12+ Disadvantages to Electric Cars

You probably already know that not using/owning a car is the most eco-friendly option. It is one of the few reasons I don’t own a car anymore (and I don’t regret it). However, the reality is that not owning a car is not always a solution, for example, if your job demands it or if you or close relatives/friends don’t have public transport close by. An electric car seems like a good solution to a regular car or is it? Read about 12+ disadvantages of electric cars for you and our environment.

Environment

The biggest disadvantage of an electric car is for the environment even though you may initially think the opposite. The production of batteries for your electric car is not as green as you might hope. Electric cars require a large lithium-ion battery as their energy source. Lithium-ion batteries are chosen as these are very energy efficient however, they are not very environmentally friendly to produce. The indigenous communities living near lithium mines in Chili and Argentina are not properly informed about mining projects on their lands. They are given insufficient information about the potential impacts it may have on their water sources as mining lithium is very water-intensive. The Andes mountains are a very dry land area, but the extraction process of lithium requires water 500,000 gallons of water per ton of lithium . In some other regions in Chile, 65 percent of the available water is used up in the production of lithium. The lithium brine then requires 12 to 18 months to evaporate. Any water returned to the farmers (that use the water for the country's food production) could be tainted with chemicals. This lengthy evaporation process of the lithium brine can be sped up by heating the water resulting in faster evaporation. However, this process requires the burning of fossil fuels. Unfortunately, with increasing demand, the desire for faster and cheaper production of lithium may outweigh the environmental impacts.

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