in a country where electricity is produced from coal.

“These problems are complicated, wishes to qualify the researcher.

Saying "the electric vehicle kills the planet" is as silly as saying that houses or food kill the planet, since in both cases we also need raw materials.

It is necessary to compare the various options, to script with an envisaged evolution of the population, the GDP, the mode of transport before drawing conclusions too quickly.

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"Tomorrow's mobility will not be having so many cars"

"The clean vehicle does not exist", abounds Pierre Leflaive of the Climate Action Network.

This group of associations defends electromobility under certain conditions to limit greenhouse gas emissions.

And regrets that the environmental and social issues related to its development are too little taken into account by political decision-makers.

If the post is "caricatural", according to Pierre Leflaive, it raises the question of sobriety and the improvement of the ecological and social balance of electric vehicles, in particular concerning the extraction of rare metals.

“The mobility of tomorrow will not be to have as many electric cars and SUVs as the current fleet, it is not possible, he admits.

To get out of thermal vehicles as quickly as possible with a clear objective of ending sales in 2035, we will have to reduce the car fleet and secure supplies.

And therefore, to question the fact of having mines in Europe to bet on the levels of environmental, social and human rights requirements.

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