Electric cars: 63 % less pollution

Pollution atmosphérique

An update on pollution from electric vehicles.

At a time when our governments have announced that internal combustion vehicles will be banned within 20 years, many carmakers are electrifying their vehicle ranges or building new electric 100% models. These new laws will totally change the European automotive landscape.

City cars in particular and their electrification will give a boost to the sector - which has been struggling in recent years. But there is a lot of very virulent content on electric cars these days.

Table of contents

Find your future electric vehicle or charging point

BMW iX2 eDrive20

List price

46 990 €

(excluding bonuses)

Lease from

453 €

Per month, with no deposit for professionals

Range (WLTP) : 478 km

Acceleration (0 to 100 km/h): 8.6 sec

Fast charge (from 20 to 80%) : 30 minutes

Cupra Tavascan VZ

List price

46 990 €

(excluding bonuses)

Lease from

602 €

Per month, with no deposit for professionals

Range (WLTP) : 517 km

Acceleration (0 to 100 km/h): 5.6 sec

Fast charge (from 20 to 80%) : 28 min

VinFast VF 8 Plus Extended Range

List price

51 490 €

(excluding bonuses)

Lease from

473 €

Per month, with no deposit for professionals

Range (WLTP) : 447 km

Acceleration (0 to 100 km/h): 5.5 sec

Fast charge (from 20 to 80%) : 32 min

Mini Countryman E

List price

41 330 €

(excluding bonuses)

Lease from

564 €

Per month, with no deposit for professionals

Range (WLTP) : 462 km

Acceleration (0 to 100 km/h): 8.6 sec

Fast charge (from 20 to 80%) : 29 min

fiat e ducato profil

Fiat E-Ducato 79 kWh

List price

63 240 €

(excluding bonuses)

Lease from

988 €

Per month, with no deposit for professionals

Range (WLTP) : 283 km

Fast charge (from 20 to 80%) : 78 min

fiat e scudo profil

Fiat E-Scudo 50 kWh

List price

0 €

(excluding bonuses)

Lease from

645 €

Per month, with no deposit for professionals

Range (WLTP) : 220 km

Acceleration (0 to 100 km/h): 12.1 sec

Fast charge (from 20 to 80%) : 26 min

mercedes esprinter fourgon gris

Mercedes eSprinter Van 35 kWh

List price

75 972 €

(excluding bonuses)

Lease from

655 €

Per month, with no deposit for professionals

Range (WLTP) : 153 km

Acceleration (0 to 100 km/h): 11 sec

Fast charge (from 20 to 80%) : 26 min

citroen e berlingo van 3/4

Citroën ë-Berlingo Van 50 kWh

List price

40 440 €

(excluding bonuses)

Lease from

599 €

Per month, with no deposit for professionals

Range (WLTP) : 275 km

Acceleration (0 to 100 km/h): 9.7 sec

Fast charge (from 20 to 80%) : 26 min

Hyundai Inster Standard Range

List price

25 000 €

(excluding bonuses)

Lease from

298 €

Per month, with no deposit for professionals

Range (WLTP) : 300 km

Acceleration (0 to 100 km/h): 11.7 sec

Fast charge (from 20 to 80%) : 29 min

Opel Frontera 44 kWh

List price

29 000 €

(excluding bonuses)

Lease from

491 €

Per month, with no deposit for professionals

Range (WLTP) : 305 km

Acceleration (0 to 100 km/h): 12.1 sec

Fast charge (from 20 to 80%) : 32 min

Alpine A290 Electric 180 hp

List price

38 700 €

(excluding bonuses)

Lease from

630 €

Per month, with no deposit for professionals

Range (WLTP) : 380 km

Acceleration (0 to 100 km/h): 7.4 sec

Fast charge (from 20 to 80%) : 33 min

Fiat Grande Panda 44 kWh

List price

24 900 €

(excluding bonuses)

Lease from

430 €

Per month, with no deposit for professionals

Range (WLTP) : 320 km

Acceleration (0 to 100 km/h): 12 sec

Fast charge (from 20 to 80%) : 32 min

BMW i5 Touring eDrive40

List price

0 €

(excluding bonuses)

