Ever since the turn of the 20th century cars have been the lifeblood of an industrialized world.
Ferrying people to and from jobs, houses, and cites, the car has, for many, become a necessity
to live. And for others it seems like it has grow into something a little bit more than that. We
in the imperial core have built our lives around a contraption that guzzles fossil fuels. That is,
up until recently, when the electric car seems to have become a viable alternative. Indeed,
drivers are now clambering to own an electric car. Just a decade ago, in 2012, 130,000 electric cars
were sold worldwide, representing .17% of the car market. Nine years later the world bought
6.6 million electric cars, or 8.5% of global car sales for that year. Charging stations are
springing up across Europe, the United States, and China, and the quiet hum of electric engines are
blessing streets with their silence. In theory, this is exciting. Drivers are lining up to switch
from emissions heavy gas-guzzlers to clean, electrified cars, while major car companies
have all but declared the end of the internal combustion engine. But, throughout this narrative,
I can’t help but think there’s something missing. Is this the path we want to go down? Are electric
cars the most effective solution to zero-carbon transportation? Is there a better path forward?
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Are electric cars actually effective?
If you watch most videos about Tesla, you’re bound to start believing they’re a miracle
car. Clean, green, and chic, Tesla has successfully built a brand the melds
exclusivity with an eco-superiority complex. But as much as Tesla owners,
and electric vehicle owners in general, want to believe that their vehicles are guilt-free,
they’re sadly wrong. The electric car not only still causes emissions across its lifetime,
but the expansion of the electric vehicle industry could keep imperialist extraction in the Global
South entrenched for decades to come. In terms of emissions, lifecycle assessment after lifecycle
assessment has made one thing clear: the electric car is significantly cleaner than its gas-powered
cousin. That being said, the extraction of materials, manufacturing, and charging that
are required to put electric vehicles on the road still create a fair amount of emissions. A medium
sized electric car in Europe, for example, creates around 76–83 grams of carbon dioxide
equivalent for every kilometer driven across its lifetime. For comparison, a similar sized car
with a conventional engine emits the equivalent of 250 grams of carbon dioxide per kilometer.
Right now, lifecycle emissions of electric cars in Europe are 66-69% lower than gas powered cars,
with that range dropping a little lower to 60%–68% in the United States, and 37%–45% in
China. And those numbers will continue to drop as electricity grids decarbonize. But a dark reality
underlies some of these promising numbers. The material consequences of completely switching to
electric cars are immense. Professor of Technology at the University of Cambridge, Michael Kelly,
conservatively estimates that if all of the U.K. switched over to electric vehicles, they would
need just under twice of the annual production of cobalt, three quarters of the world’s production
of lithium carbonate, and more than half of the world’s annual production of copper.
And that’s just for the U.K. alone. There are an estimated 1.4 billion cars on the road right now,
so the resource demand of switching to electric motors will put immense pressure on countries in
the imperial periphery who already provide the majority of the precious metals and materials
for electric cars. This extractivist relationship has led to exploitative mining conditions in the
Global South, so that the Global North can glide around emissions-free and enjoy luxury tech items.
In some ways, we might be replacing oil for precious metals and raw materials.
And looking towards the future it’s not too far of a leap to imagine the U.S. going to war to
protect lithium deposits instead of oil interests. Electric cars embody imperialist relationships,
but even if EVs were a perfect transportation option, “the most optimistic projections suggest
that the U.S. fleet will only be at about 50 per cent electrified by 2050.” A number
well below what we need to keep within 2C of warming. All of this is to say: electric cars
emit less than gas powered vehicles across their lifetime, but they are still not the cleanest or
most ethical transportation option. They are a stopgap solution. A truly carbon-free and
anti-extractivist, anti-imperialist transportation system looks much different from the sprawling
U.S. streets and extensive highway systems of the world. So, in order to understand what’s
needed we must walk out of our garage, down the street, into city centers, and hop onto a bus.
What should we do instead?
In Marvel’s blockbuster hit, Black Panther, there’s a brief shot that gives a glimpse
of what clean and accessible transportation looks like. Here we see the bustling Wakandan
market with a high-tech tram floating through the masses of people. Not a single
car in sight. While the electric car might be greener, we need to be asking ourselves larger
questions like what is the most accessible, most just form of transportation? How can
we get the most people from A to B without significant extraction and electricity demand?
