AUTONEWS

Do combustion engines pollute less than electric? Stop the delusions

Motorists include electric vehicle fans, and just as vehemently advocates for combustion engines. Both solutions have advantages and disadvantages, perfectly defensible, but to argue that combustion engines, or specifically diesel engines (as a German study has also argued), emit less CO2 - in the background, playing with the terms to mislead the public. , making him think they are less polluting - it's ridiculous, to say the least. Above all, for work allegedly done by university technicians.
The Spanish Association of Automobile Professionals (ASEPA) publishes a study by the Polytechnic University of Valencia, where the four researchers who sign the paper argue that modern combustion engines, whether gasoline or diesel, have evolved immensely and are today an example of “clean up” in terms of harmful emissions and only “the media along with other market players” are responsible for claiming their premature death. Oddly enough, as we know that by 2030 around 70% of vehicles with this type of engine are still to be sold and, although this figure should be reduced, it will remain very representative in the market at least. by 2040, by which time some countries and cities have already announced their intention to ban combustion engines altogether.

The problem of Spanish technicians is the electric
Bypassing environmental issues, as if Europeans who suffer or die from respiratory diseases suffer only to harm and mislead the combustion engines, the study's authors move on to the attack of electric vehicles. These (obviously) are not perfect, far from it, and they still have some unresolved issues, from production costs to the efficiency of the accumulators, to the existence of materials needed to produce the huge amount of batteries that are estimated to be needed, not to mention talk about further recycling. But what can not be said to be false is that “battery replenishment is too time consuming” when it can be recharged at 250 kW and soon at 350 kW, which reduces to minutes operations that until now It was late hours. Similarly, it is incorrect to accuse the “electric vehicles of offering 250 km autonomy in the utilities” when the Zoe arrives in October with 390 km and there are models on the market exceeding 600 km, always according to the WLTP method.
The Spaniards then threw themselves into the materials needed to make the batteries, recalling a statement by a Tesla technician who once said that "cobalt was a problem because it was expensive and came from the Democratic Republic of Congo." They forgot, however, to mention more recent statements by the same manufacturer, which states that it already only uses 10% cobalt in cathode construction and very soon will completely dispense with this material.

The Spanish join the Germans
In the work to which ASEPA echoes, the Spanish draw on the same argument previously made in a study presented by the Ifo Institute for Economic Research in Munich. Study does not lie, but distorts reality.
To prove that the electricity from which the batteries are recharged emits a lot of CO2, academics have taken examples like Germany and Poland, where a large part of the power stations still burn coal, which is just the most polluting “thing” that comes out. Can use to generate electricity. The result of the Munich Institute's work, which points out that electric vehicles emit more CO2 than the best diesel, loses its validity if we consider most European countries or even the European average. And it becomes even more incomprehensible if we consider the targets that are being imposed on all countries by the European Union in terms of the share of renewable energy in electricity production, which will quickly go to the overwhelming, if not all, majority.

It is also curious that the Valencia study, like the Munich study, is limited to attacking electric vehicles, focusing exclusively on battery models, (conveniently) setting aside cell-powered streetcars. fuel. The solution exists and has been tested (and marketed) for years, and is ready to enter the second generation later this year, with costs falling to make the technology more affordable. Behind the fuel cells is Toyota (also Hyundai and Honda, but to a lesser extent), a manufacturer that doesn't often fail when it promises anything. And there is already a factory in Gaia (Caetano Bus) waiting for the first units of the new hydrogen cells to start producing and selling the first fuel cell electric buses.

Fortunately, not everything is bad
In the work released by ASEPA, however, there are some points that make sense. Spanish technicians admit that there is a way to keep the most current and environmentally friendly combustion engines for a longer number of years. Or, even if they are only admitted until 2040, they continue to burn fossil fuel without so much risk to the environment and public health.
The apparent miracle is the use of synthetic fuels produced from carbon removed from the atmosphere through renewable energies and hydrogen from water using clean energy sources that would generate carbon neutral gasoline and diesel. This would minimize the impact on the environment that will necessarily exist if we are going to keep several million old vehicles running for another 10 or 20 years burning oil-based fuels.
It is also noteworthy that the authors of the study of the Polytechnic University of Valencia do not even consider in their work the European Union's announced bet for some time, which involves the use of natural gas (compressed for light vehicles and liquefied for trucks and ships). not carbon neutral, has a significantly less harmful impact on health and the environment.