Are EVs Good for the Environment, Even if Producing Lithium Batteries is Bad?
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Since electric vehicles (EVs) have become a political hot potato in Canada — not to mention in the United States — it can be difficult for drivers to get good answers on basic questions. There’s a sea of misinformation and outright lies out there that regular car shoppers have to wade through.
We thought it was time to set the record straight with fresh Canadian research on an important question, perhaps the question: are EVs better for the environment than their internal-combustion engine (ICE) peers?
Crunching the Numbers
To find the answer, it’s easy: simply add up all the greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from every part of a car’s life, from mining raw materials, extracting fossil fuels and lithium from the ground, turning them into fuel and batteries, making plastic and aluminium and glass, shipping parts around the world, assembling the vehicle, driving it, recharging or refuelling it, and finally sending it off for recycling and, eventually, to the scrap yard. Oh, by the way, each vehicle is made differently, in different places, from different materials, and powered by electricity or fuel generated in many different ways. OK, so it’s not that easy.
That process is called a lifecycle assessment or lifecycle analysis (LCA), and it’s a standardized method used by academics, governments, companies, and consultants to determine the total emissions of everything from plastic bags to buildings to vehicles.
When it comes to EVs versus ICE vehicles, researchers in Canada have crunched all the numbers — this is math, not politics — and the answer is clear.
The Short Answer
Yes, if drivers in Canada shift away from ICE vehicles and into EVs, the result will be fewer emissions. EVs are not a silver bullet for climate change, but they are one important technology that can help mitigate it.
The Longer But Still Basically the Same Answer
Yes, here in Canada, no matter what province or territory you’re in, EVs are better for the planet than their internal-combustion engine peers. Frankly, it’s not even close. Sure, EVs are not as clean as walking, cycling, or taking public transit, but most Canadians still need and/or want a car.
“From a greenhouse gas emissions perspective, yes, definitely, EVs emit less over their lifetime than ICE vehicles,” said Likeleli Seitlheko, a Toronto-based economist at TD Bank in Canada, in a phone interview. She recently crunched the LCA numbers and published an excellent report in March 2025 titled “Cradle to grave: Lifecycle emissions of electric versus gasoline vehicles in Canada.”
Her report concluded that, “for the Canada-wide electricity grid mix, the average emissions savings of BEVs [battery electric vehicles, aka EVs] range from 70 per cent to 77 per cent across different vehicle classes.” That’s a pretty huge emissions savings over ICE vehicles. To see the assumptions and methods used in her calculations, along with some very helpful charts, I highly recommend you check out her report for yourself.
Similarly, an unpublished 2024 report on light-duty vehicle lifecycle assessment in Canada commissioned by Environment and Climate Change Canada (ECCC) found that the shift to predominantly battery-powered cars will dramatically reduce emissions.
“The results of the LCA model clearly indicate the benefit of moving to ZEVs [Zero Emission Vehicles] from ICE vehicles in terms of GHG emissions reductions. The model shows as sales of ICE vehicles are reduced in the future, GHG emissions are reduced accordingly,” the report concludes.
In the authors’ default scenario — where all new vehicles sold starting in 2035 are plug-in hybrids and EVs — then the overall lifecycle emissions from vehicles in Canada will drop from 140 megatonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent (Mt CO2e) in 2022 to just over 80 Mt CO2e. That’s a decrease of over 40 per cent, and bear in mind this still includes gas-burning PHEVs.
Wait, What About Lithium Batteries? Isn’t Making Batteries Bad for the Planet?
Yes, lithium-ion battery production creates a lot of GHG emissions. And on top of that climate change-causing pollution, there are other more localized environmental or socio-economic problems that arise from mining lithium for batteries and critical minerals for electric motors.
However, when it comes to GHG emissions, which are not as readily mitigated as more localized environmental or socio-economic problems, lithium-ion battery production is the lesser of two evils. Zooming out and taking into account not just the batteries, but the full lifecycle emissions of a vehicle, as these LCA studies do, it becomes painfully clear (again) that ICE vehicles emit more than EVs — despite their batteries.
“Off the manufacturing floor, at that point, EVs do have higher emissions than gasoline vehicles,” Seitlheko confirms. That’s because making EVs, specifically their lithium-ion batteries, is more carbon-intensive than making an ICE vehicle, she explains.
But the tables begin to turn once vehicles hit the road. As dirty as batteries are, they’re still much cleaner than burning fossil fuels in an ICE vehicle.
With every kilometre driven in Canada, EVs emit less than their gas-burning counterparts. So, there’s a break-even point, a specific distance at which an EV becomes less carbon-intensive than its ICE equivalent.
“In jurisdictions with clean electricity, it happens very quickly,” Seitlheko says. “And then for jurisdictions like Nunavut or Nova Scotia, it takes not even that much longer; with all [provinces or territories], it’s still less than five years.”
Canada-wide, the average break-even point for EVs is between one and two years; after that, they’re cleaner than ICE vehicles. (This assumes 18,000 kilometres driven per year.)
What If a Car’s Lithium-Ion Battery Is Replaced During Its Lifecycle?
That’s a good question. Consider a scenario in which an EV’s lithium-ion battery degrades or breaks such that it needs to be replaced during the lifecycle of a vehicle. If an EV needs two lithium-batteries over its life, is it still cleaner than an ICE vehicle?
Yes, even then, EVs still produce fewer GHG emissions. According to TD’s report, a second battery doesn’t change overall lifecycle emissions very much. “Even the inclusion of a battery replacement only reduces the emission savings by a small margin (Chart 3),” Seitlheko found.
Compared to an ICE SUV, an electric SUV’s lifecycle emissions are 76 per cent lower on average in Canada. If the battery is replaced once, it drops to 68 per cent, but it’s still much cleaner than its ICE equivalent.
What About Electricity Generation? If the Grid is Dirty, Are EVs Still Cleaner?
Again, yes. Sticking with the example of the two SUVs — ICE and EV — in the TD Bank report, it’s clear that even in places where electricity generation is fossil fuel-based, the electric SUV is still cleaner over its lifecycle.
“Using SUVs as an example, BEV lifecycle emissions are 76 per cent lower on average at the national level compared to gasoline SUVs,” Seitlheko’s research found. “Regionally, the savings range from 25 per cent in Nunavut, which generates power from petroleum, to 78 to 83 per cent in the regions that generate most of their electricity from hydroelectric facilities (i.e., Quebec, Manitoba, British Columbia, Newfoundland and Labrador,and Yukon). Emissions savings are also around 80 per cent in Ontario.”
That’s a lot.
Even in a worst-case scenario where you have a big, expensive electric SUV with a big lithium-ion battery being driven in a region like Nunavut where electricity comes from petroleum, the report found it still produces fewer (roughly 75 grams of CO2e per km fewer) lifecycle emissions than a big ICE SUV.
A Clear Picture
In both recent Canadian light-duty vehicle LCA reports discussed above, the findings are crystal clear and line up with similar research done in other countries dating back more than a decade. For example, this comprehensive 2015 review of multiple LCA studies by U.S. researchers published in a peer-reviewed academic journal concluded that, “many LCAs have been published, and all suggest EVs have the capability to reduce GHG emissions compared to gasoline vehicles.”
Still, there are surprisingly few publicly available LCA studies done on light-duty vehicles in Canada, and more research would certainly help. “There isn't a whole lot in Canada,” said Seitlheko. “That's sort of the reason why we decided to do the paper.”