Lease from

890 €

Per month, with no deposit for professionals

Range (WLTP) : 560 km

Acceleration (0 to 100 km/h): 6.1 sec

Fast charge (from 20 to 80%) : 26 min

Tesla Model 3 Long Range Powertrain

List price

44 990 €

(excluding bonuses)

Lease from

587 €

Per month, with no deposit for professionals

Range (WLTP) : 702 km

Acceleration (0 to 100 km/h): 5.3 sec

Fast charge (from 20 to 80%) : 20 min

Mercedes EQE 300

List price

69 900 €

(excluding bonuses)

Lease from

0 €

Per month, with no deposit for professionals

Range (WLTP) : 647 km

Acceleration (0 to 100 km/h): 7.3 sec

Fast charge (from 20 to 80%) : 33 min

BMW i4 eDrive35

List price

57 550 €

(excluding bonuses)

Lease from

607 €

Per month, with no deposit for professionals

Range (WLTP) : 483 km

Acceleration (0 to 100 km/h): 6 sec

Fast charge (from 20 to 80%) : 32 min

Renault 4 E-Tech 40kWh 120hp

List price

29 990 €

(excluding bonuses)

Lease from

448 €

Per month, with no deposit for professionals

Range (WLTP) : 322 km

Acceleration (0 to 100 km/h): 9.2 sec

Fast charge (from 20 to 80%) : 32 min

Citroën ë-C4 54 kWh

List price

35 800 €

(excluding bonuses)

Lease from

0 €

Per month, with no deposit for professionals

Range (WLTP) : 415 km

Acceleration (0 to 100 km/h): 10 sec

Fast charge (from 20 to 80%) : 29 min

Volvo EX30 Single Motor ER

List price

43 300 €

(excluding bonuses)

Lease from

436 €

Per month, with no deposit for professionals

Range (WLTP) : 480 km

Acceleration (0 to 100 km/h): 5.3 sec

Fast charge (from 20 to 80%) : 28 min

Volkswagen iD.3 Pro S

List price

42 990 €

(excluding bonuses)

Lease from

0 €

Per month, with no deposit for professionals

Range (WLTP) : 549 km

Acceleration (0 to 100 km/h): 7.9 sec

Fast charge (from 20 to 80%) : 30 minutes

What would the world look like with electric vehicles?

Pollution & cars: what is the link between the transport sector and pollution? What would a world with 100% electric cars look like? What does coronavirus containment tell us about pollution in big cities? All these questions will be answered in this article.

The sudden halt in industry and the transport sector has led to a fall in the level of nitrogen dioxide and accidentally gave us a glimpse of a more eco-responsible world. Experts have even declared that this sudden change represents "the greatest experiment ever carried out" in terms of reducing industrial emissions.

The European Space Agency (EESA), via its satellite Copernicus Sentinel-5P has measured nitrogen dioxide levels, and the results are clear: containment has led to a very sharp fall in nitrogen dioxide concentrations in the world's largest cities.

Pollution and the car: the state of play

Why do cars pollute?

The transport sector in general has two main environmental consequences: air pollution and greenhouse gas emissions. Added to these two nuisances is noise pollution, which also has an impact on people's health. Over the last 40 years, the number of cars has increased 8-fold which means even more CO2 emissions.

The link between pollution and cars was established a long time ago. Carmakers have already significantly reduced the emissions of polluting gases from their new models, but there is still a long way to go. How can they do this? By improving exhausts and engines.

To be more precise, manufacturers have improved combustion. A petrol engine, for example, works by burning a mixture of air and petrol. In older engines, this mixture is produced in a carburettor. It is then breathed into the combustion chamber, compressed, and the mixture ignites, producing gases that allow the car to run. Older models used too much petrol, which resulted in higher emissions of toxic gases.

On new engines, there is no longer a carburettor: sensors estimate the quantity of petrol needed for combustion, so the engine uses less petrol and therefore produces fewer toxic gases.

