The Ethics of Electric Vehicles: Are Electric Cars Truly Better than Their Counterparts?

For the last decade, many countries and experts have pushed electric cars forward as the more optimal modern vehicle. However, with the rise in global attention towards their battery production scene and its constitutive element of child labour, the need to reevaluate the ethics of electric cars arises.

Within the EU, the transport sector is among its largest greenhouse gas emitters, therefore tackling the sustainability of this sector allows for the EU to come close to its ‘climate neutrality’ objectives. Thus, the EU is one of the main supporters and promoters of the EV Revolution (the electric vehicle revolution), providing state subsidies for the production and buying of said vehicles, investing in its marketing, and creating regulations that disadvantage its counterparts. In 2021, there were 1.74 million electric cars registered within the EU, a staggering jump from the 600 registered in 2010.

The Facts - Pros and Cons of the ‘Greener’ Option of Private Transport

While electric cars have often been advertised as a perfect eco-friendly alternative to the standard petrol or diesel vehicle, it should be noted that electric cars are only as green as the energy used to manufacture them and charge their batteries. In countries where electricity is more efficiently sourced, the amount of emissions the EVs produce are notably less, such as that of Europe where an EV has an average of 69% lower CO2 emissions than a petrol car. However, where there is less green and efficient sourcing of electricity, and more reliance on the burning of fossil fuels, this reduction in emissions drops dramatically. Such as in India, where EVs create only around 30% less CO2 than the average petrol car, and where charging them can indirectly create significant amounts of greenhouse gases. Nonetheless, it can still be observed that this form of transport does indeed create less harmful emissions.

Electric cars have lithium-ion batteries, which are known to be difficult to recycle and can be severely hazardous and dangerous if mismanaged. The cost to recycle these batteries tends to be more expensive than mining for their materials, which causes only 5% of them to be recycled. The system of recycling these batteries is furthermore staggering behind their growing scale of production, as the first commercially issued lithium-ion battery was only released in 1991, while the commonly known and owned lead acid batteries have been in the market since 1860.

That being said, as many countries and companies drive up the demand for electric vehicles, there is an increasing issue of managing and disposing of old and/or broken batteries. With the mismanagement of their disposal, these batteries create an environmental threat of releasing toxins into soil and water sources, as well as increasing the likelihood of landfill fires that are difficult to put out. This element of danger can also be related to the lack of recycling of the product. A reason why recycling these batteries is costly is due to them being extremely difficult to deconstruct and with large tendencies in them explode and releasing toxic fumes when attempted to do so. While countries are aware of this systematic issue and have been trying to regulate it by enforcing rules or quotas for battery recycling, the ratio between the recycling and production of these batteries remains skewed.

Furthermore, as the amount of EVs being sold rises, there is also a growing tendency for these vehicles to be written off and recommended to be scrapped after light damage. For a supposedly sustainable product, many repair shops deem light collisional damage to be unrepairable, flipping the vehicle's entire appeal on its back and causing it to lose its advantage in reducing emissions. Due to this, insurance companies are becoming increasingly hesitant to provide their services for certain EVs.

Rather than pushing for the consumption of a product that ultimately exists in a not yet established ‘recyclable’ system, there needs to be steps taken by manufacturers and states alike to truly reduce carbon emissions and other pollution effectively and long term. As batteries are not being recycled and the natural materials used for their production are not unlimited, the current cycle of life for EVs is not functional long term.

Nevertheless, there is still an overarching consensus that electric vehicles still have more benefits than drawbacks, and are a necessary factor in reducing global pollution and emissions. The shift to green technology is extremely welcomed in a time where climate crises already are and are further expected to rapidly grow in scale and frequency around the globe. But while they may be the better solution out of the current options on the market, they should not be glorified and rather their industry and system should be pushed for improvements and accountability in what they produce, how they produce it and how it is disposed of.

Beyond the Glamorous Advertising and its Eco-Friendly Appeal

While the consumption of these vehicles remains the ultimately more eco-friendly option in regard to private transport, the production process of these vehicles has been seeing rising disputes on a humanitarian and ethical level. A good majority of car manufacturers can be deemed not as ethically clean as marketed to be.

According to Amnesty International’s human rights researcher Mark Dummett, “The glamourous shop displays and marketing of state of the art technologies are a stark contrast to the children carrying bags of rocks, and miners in narrow man-made tunnels risking permanent lung damage”. His report, which covers the trade and sourcing of cobalt which is used in lithium-ion batteries, discusses how the abusive environment of the cobalt mines remains “out of sight, out of mind”, due to consumers not knowing the labour conditions and process behind many popular lithium-ion battery products bought from places such as Samsung or Mercedes.

With the rise in demand for electric vehicles, this industry has become a key actor in the cobalt-mining sphere. The DRC (Democratic Republic of Congo) is the country where 50% of cobalt is sourced, and as one of the poorest countries in the world with few formal jobs, many men, women and children must seek work in the mines to financially survive. Amnesty International found children working from as young as seven years old in a good quantity of poorly regulated mines, with no proper safety equipment, such as masks or gloves, which can lead to chronic health issues. According to UNICEF, an estimated 40,000 children were working in southern DRC, working an average of 12 hours per day for a pay of 1-2 dollars a day. Many lithium-ion-using manufacturers are not able to state where the cobalt found in the batteries they purchased was sourced, turning a blind eye away from the conditions of its sourcing and whether there was adequate diligence.

As the electric car industry moves to the forefront of more climate-friendly transport, and as an integral driver for reaching international sustainability goals, manufacturers must become more transparent in their production and sourcing of materials, before their flowery advertising of being truly green and ethical. Apple became the first company to specify and publish the names of their cobalt suppliers, and Tesla launched a battery recycling programme across Europe, proving steps of improvement can be taken.

References:

“New Registrations of Electric Vehicles in Europe.” European Environment Agency’s Home Page, 24 Oct. 2023, www.eea.europa.eu/en/analysis/indicators/new-registrations-of-electric-vehicles.

“Can Lithium Batteries Be Recycled?” Continental Battery Systems, www.continentalbattery.com/blog/can-lithium-batteries-be-recycled#:~:text=Currently%2C%20only%20about%205%25%20of,have%20a%2099%25%20recycling%20rate.

Franklin Cheung, Alexander. “Are Electric Cars Definitely Greener than Petrol?” BBC Science Focus Magazine, www.sciencefocus.com/news/are-electric-cars-greener.

“Environmental Impacts of Lithium-Ion Batteries.” IER, Institute of Energy Research, 11 May 2023, www.instituteforenergyresearch.org/renewable/environmental-impacts-of-lithium-ion-batteries/.

Carey, Nick, et al. “Insight: Scratched EV Battery? Your Insurer May Have to Junk The ...” Reuters, 20 Mar. 2023, www.reuters.com/business/autos-transportation/scratched-ev-battery-your-insurer-may-have-junk-whole-car-2023-03-20/.

“Exposed: Child Labour behind Smart Phone and Electric Car Batteries.” Amnesty International, 16 Aug. 2021, www.amnesty.org/en/latest/news/2016/01/child-labour-behind-smart-phone-and-electric-car-batteries/

Dummet, Mark. “The Dark Side of Electric Cars: Exploitative Labor Practices.” Amnesty International, 29 Sept. 2017, www.amnesty.org/en/latest/news/2017/09/the-dark-side-of-electric-cars-exploitative-labor-practices/.

Audu, Victoria. “How the Rush for Congo’s Cobalt Is Killing Thousands.” The Republic, 29 Nov. 2023, republic.com.ng/october-november-2023/congo-cobalt-genocide/. Accessed 29 Jan. 2024.