Your gas car works fine. Consider an EV anyway, scientists say.

A persistent belief holds that keeping your aging gas car running is better for the planet than buying a new electric vehicle. Grist reports on new research that shatters this myth. Environmental scientist Elliot Campbell at UC Santa Cruz published a study today in the journal Science showing that even swapping a two-year-old gas car for an EV delivers roughly fifty percent lifetime emissions savings. The finding surprised Campbell himself. He designed the study to favor gas vehicles at every turn, yet electric cars still won. Per his analysis, an EV recoups the carbon cost of manufacturing within eighteen months of average driving—around eighteen thousand miles. The regional variation is striking: in upstate New York, where hydroelectric power dominates, driving an EV is like piloting a gas car that gets two hundred nineteen miles per gallon. Even in the Rockies, where coal and natural gas reign, an EV beats any gas vehicle achieving less than sixty-eight miles per gallon. Campbell's work found few exceptions: plug-in hybrids don't make the cut because their larger batteries eat into the advantage, and low-mileage cars like a rarely-driven second vehicle might not rack up enough miles to justify the switch. As battery recycling improves and the grid greens, that advantage only grows.

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