Back in 2008 when I was talking about how cars like the Prius were not nearly as environmentally friendly as the greens and Democrats let on because the manufacturing process for the battery system was so hostile to the environment. That process erased any benefits you might achieve during use of the finished product.

That assessment was spot on.  And it is, in fact worse than I initially imagined.  Apparently the batteries do not last all that long.  They need to be replaced after a few years.  They are very expensive, almost prohibitively expensive.  Not including this new battery problem made hybrids look better than they actually were.  And it turns out there are a number of issues I had not  considered, issues that have come up as the battery only electric vehicle tries to find a place in the garages of drivers around the world.

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Many electric cars are expected to need a replacement battery after a few years. Once the emissions from producing the second battery are added in, the total CO2 from producing an electric car rises to 12.6 tonnes, compared with 5.6 tonnes for a petrol car. Disposal also produces double the emissions because of the energy consumed in recovering and recycling metals in the battery. The study also took into account carbon emitted to generate the grid electricity consumed.

Want to read more?  It was too long to cross post to you can check it out here: http://granitegrok.com/blog/2011/06/electric_cars_are_worse_for_the_environm….