>Why Electric Cars Are More Polluting than Gas Guzzlers
Electric cars are all the rage in China, but they may not be helping to clean up the environment or protect human health from pollution.
By ALICE PARK | @aliceparkny | February 14, 2012
It’s unspoken, but every driver gliding around town behind the wheel of a Prius is thinking the same thing: “I’m saving the planet. What are you doing, you dirty-fossil-fuel burner?”
What’s implied is that hybrid or electric-car drivers are also saving human lives, since the fuel-burning internal combustion engines that power conventional vehicles emit carbon dioxide and fine particulate matter including acids, organic chemicals as well as dust and soil; this pollution has been linked to respiratory and heart problems and cancer.
But, according to a new study published in the journal Environmental Science & Technology, it turns out that the use of electric vehicles may not be that clean after all, particularly in the world’s most populated country, China.
In the study, Christopher Cherry, an assistant professor of civil and environmental engineering at University of Tennessee, and his colleagues found that in terms of air pollution, electric vehicles were more harmful to public health per kilometer traveled than gasoline-powered cars. That’s right — the electrically powered cars turned out to be dirtier than those with internal combustion engines.