finley939•3mo agoProlific Poster

Showerthought: I chose a used gas car over a new EV and it felt like the right move

I needed a new car in Phoenix last month and my choice was a 3 year old sedan for $18,000 or a new electric model for over $40,000. I bought the used car. The math showed my total carbon footprint, including the battery production for the EV, would be lower for at least the next 8 years of my driving. Everyone in my local group acted like I was a climate villain. Has anyone else run the numbers and made a similar choice?

3 comments

3 Comments

lisa_jones213mo ago

Okay, so you said your math showed a lower carbon footprint for eight years. What specific numbers did you actually use to calculate that? I'm curious about the battery production emissions data you plugged in.

olivere303mo agoTop Commenter

Ever get tired of people acting like the answer is always a brand new EV? @lisa_jones21 has a point about needing the real numbers. I looked this up before, and the carbon cost to build that EV battery is huge. You driving a used car that already exists is often the greener move for years. People just see "electric" and stop thinking.

charlesj4626d ago

You ever notice how this same pattern plays out in other stuff too? It's like with those big home renovations where people rip out perfectly good cabinets just because they're not the latest style, instead of just painting them or changing the hardware. Or the people who buy a brand new stainless steel fridge every few years when their old one still works fine, just because the new one has an ice maker that makes crescent shaped cubes instead of round ones. The greenest option is almost always using what you already have until it truly dies. That EV battery carbon cost is real, but people don't want to hear it because new stuff feels like progress.