Electric cars are no greener?!

Electric Car Research - This is a retorical question and no! we don't really believe this. This is the eye catching title from an article t=which was published in 2009. looking into wide ranging research by the US National Research Council that looked into the hidden costs of energy use which bracketed electric car technology as no better than other fossil fuels. The key here is the following, calculating 'hidden costs'. In other words the devil is in the detail.... Basically the research concentrated on the issue of sourcing electric and hybrid car power from non-renewable energy sources and on this basis being able to bracket the hidden cost of using electric vehicles into the 1.2% to 1.7% range also occupied by cars using other fuel types. Electric car manufacturers have long been open about the energy source issue and there is nothing but honesty across the industry that the bulk of their carbon footrpint comes from electricity generated by fossil fuels. The electric car industry has therefore also always been strong on the message that the adoption of electric cars needs to go hand in hand with the adoption of renewables, carbon capture, storage and nuclear. Simply, this report may be used by some to suggest electric vehicles are not greener than conventional cars but be warned and read the detail.