Clean to the exhaust pipe (which it has also removed), the electric car does not only get good points on the ecological ground. “I regret, in terms of automobile emissions, that everything is measured from the tank to the wheel, recently underlined Luca De Meo, the general manager of Renault, in a recent interview with Parisian. It is an absurd convention. Because if you look craddle to grave, from the cradle to the grave, the truth of the numbers is quite different. »
In fact, the analysis of the complete life cycle reveals if not limits, at least weaknesses, recorded by reports from the French Environment and Energy Management Agency (Ademe).
The weight first. The electric vehicle needs a lot of raw materials. “I remember, when I was a young engineer, I was making B-segment cars at 800 kg,” confided Carlos Tavares, CEO of Stellantis. Today, the same B-segment cars, electric, I make them at 1.6 tons. As a result, the tire has taken on volume and its ecological rating has deteriorated.
“When you add between 200 kg and 700 kg of battery to a car, it needs larger tires”, defend tire manufacturers, such as Michelin, who are fighting to lighten their footprint. But in the end, for the time being, larger tires pollute more, while a heavier vehicle degrades the roads more.
The recycling problem
Battery power, then. In France, the electricity produced is largely carbon-free, as it comes from nuclear power plants, but in many other countries – Germany, China, etc. —, it comes from coal-fired power plants and therefore generates CO2 emissions. There remains the recycling of batteries, made up of polluting elements. The sector is still in its infancy at a time when the tricolor fleet of electric vehicles is approaching one million vehicles and many technical problems remain to be solved.
In the end, then? Is the electric vehicle really the panacea for the planet? Could it not, on the contrary, turn into a poisoned gift, a bit like diesel, adorned with all the virtues before falling into disgrace? “No one can guarantee that a brilliant inventor will not find an even better alternative solution tomorrow,” concedes Clément Molizon, the general delegate of the National Association for the Development of Electric Mobility (Avere-France). But in the meantime, we have no choice but to be pragmatic. This is the only credible solution. »