News for hackers. Stuff that matters.

A comment on Norway to hit 100% electric vehicle sales by early next year. Parent comment

Re:Norway to hit 100% electric vehicle sales by early next year by takk309 on Wednesday October 06, 2021 @05:23PM (#28778630)
How much oil is needed to produce a single electric vehicle? What I am getting at is we will need oil extraction for a long time. While we can move away from burning it for heat, we still need it for the production of most plastics. This doesn't even begin to touch on oil's use in the extraction process of all the other metals used in car production.

We also need oil for road building. I don't see that changing anytime either. After all, asphalt production produces far fewer greenhouse gasses than cement. Concrete roads have their place but the vast majority of road miles will be made with asphalt for the near future.

[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:Norway to hit 100% electric vehicle sales by early next year by lm28469 on Wednesday October 06, 2021 @06:09PM (#28779109)
Given that all the plastics and most synthetic fabrics are petrol derivatives I don't think it'll ever die.

90% of everything in your direct line of sight probably contain petrol derivatives. From wall paint to shampoo, your t-shirt, phone, chewing gums, toothpaste, rugs, shoes... We just can't sustain our modern lifestyle without it

[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:Norway to hit 100% electric vehicle sales by early next year by ip26 on Wednesday October 06, 2021 @09:10PM (#28780540)
oil's use in the extraction process of all the other metals used in car production.

Maybe I'm being reductive, but isn't this essentially because we haven't electrified mine carts et al yet? Or are you referring to steel smelting?

[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:Norway to hit 100% electric vehicle sales by early next year by takk309 on Wednesday October 06, 2021 @09:42PM (#28780787)
A combination of both really. Also included is the transportation of raw materials to production facilities. To be fair, however, these costs exist for non-electric cars to some degree.
[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:Norway to hit 100% electric vehicle sales by early next year by arghwhat on Wednesday October 06, 2021 @06:06PM (#28779094)
Asphalt is itself very energy inefficient, and finding a replacement is rather important. Quoting kurzgesagt, the impact if manufacturing an electric car is equal to just two meters of asphalt road.
[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:Norway to hit 100% electric vehicle sales by early next year by takk309 on Wednesday October 06, 2021 @06:11PM (#28779137)
On top of that, asphalt is very easy to recycle and is likely the most recycled material on the planet by weight. My original point was that we will still need to extract some oil for a long time into the future.
[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:Norway to hit 100% electric vehicle sales by early next year by thinkcontext on Thursday October 07, 2021 @11:30AM (#28787625)
> How much oil is needed to produce a single electric vehicle?

And wood energy was used to jumpstart the fossil fuel energy age. There was a transition period before fossil fuel energy became the dominant way to extract more fossil fuels. Now wood for energy is economically negligible in advanced economies.

[ Parent | on HN ]