Remember that old episode of South Park that caused everyone to rip on Toyota Prius drivers? It personified folks who bought hybrids as egotists who bought green cars for bragging rights.
Then electric vehicles came around, and everybody in Hollywood began purchasing Teslas (for a good few years, anyway.). And finally, there are the outliers who just love to rip around in a car with instant torque—guilty as charged. Whatever the reason for buying an EV, it's hard to deny that it's better for the environment over the entire lifespan of the car. And a new study has shown us exactly how much better they truly are.
Welcome back to Critical Materials, your daily roundup for all things electric and tech in the automotive space. In today's edition, new data indicates EVs are responsible for 73% (or more) fewer total emissions than gas-powered cars.
Plus, Tesla investors tell its board to hurry up and set a date for its overdue annual shareholders meeting and Ford is ready to sell a lot of EVs ahead of the tax credit deadline. Let's jump in.
30%: EVs Produce 73% Fewer Emissions—Yes, Even Including Battery Production: Study
Good news if you like breathing: it turns out that EVs are actually even more environmentally-friendly than originally thought. A new study from the International Council on Clean Transportation (ICCT) follows an EV from the cradle to the grave and boldly claims that, on average, EVs produce 73% fewer emissions over the vehicle's lifespan versus gasoline counterparts.
I know what you're thinking: "But what about battery production, and all that jazz?" The study—which primarily focuses on passenger cars sold in Europe—already has you covered. See, it takes the broader picture of an EV into account, looking at the pollution created in the manufacturing of every component. That means assessing the car from the time the first battery cell rolls off the production line until it gets recycled in a black mass slurry.
Now, let's be clear. Yes, EVs have higher production emissions. In fact, the study found that EVs produce 40% higher emissions during the initial production of the vehicle and its components. Recently, Toyota's chairman made comments that went viral when he indicated that EVs would've created significantly more emissions than hybrids if they were made in Japan, due to that country's reliance on fossil fuels for energy sources.
But the real winning comes from the prolonged service life of EVs. After the first 10,500 miles (about 17,000 kilometers), EVs crossed the critical threshold where the lack of tailpipe emissions quickly outpaced the increased output of gas-powered cars.
Not enough? Well, never fear, because this study also takes into account the production of the electricity used to charge the EV's battery over its lifetime. In fact, the study found that if a car was only charged with electricity generated from renewable energy, the overall emissions savings increased to a whopping 78%.
The study also looked at the hybrids that have become increasingly popular in the U.S. According to the ICCT, those also have a measurable impact on lowering emissions (though not nearly as much as pure battery-electric cars).
The study shows that plug-in hybrids produced about 30% fewer emissions over a lifetime of use than a purely gas car, while mild hybrids produced 20% fewer. And just for fun, natural-gas powered vehicles were also evaluated and produced around 13% less than gas-powered cars.
For anyone following EVs over the past decade, this should probably come as no surprise. Sure, EVs take more upfront emissions to produce. However, it's arguably easier to regulate and track the emissions produced by a limited number of factories than it is to estimate every single car out there—especially as folks have free will to mod (or neglect) their combustion-powered car into an inefficient machine that turns dollars into carbon monoxide, hybrocarbons and other volatile organic compounds.
So remember to pack these two coffin nails with you for the holidays this year when you're gathering around the family dinner table and the annual rounds of anti-EV propaganda crop up. Because as long as that EV of yours makes it past 10,000 miles, it would seem that you're already in the green.
60%: Investors Tell Tesla Board To Set A Date For Its Overdue Annual Meeting
Tesla investors have some pretty thick skin, but their patience is quickly growing thin. Despite all of the turmoil over the company's CEO during the last year and a stock that's down nearly 40% from its peak in December, investors still have confidence that Tesla can pull out of its tailspin. After all, many don't see Tesla as just another automaker.
A group of nearly 30 major shareholders has written a letter that calls on Tesla to set a date for its annual shareholder meeting, something that it's nearly a month late on doing. And if Tesla doesn't budge, the investors are well within their rights to call on the Texas courts to make it happen.
Update: Soon after we published this, we learned via a Securities and Exchange Commission filing that Tesla's annual meeting will be set for Nov. 6. The original story follows below.
