I remember reading an article on MSN once that said to have the biggest impact on helping the environment, we should focus on improving and maximizing the potential of the gasoline engine rather than having everyone switch to hybrids or EV's. This conclusion was from a study by some government agency. The report said that there was room for significant improvements in the efficiency of combustion engines. Making the complete switch to hybrids/EV's would require massive infrastructure upgrades that would be more costly and time consuming in addition to the other environmental impacts others have mentioned regarding battery manufacturing and shipping. Gasoline engines would just require some technical innovation, everything else is already in place.
I don't think the hybrid and EV movement is necessarily bad for the environment, but we need to put more focus on switching to clean and renewable sources of energy for electricity production to maximize the environmental benefits. I think it would be more beneficial to invest in renewable energy for electricity than to have everyone buy hybrids/EV's.
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