Electric Cars Aren’t As Green As You Think

[Music] you served me well hybrid but still you burn some gas and so you disgust me soon I’ll be slashing my carbon footprint with the sexy new Tesla 400,000 pre-orders can’t be wrong I cannot wait haha you can and should wait if you’re selling that perfectly good car to buy a brand new Tesla you’re not doing a good deed you’re just buying a bright shiny ecologically problematic toy what just happened where are we we’re in your daughter’s toys I know it’s a little force but I really like stop-motion Adam how could a Tesla be bad it’s electric okay we can’t wait your Wiggy yep electric cars like the Tesla are the sexy nin thing Wow check out his brand-new electric car that’s hot like our planet and a big part of their appeal is that car companies have marketed them as greener than a pocket square on st. Patty’s Day a road trip completely sponsored by the power of the Sun 100% electric Nissan Leaf innovation for the planet innovation for all Wow if I buy a Nissan polar bears will love me yeah turns out that message is pretty sketchy look electric cars are more energy efficient than gas cars but where do you think that energy comes from it comes from nature as soon as I get a Tesla I’ll Drive with all the colors of the wind Parganas nope it comes from the energy grid if you buy an electric car today you’re just shifting your fuel source from the gas pump to a power plant and if those power plants burn coal driving an electric car can actually put more co2 into the air than a hybrid according to one study even if 1/3 of all drivers switch to electric cars the carbon savings could be tiny but that’s just right now soon all electricity will come from solar wind water and heart go planet yeah but that dream is a long way off in fact your new Tesla will probably break down before that happens and in the meantime you’re gonna be pumping out a ton of co2 from everything that goes into just making the car wait what aren’t electric cars made from plants and old Ralph Nader stickers you wish building an electric car requires steel copper and aluminum just like a regular car but worse their batteries are made of rare metals that take intensive mining hey stop that the floors are bamboo and even the mere act of putting the car together produces greenhouse gases add that up and if we all ditched our trusty old cars in favor of brand-new electrics we’d actually end up increasing our carbon footprint Wayne meet Mike berners-lee he’s an expert on carbon emissions who’s written extensively on this subject that’s an expert looks like a toy oh you just have to pull his lever hell away Adam is right while electric cars are more efficient manufacturing typically adds about 50 percent to the total carbon footprint so if you buy a new car too often you could completely undo all the carbon savings that you might get from buying an electric car if you room whoops needs another yank if you really want to help save the environment the best thing you can do is to reduce the amount you drive and to drive your current car as long as possible provided it’s reasonably efficient but if your car is beyond repair and you absolutely need to buy a new one then go ahead buy yourself a nice small electric car perhaps even a used one I never thought of it that way anything else I should know the cow says Oh guess that’s it Wayne when it comes to saving the planet the efficiency of your car’s engine is small potatoes the real problem is that Americans bought 17.5 million cars last year and drove a total of 2.7 trillion miles I’m sorry but buying another car just isn’t gonna fix that but I just want a Tesla Anna would help the environment well you can’t have both and if you’re not careful these companies will use that desire to help the planet to sell you more stuff that’s hurting the planet buying green products won’t solve the problem because buying stuff is part of the problem we need to reduce what we buy and reuse what we have we can’t shop our way out of this fine I won’t buy a Tesla in fact I’ll do you one better I’ll walk everywhere yeah walking a surefire way to stop climate change oh this one’s actually really interesting in many cases walking can actually increase your carbon footprint if I wasn’t a pacifist I would pass my fist through your face hey guys Adam here if you like that be sure to watch new episodes of Adam ruins everything every Tuesday at 10:00 on truTV