The carbon footprint of a cross-country EV trip, and how it compares to gas

This past summer, our family took the Great Canadian EV Road Trip, travelling 16,000 KM to Victoria, BC and back in our Chevy Bolt.  I shared highlights and challenges of the trip in this Green Ideas, and it was featured on CBC Radio’s What On Earth.

But I’ve since wondered: what was the carbon footprint of that drive, and how would that compare to the same trip done in a gas vehicle?

“An EV has a carbon footprint?” one may wonder.  Yes, because often coal, oil or natural gas are used to generate at least some of the electricity used to charge it.  But there are huge differences between provinces (as measured in grams of emissions per kilowatt-hour (KWH) of electricity):

Using these numbers, the charging log I kept on our trip and a calculator, here are some interesting results:

• The carbon footprint of the entire 16,000 KM EV trip was 385 KG of emissions

• A Honda Civic sedan doing the same trip would have generated 2,600 KG of emissions, or nearly seven times as many

• A Ford F-150 pickup truck doing the same trip would have generated 4,490 KG of emissions, or nearly twelve times as many

• The highest emissions from a single charge happened in Regina, SK: 36 KG of emissions for an overnight charge of 54 KWH.  The second highest was in Waterton Lakes National Park in Alberta: 27 KG of emissions for an overnight charge of 54 KWH.

• At the other end of the scale, an overnight charge of 65 KWH in Manitoba’s Riding Mountain National Park resulted in just .091 KG of emissions; a 36.7 KWH charge in St. Hyacinthe, QC resulted in just .062 KG of emissions.

• The 385 KG emissions of the entire EV trip is equal to burning 167 litres of gasoline (because burning a litre of gas produces 2.3 KG of emissions).  That amount of gas would take a Honda Civic from Fredericton to Petawawa (just past Ottawa) and back; it would take a Ford F-150 to Drummondville, QC and back.  Our EV trip took us all the way to Victoria.

• An important final point: even in provinces where a lot of power comes from fossil fuels (like Alberta and Saskatchewan), EV emissions are still less than those of driving gas vehicles.

There are already plenty of good reasons to drive an EV: quiet; powerful; huge fuel savings that more than make up for the higher up-front cost; virtually no maintenance; winter reliability.  But if you’re like me, the low emissions are perhaps the best reason of all!