At national level, pollution from cars is second only to industry, i.e. combining urban and rural areas. But in cities, the data is not the same; in this case, the car is responsible for a large proportion of the pollution (around 25% of air pollution, for example). It's even worse for fine particle pollution (or PM2.5), where cars account for 51% of pollution. This pollution is not without consequences: studies have shown that pollution causes 48,000 deaths in France, the equivalent of a town such as Valenciennes, or 10 times more than road accidents.

 

Based on the CO2 emissions of the world's 12 leading car manufacturers for 2018, Greenpeace has calculated the greenhouse gases emitted during their manufacture, use and recycling.

The NGO deduced, for example, that l'carbon footprint emissions was 582 million tonnes of CO2 which exceeds the carbon emissions of a country like Germany...

Preserving a dying economy

Many journalists are sounding the alarm about the false information that is circulating.

AsForbesThe biggest lie circulating is that electric vehicles pollute more than internal combustion vehicles. This is not true. All the studies carried out on this subject prove the opposite: electric vehicles win every time. In terms of price? Wrong again. Electric vehicles cost much less.

 

Many people are talking about a false problem. According to them, we should first tackle the most polluting sector, namely industry. This is wrong for two reasons:

  • Cars and transport in general account for ⅓ of CO2 emissions, so this is a sector that needs to be reformed as quickly as possible.
  • Pollution from vehicles is the one that affects us most: most of us live in areas where cars circulate freely, and these emissions have a direct impact on us. You only have to look at certain Asian cities to realise the degree of pollution that can be produced by the accumulation of combustion-powered vehicles.

The idea of this article is not to glorify the image of the electric car: there are still areas for improvement. But as the sector is still in its infancy and has already made exponential progress in terms of technology, it is certain that all the areas for improvement will be addressed in the - very - near future.

Get your future electric car delivered fast!

Discover several models of electric vehicles that can be delivered quickly!


Get these flash offers

Get your future electric car delivered before Christmas!

Until 31 December 2022Discover the range of electric vehicles available for delivery before Christmas!


Get this flash offer

Pollution and electric cars: False information circulating on the net

Let's take an example.

 

As the Internet user Marc pointed out in a forum on the subject of electric cars, if we take areverse searchyou'll find the owner of this domain name.

Préjugés Voiture électrique

So who is this "SDT Aquiweb sarl"? We searched on Google and here are the results.

pollution voiture électrique Aquiweb
Electric car pollution: Aquiweb

We tried to contact the company but, unsurprisingly, the number displayed was unassigned.

How can classic car enthusiasts be neutral about electric cars? Unfortunately, they can't.

 

Second example.

Here's the front page of the magazine "Transition énergies", which destroys the image of the electric vehicle. By doing the samereverse searchWe then came across the site owner's contact details.

pollution-voiture-électrique-beev-préjugés-voiture-electrique

Green Axxe is the owner of this domain name. And there's a surprise when you go to the website. Despite being a company involved in the energy transition, it is ... pro-hydrogen.

Being better informed: everyone's duty

How should information be processed in the context of fake news? Obviously, you have to choose your sources carefully. Filtering your sources is a fundamental step in the search for information, particularly on the subject of electric cars, but on all subjects in general.

 

Government sites and consumer associations are good sources of information. Here are some reliable sites that you can consult right away.

 

Let's turn now to the conventional wisdom.

Electric cars are more affordable in the long term

Electric cars cost more than an internal combustion equivalent. That's true. But with the many forms of assistance available - such as the ecological bonus and regional grants - it's easy to reduce the price and come out with the same bill for a vehicle that is more expensive in theory.

There's plenty of support available, some of it very generous. With the bonus écologique and the prime à la conversion, you can already save almost €11,000 on your future electric car. Depending on your region, you may or may not be eligible for regional aid, which could give you an extra boost.

The Ecological Bonus

BONUS-ECOLOGIQUE-2020

Conversion premium

Taxable household Non-taxable household
Buying a new electric or plug-in hybrid car 2 500 € 5 000 €
Buying a used electric or plug-in hybrid car 0 € 5 000 €

➡️ READ ALSO -Regional aid for electric cars

Let's take an example: a Peugeot e-208 Like at €34,000.

