If you’re looking for one more compelling argument for the urgency of transitioning towards electrified means of transportation, consider the findings of a recent study, which confirm that the widespread adoption of electric cars is going to save thousands of lives and billions of dollars.
Conducted by researchers at Northwestern University, the study combined climate modeling with public health data in an effort to evaluate the impact of electric cars on the US lives and the economy.
According to the study, under the scenario where electric cars replace 25 percent of the current combustion-engine car fleet in the US, it would save around $17 billion each year by avoiding damages from climate change and air pollution.
Under another scenario where EVs make 75 percent of total cars, along with more renewable energy on the grid, those savings could balloon to $70 billion a year, all while avoiding hundreds of thousands of premature deaths associated with air pollution from diesel-burning cars.
“From an engineering and technological standpoint, people have been developing solutions to climate change for years. But we need to rigorously assess these solutions. This study presents a nuanced look at EVs and energy generation and found that EV adoption not only reduces greenhouse gases but saves lives,” noted senior author of the study Daniel Horton.
