Are EVs Truly Sustainable - Should They be Considered the Future of the Automotive Industry? (Long Read)

If you ask the average person on the street what they think the cause of air pollution in urban megacities is, the most common response will be one referring to ‘cars’ or ‘vehicle emissions’ and they would certainly be correct. However, if you also ask them how they believe air pollution should be reduced or managed, they will most likely say that the government should encourage people to buy Electric Vehicles (EVs). While part of the belief about EVs being one of the best tools humans have to solve climate change has some merit, the rest of the story has fine details that the average adult has little idea about. 

While recently interning at Nissan Motors in Dubai, I learnt more about the EV industry and during a meeting with a senior member of their R&D team we discussed the true ‘green’ picture behind EVs and whether they are genuinely sustainable in the long run. That conversation sparked the idea for this article — an exploration of the environmental, economic, and ethical dimensions of EVs, based both on the insights I gathered during the meeting and wider research I conducted in the days following. 

The birth of the Electric Vehicle was an invention not as recent as many people believe it to be: In fact, the earliest electric cars appeared in the 1800s, well before the dominance of internal combustion engines. In the late 19th century, pioneers like William Morrison, a chemist from Des Moines, Iowa, built one of the first successful electric carriages around 1890 (essentially an “electrified wagon”) capable of carrying multiple passengers at speeds up to 14 mph. y the early 1900s, EVs were relatively popular in urban areas due to their smooth and quiet operation, especially among the elite. However, with the mass production of the Ford Model T and the discovery of vast oil reserves, petrol-powered vehicles quickly took over. The internal combustion engine became the global standard for mobility for much of the 20th century, pushing EVs off main roads (this was in stark contrast to the fact that by the early 1900s, nearly 28% of cars on U.S. roads were electric).

It wasn’t until the late 20th century that EVs began gaining renewed attention. California’s zero emissions mandate in the early 1990s prompted auto manufacturers to produce limited-run electric models such as the General Motors EV1, the first purpose-built mass-produced EV of its time. This paved the way for modern EV breakthroughs: Tesla’s 2008 Roadster became the first production EV to surpass 200 miles per charge, and in 2010 Nissan launched the Leaf, often considered the first mass market EV that allowed mainstream adoption in markets worldwide.

One of the key barriers to EV adoption that emerged in my discussion with the Nissan R&D department was on infrastructure. While EVs continue to dominate headlines globally, their widespread use depends on having the support systems to make them viable for the average consumer. In countries like Saudi Arabia, there are reportedly only 15 to 20 public charging points nationwide, in stark contrast to the 800+ available in the UAE. This disparity alone acts as a limiting factor in making most EVs cost effective and feasible for employees with long daily work commutes. More importantly, the cost of building and maintaining these public chargers often falls on local authorities. With the current global norm sitting at around 1:10 (one EV charger for every ten petrol cars sold), the costs of supporting large-scale EV use could quickly become unsustainable. If adoption increases dramatically, public charging may eventually come at a financial cost to consumers, which would act as a further deterrent to EV uptake in many regions.

Another significant challenge with EVs is their mileage capacity and charging speed. On average, EVs tend to have a 30–40% lower range than petrol-powered vehicles. This leads to more frequent charging and a general sense of inconvenience for people with long commutes. The time required to charge an EV from 0 to 80% or full is typically around 45 minutes, even with fast-charging infrastructure, whereas refueling a petrol car takes only 4 to 5 minutes. From an economics standpoint, this is an opportunity cost that consumers with Electric Vehicles must bear. In a world where time is increasingly valued, these practical limitations play a substantial role in shaping consumer behavior and preferences surrounding long-term EV adoption. 

Then comes the question of whether EVs are truly “green.” At a surface level, the fact that EVs emit zero carbon during use seems to support the sustainability argument. However, this is only part of the story. Using a Life Cycle Assessment (LCA), which takes into account the emissions generated during production, usage, and end-of-life disposal, it becomes clear that EVs are not always more sustainable than internal combustion engine (ICE) vehicles. Manufacturing EVs — particularly their batteries — is extremely energy intensive, and in countries that rely on coal-powered electricity grids, the carbon footprint from production can outweigh the benefits of zero tailpipe emissions (a journey in an EV from point A to B produces no GHG emissions). In such cases, the environmental advantage is far less significant than it first appears.

Equally concerning is the ethics of battery production. Around 60% of an EV’s weight is comprised of its battery, which includes  lithium, cobalt, and other rare earth metals. Extracting these materials comes with serious ethical concerns: many are mined under exploitative conditions in developing countries, where workers are often underpaid and exposed to hazardous working environments. Economically, the costs associated with this extraction are externalized, meaning that neither automakers nor end consumers are truly paying the full social or environmental price for these vehicles, which represents a market failure. Furthermore, while 80% of a conventional petrol vehicle is recyclable, only around 30–40% of an EV’s components can be effectively reused. This creates a long-term issue not just in terms of environmental sustainability but also circular resource efficiency.

The battery issue doesn’t end there though. Lithium-ion batteries degrade over time, usually requiring replacement after 5 to 10 years of use. However, we are yet to find a reliable, scalable, and environmentally responsible way to dispose of or recycle these old batteries. In many cases, they are simply discarded in poorly regulated waste facilities or in oceans, releasing potent greenhouse gases into the atmosphere and contributing to long-term ecological harm. Producing two replacement batteries for one car over its lifetime results in a significant cost to both the consumer and the planet.

That said, there are promising developments in this space, particularly in vehicle-to-grid (V2G) technology. This innovation, which Nissan is actively pioneering, allows older EV batteries with diminished capacity to be repurposed as mobile energy storage units. These batteries can feed electricity back into the grid during peak demand or power homes and commercial buildings, thus extending their life and utility. While this solution seems attractive on the surface, it still depends heavily on the cleanliness of the energy being stored. If the grid is powered by fossil fuels, then storing and redistributing this energy does little to offset emissions.

Ultimately, while EVs offer a promising pathway toward reducing our dependence on fossil fuels, they also come with a set of complex trade-offs. The environmental, ethical, and economic implications of their production, use, and disposal must be carefully weighed. From what I’ve learned through both research and my time at Nissan, the future of sustainable automobiles isn’t just about switching out the petrol engine; it’s about rethinking the entire ecosystem that surrounds the vehicle. As EVs become more integrated into our daily lives, we must ensure that their promise of sustainability holds up, and in order for that to happen, some important changes must take place within the industry - quickly.