HT TECH wants to start sending you push notifications. Click allow to subscribe

The Electric Car Market is About to Get Crazy, But Find The Most Climate-Friendly EV This Way

Bloomberg Green’s Electric Car Ratings will help you make sense of the chaotic market and find the most climate-friendly EV.

By: BLOOMBERG
Updated on: Aug 22 2022, 13:41 IST
Electric cars are drastically cleaner than conventional gasoline vehicles, particularly as renewable power starts to comprise more of the grid. (AP)

The early days of any new technology tend to be — to put it technically — insane. Airlines in the 1960s, PCs in the 1980s, iPhone apps in the 2000s. Their origin stories all are similar: there’s a crush of new product, a marketing dash for FOMO-motivated customers and piles of money to burn as companies buy into the new game.

The US electric car market right now is no exception. And that's where Bloomberg Green’s Electric Car Ratings come in.

You may be interested in

Mobiles Tablets Laptops
Apple iPhone 15 Pro Max
  • Black Titanium
  • 8 GB RAM
  • 256 GB Storage
₹156,900
Check details
28% OFF
Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra 5G
  • Green
  • 12 GB RAM
  • 256 GB Storage
₹107,999₹149,999
Buy now
Google Pixel 8 Pro
  • Obsidian
  • 12 GB RAM
  • 128 GB Storage
₹106,998
Check details
Apple iPhone 15 Plus
  • Black
  • 6 GB RAM
  • 128 GB Storage
₹87,900
Check details
21% OFF
Acer Swift Go SFG14 41 NX KG3SI 002 Laptop
  • Pure Silver
  • 8 GB RAM
  • 512 GB SSD
₹58,990₹74,999
Buy now
41% OFF
Acer Aspire 5 A515 57G Laptop
  • Gray
  • 16 GB RAM
  • 512 GB SSD
₹52,990₹89,999
Buy now
41% OFF
Acer Aspire 3 A315 24 NX KDESI 004 Laptop
  • Silver
  • 8 GB RAM
  • 512 GB SSD
₹34,490₹57,999
Buy now
40% OFF
Asus VivoBook 15 X515JA BQ322WS Laptop
  • Transparent Silver
  • 8 GB RAM
  • 512 GB SSD
₹31,350₹51,990
Buy now
35% OFF
Xiaomi Pad 6
  • Mist Blue
  • 6 GB RAM
  • 128 GB Storage
₹25,999₹39,999
Buy now
55% OFF
Lenovo Tab M10 5G
  • Abyss Blue
  • 6 GB RAM
  • 128 GB Storage
₹20,999₹47,000
Buy now
32% OFF
Realme Pad 2
  • Imagination Grey
  • 6 GB RAM
  • 128 GB Storage
₹19,668₹28,999
Buy now
Honor Pad X9
  • Gray
  • 4 GB RAM
  • 128 GB Storage
₹16,998
Check details

In an effort to make sense of this mad market — to catalogue in close-to-real-time every one of the EVs on offer at the moment — we’ve produced a rating of electric cars. The dashboard covers every new fully battery-powered vehicle available for sale in the US, calling out metrics from price and range to charging speed and number of seats.

Electric cars are drastically cleaner than conventional gasoline vehicles, particularly as renewable power starts to comprise more of the grid. However, there’s a growing awareness that none of this 5,000-pound hardware comes without a carbon cost; there’s no such thing as a “zero-emission vehicle,” as they have been branded by policymakers and early champions. Steel body panels don’t grow on trees. Lithium doesn’t just flow out of the ground and into battery plants. And electricity — even the stuff coming from solar panels — isn’t captured without a great deal of capital and carbon expense.

That’s why our EV ratings also measure how “green” each of these machines is with a formula based on the economy of the vehicle, how far it travels relative to how many pounds it weighs, and the size of its battery. The economy part of the equation is weighted at 70% of the score, which is roughly equivalent to the amount of an EV’s emissions that come from driving. The remainder of an EV’s carbon footprint comes from its manufacturing, especially the construction of the battery. Thus, in our model, battery size serves as a proxy for all manufacturing impacts and is weighted at 30%. How we arrived at these decisions and some additional context is spelled out at length in our methodology.

It will come as no surprise that among the models currently on the dashboard — which will be updated when new models are introduced and key metrics change — Elon Musk has bragging rights. Tesla’s Model 3 Long Range tops the list of green machines. It travels up to 358 miles at a time, thanks in part to an aerodynamic design and software meant to squeeze every last electron from a medium-sized battery. GMC’s Hummer EV brings up the rear with its massive battery and a chassis geared for off-road brawn rather than on-road economy.

In the US alone, there are about 33 electric vehicles on sale right now — almost triple the number of choices a year ago. By this time next year, there will be dozens more, including a bunch of super-sized pickup trucks that Americans covet. There hasn’t been this many new new cars since Henry Ford stopped fiddling with steam engines and got down to business.