Prices Ecological bonus Conversion premium Cost price
Peugeot e-208 34 000 € 5 000 € 1 500 € 27 500 €

If you're also lucky enough to live in a region that offers support for the purchase of an electric vehicle, you could save even more. For example, if you live in Bouches-du-Rhône, you are entitled to an extra €5,000 for the purchase of an electric vehicle.

Prices Ecological bonus Conversion premium Aides Bouches-du-Rhône (13) Cost price
Peugeot e-208 34 000 € 5 000 € 1 500 € 5 000 € 22 500 €

In addition to the purchase price, electric cars offer a number of advantages for the driver.

 

By way of comparison, the Peugeot 208 Active 1.2 L PureTech is priced at €22,300.
Even without regional aid, the e-208 is €1,300 more expensive than its internal combustion counterpart. The e-208 will bring all its added value over time in terms of savings on running costs (fuel and maintenance).

Fuel

This is where the car makes all the difference. For 100 km driven, you pay an average of €2/full. For 13,000 kms driven per year, your bill will therefore be €260/year... By way of comparison, it would have cost €1,539.20 if you had a petrol car.

READ ALSO - Charging an electric car: how much does it cost?

Fuel costs Price per unit Autonomy (WLTP) Battery usable
Petrol 1,80 € 8 14,40 €
Diesel 1,96 € 6,25 12,25 €
Hybrid Petrol 1,80 € 3 5,40 €
Electric 2,00 €

Maintenance

According to the Avere association, maintaining an electric vehicle costs4 times cheaper than a thermal vehicle. Why is that? Because electric vehicles have fewer parts to change and repair. No spark plugs, no exhaust, no clutch...

With fewer parts, visits to the garage are obviously rarer, which is good for the wallet...

Other benefits

Some cities that want to reduce pollution offer advantages to electric car drivers. In Paris, for example, you can park your electric car free of charge. With the price of parking in major cities, these are significant advantages.

READ ALSO - Parking your electric car: everything you need to know before taking the plunge

READ ALSO - How do I charge my electric car in Paris?

Electric cars are not suitable for long journeys

It's not true. Autonomy is the sinews of war for many car manufacturers, and if this statement was true a few years ago, it is no longer the case today.

The Kia e-niro 64 kWhfor example, has a range of over 450 km. That's more than enough range for any number of journeys.

French drivers cover an average of 13,000 km per year. We have 226 working days in 2019, or 58 km/day. With a range of 450 kms, you can drive for more than 7 days with a Kia e-niro without recharging. That's a lot.

Average annual journeys made by private cars in France from 2004 to 2017, by fuel type (in kilometres). Source: Statista.

It's too complicated to recharge

This is still not true. Most electric vehicle drivers recharge at home or at work. As for the rest, there are 17,508 recharging points in France and 83,227 plugs available. To give you an idea, there are 10,000 service stations in France.

Based on this information, there are several ways to recharge:

  • You live in the city centre

You can charge up - often free of charge - at your local charging points. You'll need to choose your times carefully, though.

READ ALSO - Google Maps to display electric vehicle charging points

  • You live in a condominium

Whether you rent or own, you have the right to a plug that works in your favour. You are therefore entitled to have a subsidised charging point installed.

READ ALSO - Electric vehicle charging points in condominiums: the complete guide

  • You live in a detached house

Install a recharging point at your home. You are entitled to a number of subsidies that will help you reduce your bill considerably.

The choice is too limited

It's true that at the beginning, the choice was very limited with the Renault Zoé as a best-seller in France and few competitors. Tesla spiced things up a bit, but prices were out of reach for many drivers.

Fortunately, there are now more and more models to choose from, and the choice is very interesting in 2019. With challengers such as the Kia Niro EV, the Nissan Leaf or even the Peugeot 208 planned for the end of the year, you're spoilt for choice.

