Super-sized electric vehicles (EVs) will not solve the climate crisis

San Francisco, January 17, 2025 – As Electric vehicles (EVs) are growing in popularity and size, there has been an enormous increase in the size of their batteries to provide greater range and performance. However, these larger EVs that are coming to dominate the market are failing to substantially reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions in comparison to smaller EVs and conventional vehicles.

A recent article titled Super-sized electric vehicles will not solve the climate crisis, published in the journal PLOS Sustainability and Transformation, indicates that the lithium-ion batteries in the most popular EVs have increased in weight by 68% over the past five years. The batteries in the top ten EV models sold now weigh an average of 595 kg (1,311 pounds).

The largest model now on the market, the GMC Hummer EV, has a battery weighing  1,326 kg (2,923 pounds) that outweighs many conventional cars and even the Fiat 500e electric vehicle.

The article notes that the combined weight of the top ten EVs sold in the U.S. in 2023 is approximately 1.5 times the weight of the San Francisco Golden Gate Bridge. The mass of these batteries poses a significant challenge for future waste processing and hazardous waste disposal given the existing limitations of recycling technologies.

Furthermore, the article notes that larger EVs require approximately 75% more critical minerals to produce than small electric cars and their CO₂ emissions from mineral processing, manufacturing and assembly are 70% greater.  This trend to larger batteries may also delay efforts to decarbonize the electricity grid as they require much greater energy consumption.

The growing size of EVs and their batteries is reversing the potential environmental gains from adopting this technology. Furthermore, there is no realistic economic model for fully recycling these batteries to make new lithium-ion batteries as is the practice for recycling paper, aluminum or glass waste.

Perry Gottesfeld, author of the article and Executive Director of Occupational Knowledge International said, “Not all EVs are making a positive contribution to environmental sustainability and we need to better inform consumers to select vehicles that actually reduce greenhouse gas emissions.”

The article concludes that improved public policy, incentives and messaging are needed to drive consumer demand to smaller EVs to reduce carbon emissions and yield environmental sustainability benefits. Government subsidies and tax incentives should be better aligned to account for greenhouse gas emissions over the vehicle lifecycle.