Mythbusting the world of EVs: better to buy new or keep your old car?

MYTH: "It's better if you just keep your old car” 

The fallacy runs that it’s always best to keep old petrol cars going because it takes a lot of energy to build a car. But actually, of the energy and CO₂ a petrol car is responsible for in its lifetime, roughly four times is in the driving compared with the manufacturing. For an EV it’s about three times.

So when buying new, get one that has the lowest possible CO₂ impact when driving, and that’s an electric car. Over their lifetime, EVs are responsible for far less CO₂ than ICE cars. Especially because compared with early EVs, many of today’s are built in low-CO₂ factories with renewable energy. So, if you’re one of these people who gets a new car every three or four years and you want to lower your CO₂, go electric. Don’t cause another ICE car to be built. It’s simple.

But what if your existing petrol or diesel car is perfectly satisfactory? Obviously if you cause one less vehicle – of any kind – to be manufactured, you’re saving CO₂ in the short term. But if you drive a lot of miles or your car is thirsty, then sell it to someone who drives less. Getting an EV would after a very few years move you into credit. If it’s efficient and you drive little, probably hold on to it for a while.

In most areas of life, the greenest thing is simply to buy less stuff and keep it for longer. But with ICE cars, because they emit so much CO₂ in use, it’s not always so simple.