The Environmental Impact of ICE Cars

When it comes to the health of our planet, ordinary gas-fueled cars are bad news. They give off greenhouse gases (GHGs), warming the earth and causing human-made climate change, damaging food crops, and threatening health and livelihoods. According to the UN, an estimated 23.1 million people worldwide were displaced each year due to weather-related events between 2010 and 2019. The situation is dire — and the automobile is a major contributor.

Transportation Drives Greenhouse Gas Emissions

The transportation sector as a whole is the largest contributor to greenhouse gas emissions in the US. All cars, trucks, aircraft, ships, and trains combined account for 27% of GHG emissions. All that carbon dioxide and methane is causing the greenhouse effect — trapping heat in the earth's atmosphere, leading to global warming and climate change. Our oceans are acidifying, sea levels are rising, storms and droughts are increasing in frequency and severity, and animal species are going extinct.

Within transportation, light-duty vehicles — cars, SUVs, vans, and pickup trucks — are responsible for 57% of transportation GHG emissions. That means ordinary passenger vehicle drivers collectively have an outsized impact on how much carbon this country releases every year.

Smog: The Closer Danger

Gas and diesel vehicles don't only emit carbon dioxide. They also release smog-forming pollutants — nitrogen oxide, non-methane organic gases, and carbon monoxide — that get trapped close to the ground. This forms the brown haze visible over many cities in summer. It's harmful to human health, contributing to respiratory infections, heart disease, and lung cancer.

Did you know? A typical US passenger car emits about 4.6 metric tons of carbon dioxide per year — more than the entire annual carbon footprint of the average Swedish person.

It's Almost All in the Fuel

The carbon footprint of the automobile industry extends beyond the tailpipe: materials like steel, rubber, glass, and plastic all have embedded emissions, as does the production, recycling, and fuel distribution chain. But overwhelmingly — about 80 to 90% of a car's climate impact — comes from burning fuel. That's exactly where the electric vehicle changes everything.

An EV burns no fuel and has zero tailpipe emissions. There are still emissions involved in producing an EV — mining cobalt, lithium, and rare earth elements for batteries carries a climate cost — but compare the full lifecycle of an EV versus a gasoline car and the EV emits 64% less carbon dioxide over its lifetime. Choosing an electric vehicle is one of the most impactful individual climate actions an American can take.