Green Illusions book ignites dust-to-dirt debate

In his book 'Green Illusions - The Dirty Sectrets of Clean Energy and the Future of Environmentalism' Ozzie Zehner of the University of California argues that electric cars are not greener than conventional cars and that in fact they cause more harm, because of the carbon emissions in the manufacturing process. Zehner's argument is that previous calculations about a car's environmental impact ignores the impact of pollution in the manufacturing process.

Ricardo state that a petrol car produces on average 5.6 tons of C02 versus an electric car's 8.8 tons of CO2 in the manufacturing process, but that overall during its lifecycle the electric car was greener, 18.9 tons versus 30.4 tons for a petrol car and 27.6 tons for a diesel car.

So much for Zehner's book then.

By the way, check out the new Reva NXR from Mahindra Reva in India. This car is manufactured in the country's first Platinum certified plant for low emissions. Back in 2008 when I was working there we made a commitment to the all Reva cars being 'Born Green', that is to low carbon manufacturing and to measuring the dust to dirt (lifecycle) emissions of the model through the supply chain, manufacturing and operation, to end of life.

Here is a picture of the production plant, inaugurated today.

Catch up everyone.