As the U.S. shifts away from coal-fired power plants and electric vehicles get more efficient, most Americans now live in regions where electric vehicles produce fewer greenhouse gas emissions than the most efficient hybrid cars, according to a new analysis.
While touted as more environmentally friendly options, electric vehicles have been criticized for contributing to the carbon footprint by relying on electricity generated in many cases from coal-fired power plants.
Related: Electric vehicles’ carbon footprint depends on the state
However, recent changes in electricity markets combined with technological improvements to electric vehicles led the Union of Concerned Scientists this week to conclude that electric vehicles are getting cleaner. In a new report out this week, the nonprofit science advocacy group said electric cars are doing more to fulfill their technological promise.
“If we want to reduce transportation pollution and oil use, a big part of the answer is to be like Bob Dylan and go electric,” Don Anair, research director for the group’s clean vehicles program said in a statement.
That’s in large part because power companies are shutting down older, smaller and more heavily polluting coal-fired power plants in the face of new federal regulations and abundant supplies of cheap natural gas. About 13 percent of the nation’s coal-fueled generating capacity – 42,192 megawatts – has been retired since 2012 or is slated for retirement in the next decade, according to a study by the General Accountability Office released Tuesday.
But the average energy efficiency of electric vehicles also is improving, with automakers continuing to squeeze greater range and performance out the cars, the report noted. The amount of electricity needed to power a toaster oven for 20 minutes can move a 3,000 pound car more than a mile, the report noted.
For example, after a 2013 upgrade, the Nissan Leaf now logs an efficiency rating of .3 kilowatt hours per mile, a measure of how much electricity the car consumes for traveling one mile. That’s a 12 percent improvement from its previous rating, the report found.
“Just as making gasoline vehicles more efficient reduces fuel consumption and lowers emissions, making (electric vehicles) that consume less electricity for every mile they drive is lowering the carbon footprint of driving on electricity,” Anair said in a blog post.
The new report, which revises data issued by the group in 2012, found that electric vehicle performance improved in nearly every region of the United States.
The Union of Concerned Scientists now lists Texas among its best-performing states, noting that an electric car operating on the Texas power grid emits as much greenhouse gas as a 50-mile-per-gallon gasoline-powered vehicle.
Related: Texas launches $2,500 incentive for CNG, electric vehicles
Electric vehicles driven in New York were the cleanest, the report found, emitting the equivalent of a 112-mile-per gallon gasoline engine, while vehicles driven in Colorado and eastern Wyoming logged the worst performance at 34 miles per gallon.
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