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nebulasleuth t1_j12kl6g wrote

That's good news. Now we just need to address the ecology of lithium battery production and our use of fossil fuels to charge all the batteries. Not sure of the 2022 number but I think the 2021 number was something like 60% of the energy produced in the USA was either coal or natural gas.

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Lord_Metagross t1_j12rttn wrote

While it's true that a significant portion of our power grids energy comes from natural gas, it's also true that power plants are far more efficient at turning fossil fuels into usable energy than a car, which spits most of its produced power out the tail pipe (heat).

In other words, even if 100% of our power grid was fossil fuel based, by producing the power in plants instead of in your cars engines, it would still be a net positive for the environment as less fuel would be used to power said cars.

We do need to find better battery types than lithium while this transition happens, however.

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