Choose hybrid vehicles over electric and conventional ones if you actually want to be sustainable, IIT Kanpur study says

If you live in a metropolitan city like Bengaluru, it's hard to go even five minutes without spotting the green electric vehicle (EV) licence board whizzing along the traffic. The EV boom has begun to take off properly, making it an exciting time for vehicle owners and climate enthusiasts alike.

While EVs might have been marketed as the saviour of climate catastrophe, a more sinister truth might be hiding between the rose-tinted lines. An Indian Institute of Technology-Kanpur study showed that, in some ways, EVs might actually be more damaging to the environment than traditional internal combustion engine cars and hybrid vehicles.

To challenge this cleanliness notion, the study looked at all the vagaries of electric, hybrid and conventional cars from start to finish, to see what it actually takes to manufacture, own and drive each of them. What they found was a little distressing, to say the least.

According to the study, manufacturing, using and scrapping EVs in India surprisingly produces 15-50% more greenhouse gases than conventional and hybrid cars. Most of this comes from the fact that even clean electricity originates from coal-powered plants in our country (about 75% of India’s total), which spew an exorbitant amount of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere.

The study also outlines that if we need to be green, we might be overlooking a crucial area. According to the research, Hybrid Electric Vehicles (HEV) emit the least amount of greenhouse gases overall, and yet they remain the most taxed and expensive for the common person.

Perhaps the two biggest roadblocks in the transition to an EV for most Indians are the vehicles' relatively high costs and range. However, many are often sold on the promise of never having to buy the increasingly costly petroleum evil ever again.

But here, there are several hidden factors that also need to be accounted for to grasp a clearer picture. For instance, EVs actually cost 15-60% more per kilometre compared to HEVs and conventional vehicles, the researchers found. Considering that HEVs usually boast 1-1.5 times the mileage per litre as traditional engine cars, this is an area that ought to be popularised more.

Overall, the authors stress that if cleantech is the need of the hour, hybrid vehicles need more love, and should be given the same low-tax treatment as EVs.

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