READ ALSO - The best electric cars in 2023

In addition to the models already available, carmakers are all preparing exclusively electric models that are eagerly awaited in the years ahead. Audi, BMW and Mini have announced electric 100% models for each of their target markets.

READ ALSO - Future electric cars up to 2024

Good to know: carmakers will have to achieve an average CO2 emission level of 95 g/km for all their ranges by 2021. If they fail to do so, they will have to pay fines of €95 per gram of CO2 in excess for each vehicle registered during the year.

If everyone switches to electric cars, the electricity grid won't be able to keep up

It's just not true. According to astudy of the electricity transmission networkThe French electricity grid is ready to absorb the energy demand from electric cars in France. This study, carried out in partnership with Avere - the Association for the Development of Electric Mobility - gives the green light to the development of electric cars in the years ahead. Enough to reassure even the most pessimistic drivers.

What's more, with more experience of electric vehicles, carmakers are innovating ever more, and are already anticipating peaks in consumption. Vehicle-to-grid (V2G) is an example of innovation in the sector. What is vehicle-to-grid? In simple terms, when an electric vehicle is plugged in, it can recharge or discharge electricity into the grid. This can be useful, for example, during peaks in consumption. This process will allow electric car owners to sell energy to the grid. Utilities could also use electric cars as a source of 'back-up' if demand increases. After conclusive tests in several European cities, EDF has already announced that it will deployseveral devices for the French market through its subsidiary Dreev.

READ ALSO - Vehicle-to-grid (V2G): will electric cars be a source of energy?

Yes, but new nuclear power stations will have to be built

No. According to the Ministry of Ecological Transition and Solidarity, the share of renewable energies in France's gross final energy consumption has risen and is still rising.

Pollution from electric cars: Renewable energies

Today it stands at 16%. The European Union has set a target of 27% for 2030. These targets will be revised upwards in the future, and we are moving towards a world where consumers no longer wish to pollute.

If you want to do more, there are many energy suppliers who offer 100% renewable energy from local producers with a short, transparent supply chain.Enercoop, for example, offers 100% green energy from identified local producers.

In a nutshell

Pollution from electric cars is one of the many clichés that circulate about electric cars.

On the contrary, the electric vehicle is a highly effective solution in the fight against climate change in France and in several other countries. India, for example, has just asked Uber and its rival Ola to electrify 40% of their fleets by ... 2026.

With longer-lasting batteries and greener energy sources, there's no reason to be afraid of switching to electric vehicles.

Electric vehicle: 63% less CO2 emissions than a petrol vehicle

Carbon footprint (CO2) : Pollution from electric vehicles VS petrol.

👍 The idea here is to get to the bottom of the pollution reality between electric and combustion.

According to a study carried out by the European Federation of Transport and Environment, an electric vehicle emits 3 times less CO2 than its petrol equivalent, for the same period of use.

If the electric vehicle is more inclined to pollute during manufacture, a petrol vehicle triples this rate of pollution during use. This is where the two technologies clash.

To give you an idea, the table below sets out a balance sheet, of the amount of CO2 emitted (in tonnes) from the manufacture to the end of a vehicle's life. 👀

CO2 emissions (in tonnes) Electric Petrol
Battery 3,15 €
Vehicle/Parts 3,06 3,74
Total issue 6,21 3,74
Route 150,000 km 15,84
Refill/fuel 2,34 2,42
Total issue 2,34 18,26
Total CO2 emissions 9 22

The figures show that a electric vehicle product 9 tonnes of CO2, almost 1/3 of the quantity emitted by a petrol vehicle whose CO2 emissions are equivalent to 22 tonnes from manufacture to the end of the vehicle's life.

In fact, the only ecological disadvantage electric vehicles, is the manufacture of the battery. Raw materials such as lithium ion, as well as the cobalt are the ones that cause pollution in electric vehicles. The advantage is that today the supply of these materials is more than sufficient. Their production will then slow down considerably, and will no longer be a source of pollution in the years to come.

And more! These energies are a thing of the past, most of which are renewable. Unlike fossil fuels, including carbon, they can be recycled many times over. The result! The use of land for these energies is reduced.

