While a few factors of a heavier battery driven car, tyre wear increase, disk brake wear, particulate release due to those factors, were not mentioned in the article, I don't think the ABC was biased and they clearly stated where their research was coming from.
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These figures come from the Electric Vehicle Council, which based its life-cycle emissions calculator on modelling from theEuropean organisation Transport & Environment.
We got Professor Smit to look over the EV Council's modelling and he said while it was generous to petrol cars, it provided a good way to compare life-cycle emissions.
The inputs for petrol use are based on the WLTP. As mentioned in the story, this is likely to underestimate real-world petrol usage.
The modelling uses data for a Nickel-Mangenese-Cobalt NMC li-ion battery produced in China, as that's the most common type of battery in the Australian EV market.
It calculates 105kg CO2/KWh for the carbon produced from battery production.
This same study found that "producing batteries with photovoltaic electricity instead of Chinese coal-based electricity decreases climate impacts of battery production by 69 per cent". Considering this estimate would reduce the emissions calculation in the point we make about battery production.
For a medium electric SUV, the energy used is 17.3 KWh/100km and a battery size of 70.2 KWh average for cars available in that category.
The emissions factors for energy sources are based on data from the Intergovernmental Panel for Climate Change here.
To model the rate of renewables coming into the grid, the EV Council used the step-change scenario from the AEMO.
Statements about the composition of the electricity grids in different states come from 2022 numbers from the Department of Climate Change, Energy, the Environment and Water.
The estimate of recycling emissions comes from a study by Transport & Environment."
