Http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-19830232

The team looked at the life-cycle impact of conventional and electric
vehicles.

In essence, they considered how the production, the use and the end-of-
life dismantling of a car affects the environment, explained co-author
Prof Anders Hammer Stromman.

"The production phase of electric vehicles proved substantially more
environmentally intensive," the report said, comparing it to how petrol
and diesel cars are made.

"The global warming potential from electric vehicle production is about
twice that of conventional vehicles."

In addition, producing batteries and electric motors requires a lot of
toxic minerals such as nickel, copper and aluminium.

Hence, the acidification impact is much greater than that of
conventional car production.

"Across the other impacts considered in the analysis including potential
for effects related to acid rain, airborne particulate matter, smog,
human toxicity, ecosystem toxicity and depletion of fossil fuel and
mineral resources, electric vehicles consistently perform worse or on
par with modern internal combustion engine vehicles, despite virtually
zero direct emissions during operation," according to Prof Stromman.
'Counterproductive' efforts
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A battery electric vehicle, with electricity produced by the power
generation mix we currently have in Europe, compares favourably in the
magnitude of 10% or so with diesel€�

Dieter Zetsche Chief executive, Daimler

With electric car production being so damaging to the environment, these
cars have already polluted a great deal by the time they hit the road,
the report says.

However, if the cars were then powered by electricity made from low-
carbon electricity sources, they could nevertheless offer "the potential
for substantial reductions in greenhouse gas emissions and exposure to
tailpipe emissions" over time.

However, in regions where fossil fuels are the main sources of power,
electric cars offer no benefits and may even cause more harm, the report
said.
--
Tony Sayer