Nice data.
I was curious, per this, it looks like compared to an electric car:
- a petrol train has about 20% lower emissions.
- an electric train is about 90% lower emissions.
this post was submitted on 09 Jul 2025
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I'm surprised using renewable electricity only drops the percentage by 5%. Can anyone explain why that is?
The 73% is based on EU electricity, which is 71% low carbon.
Then cars are less efficent then power stations and oil needs to be refined, which itself requires a lot of energy.
Also:
Not accounting for the expected changes in the electricity mix inflates the estimated life-cycle emissions of BEVs and slightly increases those of PHEVs.
So they didn't just take the current electricity mix but also considered current estimates in how that mix develops over the next decades.
I'm probably going to get the exact math wrong, but statistically approaching the end of a range has a bigger impact than in the middle.
100% lower would mean zero emissions. If the car went from 50% to 25% the percentage from the starting point is 25% comparatively, but the 25% is half of 50% so it is twice as close to zero.
Going from 27% to 22% is an 18.% improvement compared to 27% (if I remember the match correctly). That pretty much means that the last 20% or so is manufacturing and maintenance of the EV and the renewable infrastructure.
Diminishing returns?