Automotive News reports:
A group of 27 major Tesla Inc. shareholders urged the electric automaker’s board to set a date for its annual shareholder meeting this year, citing legal obligations and growing governance concerns.
Tesla is close to missing a legal deadline and has not announced this year’s meeting, the group consisting of U.S. state treasurers, pension funds and governance experts said in a letter.
“Tesla’s ongoing silence on the AGM is cause for concern,” they said against the backdrop of mounting scrutiny of over CEO Elon Musk’s political ambitions and the automaker’s falling sales and stock price.
The deadline that these investors are talking about falls under the Texas Business Organizations Code, which requires all publicly-traded corporations headquartered in the state to hold an annual shareholder meeting at least once every 13 months. Tesla's last meeting was on June 13, 2024, which means that the automaker is just three days from being out of compliance with the Code.
If Tesla's board fails to set this date, shareholders could petition the court to effectively force Tesla's board to set a date for the annual meeting.
Tesla did warn investors in April that it would be late in filing its annual proxy statement; however, it wasn't clear just how late it would be in doing so. The uncertainty is what's really irking investors right now, especially as sales continue to fall and a special committee continues to internally evaluate how CEO Elon Musk's multi-billion-dollar compensation package can be reworked after being repeatedly rejected by a Delaware judge.
Musk, distracted by politics over the last year, promised that he would dedicate more time to Tesla during one of the company's previous quarterly earnings calls. However, the damage to the brand's image had already been done, and Musk's feud with U.S. President Donald Trump escalated to the point where he is now pledging to spin up a new political party. Needless to say, investors are clearly worried that the company's CEO isn't where he needs to be during a time when leadership is so desperately needed.
90%: Ford's EV Fire Sale Has Begun
The summer of 2025 is when Ford enters its inflatable tube man era. No, I don't mean that Ford is suddenly spinning up a network of shady buy-here-pay-here lots, but the Blue Oval is looking to offload a lot of cars very, very quickly—and it needs to grab the public's attention to do just that (just without some weird dude spinning a sign out front of the showroom).
Enter: "Zero, Zero, Zero," the brand's latest campaign to offload as many electric cars as it can before the federal EV tax credit ends in September. And as the name might suggest, there's a lot of zeros to be had in the deal; zero dollars down, zero interest on the loan, and zero money owed for at least 90 days after taking delivery.
It's a good deal, especially when the automaker is willing to give you a free EV charger and cover installation if you take delivery before the EV tax credit expires.
Okay, technically, the brand is extending this offer throughout its fleet regardless of powertrain. Its focus is on making its vehicles more accessible to American families feeling the economic pressure, especially as the average transaction price of vehicles creeps higher and one-in-five new car buyers are paying more than $1,000 per month for their auto loans. That's probably not the best indication that folks should be buying a new car right now, but it's definitely a reason why Ford would be offering heavy incentives to combat potentially weakening sales.
There's something else looming in the shadows that Ford also needs to combat: the end of the EV tax credit. Essentially, all of Ford's qualifying EVs are set to become $7,500 more expensive in the eyes of many American buyers in less than three months. That will likely make the end-of-year push for EV sales something for the record books, and not in a good way.
To make matters worse, Ford's EV sales are already hurting this year. They're down 31% year-over-year in the second quarter and nearly 12% overall in 2025.
The good news is that if you are in the market for a new EV (especially one with a big blue oval on the front), now seems like the time to buy
100%: Are Automakers Just King Of Winging The Whole EV Thing Right Now?
The Great American EV Strategy seems to be falling apart. The tax credit? Gone. Federal subsidies and tax breaks for expanding the charging network? Flushed. And clean energy? Well, it's not being propped up by dirty taxpayer funding, that's for sure.
In the past few weeks, we've watched America quietly bow out of the global race for EV supremacy. It's not just American automakers, either, but any global brand that does business in America, especially without taxpayer funding propping up the growing market, brands are becoming visibly shaken as they look for new ways to prop up electrified sales before they come crashing down in Q4.
It's fair to wonder: are American automakers still playing to win, or is everyone in a suit pretty much shrugging and throwing strategies at the wall to see what sticks? It seems almost like no strategy is the best strategy during a time when tariffs can about-face thanks to a post on social media, but maybe—just maybe—there's a plan hiding behind the curtain.
