The Chevy Volt- is it Greener?

Are Electric Vehicles like the Chevy Volt Really More Green?

The Chevy Volt, claiming 230 MPG, is the latest entry in the effort to green up our highways by converting our gasoline burning cars to electric power or a hybrid of gasoline and electric power. The Chevy Volt is a hybrid that uses a combination of stored electric power and gasoline to provide a supposedly green alternative to cars that run only on internal combustion, but is the Chevy Volt, or any electric car really greener than gasoline burning cars? There are some troubling facts which suggest that cars like the Chevy Volt may not be a more green alternative after all.

The Green Argument for the Chevy Volt

The arguments for the electric vehicle (EV) or hybrid cars like the Chevy Volt being more green are quite simple and easy to follow. Burning gasoline in an internal combustion engine creates green house gases such as carbon monoxide that contribute to global warming. The EV or fully electric vehicle produces no emissions and, therefore is the more green solution. Hybrid cars, similarly, use a combination of gasoline and electric power to reduce the amount of gasoline they burn, thereby reducing their greenhouse gas emissions. Those are easy messages for advertisers to communicate and, to most people, it seems like basic common sense.

The Green Argument Against the Chevy Volt

On the other side of the argument, however, critics point out that the electricity consumed by plug in electric cars or EVs has to be generated somewhere. In America today, the vast majority of our electricity comes from coal fired electric plants. Since the technology for clean burning coal fired electrical power plants has yet to be perfected and implemented, that means tremendous amounts of greenhouse gases are being created in order to create the electricity for cars like the Chevy Volt that plug in to an electrical outlet.

Dvice does the Math on the Electric Vehicles