MCN take on electric motorbikes:
Battery recycling – a fast-improving technology – means a growing proportion of lithium, nickel and cobalt can be recovered, and future batteries are under development with an eye to using more sustainable materials, and as power generation becomes greener around the world (greenhouse emissions from power generation in Europe have halved since 1990 and are projected to halve again by 2030) so does the eco performance of electric vehicles.
But it’s also clear that other low carbon or carbon-neutral ideas –
hydrogen power via fuel cells or
hydrogen combustion engines, for instance, or
synthetic fuels – shouldn’t be ignored.
ah - from the Light Electric Vehicle Association - note the vested interest before reading this:
Tomi Engel from Deutsche Gesellschaft fur Sonnenenergie e.V. published a study in 2008 that concluded that electric bikes as a form of transportation create less of a carbon cost than human powered bikes…..
Unless….the rider ate only potatoes.
Since energy sources are more and more often renewables, it is likely that even a potato only diet now has more carbon production than an ebike.
And yes…the study ignores the benefit to the rider of exercise resulting in better fitness. This was a study about energy use and carbon production.
ah right. Now what this really lacks is a set of STANDARDS to allow proper environmental auditing. And we really need that. A full set of categories: production emissions, transportation emissions, ‘fuel’ inputs (footprint of electricity provision and the network to supply that energy - food consumption and the footprint of the system which provides it), replacement impact (of components, of consumables etc). And impact of residuals - battery recycling, disposals of tyres etc). This kind of work is being done very sporadically, and with contrasting conclusions depending on the assumptions and omissions around the criteria and data.