Pollution from electric cars: A country-by-country comparison tool

Transport & Environment has put a new tool at your disposal. It allows you to compare the CO2 emissions generated by the manufacture of batteries in each country. You are therefore free to inform yourself and make the choice that seems most environmentally friendly.

Compare your vehicle's CO2 savings by country of battery origin here.

pollution voitures électriques

Good to know, nitrogen dioxide is produced by car engines, power stations and other industrial processes, and is also thought to exacerbate respiratory diseases such as asthma.

What the coronavirus tells us about air pollution without cars

Le coronavirus and the confinement imposed on more than half the world has profoundly changed our daily lives.

Rarely have we been faced with such an abrupt halt to the transport sector, industry and the economy in general. One of the consequences of the cessation of human activity is a reduction in pollution. It is estimated that reduction in pollution to at least 30% in the world's largest cities. The reduction in pollution has significantly and rapidly improved air quality in major cities, for the time being at least.

Which regions have benefited most from containment?

In just one week, for example, air quality in the San Francisco region improved by 30%. In China and Italy, air pollution was reduced by between 10 % and 30 % in just a few weeks, thanks to restrictions on population movement.

pollution_voiture_Coronavirus_Chine
pollution_voiture_Coronavirus_France

There seems to be a correlation between the economy and greenhouse gas emissions: in 2008, for example, a drop in emissions was recorded following the economic crisis, but never to this extent.

Ideally, reductions in emissions should not be linked to crises, but rather to a more sustainable reduction in CO2 emissions through greater use of renewable energies and less dependence on fossil fuels.

Coronavirus and air pollution

Paul Monks, Professor of Air Pollution at the University of Leicester, predicted that there would be important lessons to be learned. "We are inadvertently conducting the biggest experiment ever," he said. "Are we looking at what we might see in the future if we can move to a low-carbon economy? Without wishing to denigrate the loss of life, it could give us hope of something terrible. To see what can be achieved.

Monks, the former chairman of the UK government's scientific committee on air quality, has said that reducing air pollution could have health benefits, although these are unlikely to outweigh the loss of life due to illness.

"It seems quite likely that a reduction in air pollution will benefit people in sensitive categories, such as some asthmatics," he said. "This could reduce the spread of the disease. A high level of air pollution exacerbates viral absorption because it inflames and reduces immunity". Agriculture could also be stimulated, because pollution stunts plant growth, he added.

 

The World Health Organisation describes nitrogen dioxide as "a toxic gas that causes severe inflammation of the respiratory tract" at concentrations above 200 micrograms per cubic metre. Pollution particles can also be a vector for pathogens, exacerbating existing health problems. The WHO is currently studying whether airborne pollution particles can be a vector that spreads Covid-19 and makes it more virulent.

Autonomy

Today, entire sectors are closed, notably the airline industry. Once we are out of confinement, the real question is: will the coronavirus pandemic fundamentally change our lives, or will we return to heightened activity to make up for lost time? Or will we simply return to our normal lives?

The answer is more complicated and depends on the individual. Some sectors could change permanently:

  • Teleworking could become more accepted
  • Telemedicine could finally be more widely adopted by light patients
  • Conferences could be 100 % digital instead of bringing in people from all over the world, or at least allow people to choose to attend events by videoconference.
  • Modes of transport and ownership: with air pollution levels falling, the argument for electric cars is more relevant than ever. Especially as people become wary of public transport. Of course, you need to make sure that the electricity used to recharge your car is of renewable origin to maximise the reduction in pollution.

What do you think about the reduction in car-related pollution? Would you be prepared to switch to an electric car to maintain these excellent figures?

Picture of Ilona Soulage
Ilona Soulage

Let's explore the world of electric vehicles and charging points together. Passionate about new things, I'll help you make the ecological transition.

With Beev

Switch to

or install your

For individuals and businesses

Discover our newsletter

Read also
embouteillage de voitures sur la route
Autonomie véhicule électrique

With Beev

Switch to

or install your

For individuals and businesses