10. Impact on the environment

10.1 CO2 emissions

The big attraction of electric or hydrogen-powered cars is the absence of CO ₂ emissions during their use. CO ₂ is released when electricity is generated in the case of the electric car, or when hydrogen is manufactured by electrolysis of water. Hydrogen can also be produced from natural gas, but in this case it is more advantageous to use natural gas directly as fuel for the vehicle, as the overall efficiency is much better.

As far as CO ₂ is concerned, it's the quantity emitted per kWh that's important, not the place of emission, as this gas dilutes very quickly in the atmosphere. On the other hand,...