Review of EV Impacts
There is a continuing growth in the support of electric vehicles, specifically in urban areas. Cities throughout the country have already began shifting into electric vehicles with Quebec and BC leading the pack. Although these vehicles help reduce impacts relating to pollution and oil extraction there are some alarming impacts of producing these vehicles.
These vehicles still require the use of raw materials that need to be extracted by disruptive means, primarily lithium, cobalt, and nickel. The production of these batteries uses the most amount of energy throughout the production of these cars. The extraction of lithium and the nickel produces the majority of the cobalt as a byproduct through mining and from sulfide and laterite ores, and the demand is expected to rise.
Energy usage through this production of these cars is significantly higher in the battery production, material processing, and manufacturing facilities than when in use on the road. The manufacturing process releases an array of air pollutants, such as particulate matter, VOC’s and Sulphur oxides.
Disposal of these vehicles, like the ICE (internal combustion engine) vehicles, has a lot of recyclable parts. However, the materials used in batteries have a high environmental risk and can leak toxic substances into the soil and water table. Even the recycling of the batteries is energy intensive if it’s not able to be directly recycled.
Lithium is extracted in countries with less environmental policies and can have detrimental impacts on their ecosystems and personal health system. The extraction of any materials will create biodiversity losses and pollution issues with water, air and soil.
These facts do not consider the social impacts, such as the health issues, the child labour, safety accidents, cultural disruptions and economic fluctuations within the local communities. This information also does not talk about the impacts of the charging stations and shipping of vehicles, but it’s clear, if you want to be eco-friendly in transportation, take mass transportation, carpool, walk or bike when possible. The health, economic and environmental benefits of green transportation outweigh the daily use of electric vehicles by far.
Sources:
Market Snapshot: Zero emission vehicles in Canada—latest trends, including region- and make/model-level insights. (2025, August 05). Canada Energy Regulator.
https://www.cer-rec.gc.ca/en/data-analysis/energy-markets/market-snapshots/2025/market-snapshot-zero-emission-vehicles-in-canada-latest-trends-including-region-and-makemodel-level-insights.html
Life Cycle Analysis of Electric Vehicles. (2025, March). ResearchGate.net.
https://www.researchgate.net/publication/390311960_Life_Cycle_Analysis_of_Electric_Vehicles
Orola, A. Social life cycle assessment of cobalt mining in Democratic Republic of Congo. (2021).
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