crs1026
Superstar
Most BEVs have higher embedded carbon because of the amount of materials required and the processing to create those materials. This is where jurisdictions with a high proportion of emissions free power helps. Not sure what the embedded carbon will be in an Ontario built battery pack, but it's still probably going to be slightly higher than an Ontario built car and that's okay, because those battery packs don't burn gas for 12-15 years.
That makes the use of EV technology look better, yes.... but coming from another vantage point.... if Ontario has only so much carbon to emit, are we getting the best economic benefit from deploying it to build batteries for EV's? As opposed to some other product or commodity that we could sell for more with more job creation and more net revenue?
If we needed to redeploy that carbon to some other industry, say the non-battery mineral extraction in the Ring of Fire.....how many degrees of freedom to switch do we have?
I'm not arguing one way or the other, just pointing out that giving VW that boost to their carbon portrait has a cost to us and we must believe that it's the best option for Ontario to do so in preference to something else (that something else being hypothetical rather than something I'm proposing....).
- Paul