North Americans will purchase about 1.4 million electric vehicles this year, the majority of which will be fully electric, not hybrid, according to BloombergNEF estimates. They made up more than 6% of new sales in the first quarter. And the industry is shifting even faster in Asia and Europe, where almost 10% of new vehicles purchased are now entirely battery powered.

For carmakers, the electric race is existential; for customers, however, it’s bewildering. As if it weren’t hard enough to keep track of the blitz of new machines hitting dealerships, car companies are redirecting their publicity dollars to tout battery-powered models that won’t hit the streets for years. General Motors “revealed” its Chevrolet Silverado EV in January, though the first customers won’t get the truck until next spring. It’s anyone’s guess when we might see the Tesla Cybertruck Musk pulled the cover off of nearly three years ago. Every company in the game is pushing a parade of EVs while trying to make good on pledges to sunset internal-combustion models by self-imposed deadlines.

There’s an argument to be made that EV demand, for so long a rounding error in the car business, is actually outstripping supply. A few months ago, one in four Americans surveyed told J.D. Power they were “very likely” to go electric with their next car purchase, and that was before fighting in Ukraine pushed gas prices to a record high.

Waitlists for the newest, hottest models — such as the Hyundai Ioniq 5 — are stretching for months and steep mark-ups to the sticker price are the norm. Ford Motor has gone so far as to stop taking orders for its new F-150 Lightning and its Mustang Mach-E until its factories can catch up with demand; meanwhile it’s hustling to open more assembly lines.

When Nissan introduced the Leaf in 2010, an electric car was a small, funky looking hatchback, short on range and long on virtue signaling. Over the following decade, Tesla made them into sporty status symbols. Now the legacy automakers have begun churning out pickups and SUVs every bit as powerful as their combustion engine predecessors, and far quicker. These are finally no-compromise vehicles and convincing consumers to buy them is a critical step in the climate fight. The next impactful step, perhaps 10 years from now, will be convincing them to buy only as many EVs as they really need.

The car market may never be this crazy and confusing again. This is our attempt to make sense of it. If you are shopping for a new ride, investing in these companies or are just among the increasing crowd of the EV-curious, come back here anytime to see how the race is shaping up and, of course, which machine is out front.

Catch all the Latest Tech News, Mobile News, Laptop News, Gaming news, Wearables News , How To News, also keep up with us on ,Twitter, Facebook, , and Instagram. For our latest videos, subscribe to our YouTube channel.

First Published Date: 07 Jul, 21:04 IST

Sale

Mobiles Tablets Laptops
4% OFF
Samsung Galaxy S24 Ultra
  • Titanium Black
  • 12 GB RAM
  • 256 GB Storage
₹129,999₹134,999
Buy now
7% OFF
Apple iPhone 15 Pro Max
  • Black Titanium
  • 8 GB RAM
  • 256 GB Storage
₹148,900₹159,900
Buy now
13% OFF
Xiaomi 14
  • Matte Black
  • 12 GB RAM
  • 512 GB Storage
₹69,999₹79,999
Buy now
10% OFF
Apple iPhone 15 Plus
  • Black
  • 6 GB RAM
  • 128 GB Storage
₹80,990₹89,900
Buy now
38% OFF
Xiaomi Pad 6
  • Mist Blue
  • 6 GB RAM
  • 128 GB Storage
₹24,999₹39,999
Buy now
28% OFF
Realme Pad 2
  • Imagination Grey
  • 6 GB RAM
  • 128 GB Storage
₹17,999₹24,999
Buy now
25% OFF
Samsung Galaxy Tab A7 Lite
  • Silver
  • 3 GB RAM
  • 32 GB Storage
₹9,529₹12,700
Buy now
11% OFF
Samsung Galaxy Tab S9 5G 256GB
  • Graphite
  • 8 GB RAM
  • 256 GB Storage
₹96,999₹108,699
Buy now
23% OFF
Infinix INBook X1 Neo XL22 Laptop Intel Celeron Quad Core 8 GB 256 GB SSD Windows 11
  • Blue
  • 4 GB RAM
  • 128 GB SSD
₹22,990₹29,990
Buy now
44% OFF
HP ZBook Firefly 14 G9 7M3U0PA Laptop
  • Nouvelle Silver
  • 16 GB RAM
  • 1 TB SSD
₹79,990₹142,659
Buy now
33% OFF
Asus TUF Gaming F15 FX507ZV LP094W Laptop
  • Mecha Gray
  • 16 GB RAM
  • 512 GB SSD
₹57,990₹85,990
Buy now
14% OFF
Asus ROG Zephyrus Duo 15 GX550LWS HF079TS Laptop
  • Gunmetal Grey
  • 32 GB RAM
  • 1 TB SSD
₹229,990₹266,990
Buy now
NEXT ARTICLE BEGINS