Most often the answer to those questions is free, electrified, and most importantly,
extensive public transportation systems. Public transportation can fundamentally change a city,
and ultimately our relationship with cars. And if done well it has the potential to
transport millions of people with a significantly smaller carbon footprint, reduce air pollution,
increase the mobility of low-income folks and decrease traffic and traffic-related deaths.
Car-less transportation In Tokyo, the subway is king. Every day,
over 8 million people ride the extensive public rail system. For a massive city like Tokyo this
is a significant achievement, especially because electrified subway systems have a
small carbon footprint per passenger compared to single-passenger cars. One 2013 life cycle
assessment of Los Angeles light rail lines found them to emit significantly less carbon dioxide per
passenger mile over their lifetime, with the bulk of emissions stemming from the concrete needed to
construct such a system, while another study fully packed diesel buses might emit just over 50 grams
of carbon dioxide per passenger mile. And what’s important to note is that these numbers drop
when the electric grid moves to cleaner energy and when more people take public transportation.
Indeed, a recent study of electric buses in Trondheim, Norway found that electrifying
buses can reduce their carbon footprint by 52%. In addition, the material demands are
much less per person for buses and trains. So, if instead of switching to electric cars,
we instead embraced electrified transportation, our demand for energy and materials would
significantly decrease. But it’s not as simple as just getting rid of your car and taking the bus
instead, there are a number of obstacles that make taking public transportation unappealing for many.
Cost is a large one, many metros and bus fares are priced in the $2 to $5 range for a single trip,
which if you only occasionally use the metro is not too bad, but if you commute on the train
multiple times a day it certainly adds up. There are already cities that have done away with metro
fares. When the city of Tallinn in Estonia made all public transportation rides free, they saw
a 14% increase in ridership after one year, with evidence that low-income folks were more
mobile. Unfortunately, traffic congestion didn’t budge and the increase in ridership mainly
came from people who would have biked or walked otherwise. So, making public transportation free
is just one part of the puzzle, in order to foster a transition away from cars, train and bus
lines must also be convenient and extensive. This means buses and trains that actually run on time
and extremely often (like every five minutes). It means paying transit jobs well, so there
are plenty of people running and maintaining the system. It means public transportations
in all neighborhoods, not just one line connecting rich white neighborhoods to a downtown business
district. It means reimagining zoning laws so that shops and homes are side by side
instead of miles away from each other. It means make sure that bus stops,
train stations, and the vehicles themselves are accessible to people with disabilities.
It means encouraging walking and biking through safer bike lanes and pedestrian only zones. These
actions will all require significant changes in the way we navigate and indeed envision our
communities. But considering that the very fate of the world is at stake it's certainly worth doing.
Towards a car-less world
When it comes to transportation, degrowth, rather than an electric car boom, must be top of
mind. Building a fleet of hundreds of million new electric cars will only just lock in decades more
of imperialist exploitation of the periphery and fail to solve the root causes of climate change.
Electric vehicles would put immense stress on an already stressed grid, and would require
significantly more renewables to make up for added electricity demand. If we’re already struggling
to meet current electricity demand with clean energy, think about what would happen if every
internal combustion engine was switched with an electric one. So we need to envision cities and
towns that are built around people, not cars. But this kind of degrowth won’t just happen
overnight. It needs to be facilitated by massive infrastructural changes that de-incentivize cars
and make public transportation more appealing. This can be as simple as making buses free,
but must eventually end up in a highly connected transportation web so it’s not only convenient
but appealing to hop on the railcar or the bus to get to your friends house. When it comes to
transportation, our priority should be to envision a car-less world. One where cities are walkable,
bikeable, and disability friendly. One where rapid, electric public transportation is the
primary mode of transportation. A world with cities that look a lot more like Wakanda than LA.
And if you’re curious about whether there’s a city already working towards that goal,
I’ve uploaded an extended edition of this video on Nebula that explores just that. There are cities
that are already well on their way to free public transportation and a carless utopia. The one I
cover deploys a fleet of 16,000 electric buses to get people where they need to go
every day. If you haven’t heard by now, Nebula is a streaming service a group of creators and
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