Electric cars cause more harm to environment than conventional vehicles, says one IIT Kanpur study

Challenging the claims that electric cars are safer for the environment, an IIT Kanpur study has found conventional and hybrid cars to be more environment-friendly. The study, which has been conducted by the Engine Research Lab of IIT Kanpur, has found that the manufacturing and usage of electric cars results in 15-50% more greenhouse gas emissions, as compared to the others.

Indian Institute of Technology, Kanpur conducted this joint study with a Japan-based organization. Furthermore, the study classified the cars into three separate categories including one Indian category and two categories of foreign vehicles.

IIT Kanpur's Professor Avinash Agarwal, who was a co-author for the study, found Electric Cars to be emitting 15 to 50 per cent more greenhouse gases as compared to the traditional internal combustion engine cars. Electric cars don't release emissions in usual commutes, and it's the manufacturing process which takes quite a toll on the environment, the key backing of this study.

Hybrid electric cars, on the other hand, were found to be producing the least amount of greenhouse gases, which are also the most expensive (to build, buy and service) among the three categories included in the study.

It is especially noteworthy that this is not the first study that has challenged the widely-held belief that electric cars are the most environment-friendly. A study was also published in the Nature magazine in 2022 that found electric vehicles in India to be polluting the environment more than petrol/diesel vehicles.