According to this 11 year old article  they suggest

The carbon footprint of a new car:

6 tonnes CO2e: Citroen C1, basic spec

17 tonnes CO2e: Ford Mondeo, medium spec

35 tonnes CO2e: Land Rover Discovery, top of the range

Quite a large chunk, perhaps 5-10 tonnes comes from the way the steel is made, so improvements in steel-making help the case for cars as well.


Of course that was when quite a lot of our electricity was generated from coal, rather than gas and back then almost none was from wind or solar.

(reference )

Electric cars have a similar amount of steel, so are not really 'zero emission', just that has occurred before it was sold.


Also since then we know that the car makers have put a much greater emphasis on less wasteful manufacturing processes, and Landrover at least claim to have reduced embedded emissions by a third in the last decade.


Even so at 150grams per km, you do need to drive a long way, perhaps 60,000 km even in a small car before the break even point of emission from burning the fuel matching those already made in manufacture - so early "scrappage" schemes only make sense for very polluting vehicles.

Mike.

According to this 11 year old article  they suggest

The carbon footprint of a new car:

6 tonnes CO2e: Citroen C1, basic spec

17 tonnes CO2e: Ford Mondeo, medium spec

35 tonnes CO2e: Land Rover Discovery, top of the range

Quite a large chunk, perhaps 5-10 tonnes comes from the way the steel is made, so improvements in steel-making help the case for cars as well.


Of course that was when quite a lot of our electricity was generated from coal, rather than gas and back then almost none was from wind or solar.

(reference )

Electric cars have a similar amount of steel, so are not really 'zero emission', just that has occurred before it was sold.


Also since then we know that the car makers have put a much greater emphasis on less wasteful manufacturing processes, and Landrover at least claim to have reduced embedded emissions by a third in the last decade.


Even so at 150grams per km, you do need to drive a long way, perhaps 60,000 km even in a small car before the break even point of emission from burning the fuel matching those already made in manufacture - so early "scrappage" schemes only make sense for very polluting vehicles.

Mike.