Electric Vehicle Myths | US EPA

EV Facts

Myth #1: Electric vehicles are worse for the climate than gasoline cars because of power plant emissions.

Myth #2: Electric vehicles are worse for the climate than gasoline cars because of battery manufacturing.

Myth #3: Electric vehicle batteries are unreliable and need to be replaced every few years.

Myth #4: The increase in electric vehicles entering the market will collapse the U.S. power grid.

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Myth #5: There is nowhere to charge.

Myth #6: Electric vehicles don’t have enough range to handle daily travel demands.

Myth #7: Electric vehicles are not as safe as comparable gasoline vehicles.

1 U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA): Renewables became the second-most prevalent U.S. electricity source in 2020. ↵

2 Electric vehicles (combined): Where the Energy Goes: Electric Cars. Gasoline vehicles (combined): Where the Energy Goes: Gasoline Vehicles ↵

3 Assumptions: EV with 300-mile range; vehicle lifetime of 173,151 miles for both EV and gas car; 30.7 MPG gas car; and U.S. average grid emissions. ↵

4Recurrent, New Study: How Long Do Electric Car Batteries Last?, Liz Najman, March 27, 2023. ↵

5 Department of Energy (DOE), Federal Energy Management Program, Bidirectional Charging and Electric Vehicles for Mobile Storage. ↵

6 U.S. Driving Research and Innovation for Vehicle Efficiency and Energy Sustainability (USDRIVE), Summary Report on EVs at Scale and the U.S. Electric Power System (pdf) (706 KB, November 2019); and DOE, Electric Vehicles at Scale – Phase I Analysis: High EV Adoption Impacts on the Western U.S. Power Grid (pdf) (15.3 MB, July 2020). ↵

7 Nature Energy, Charging infrastructure access and operation to reduce the grid impacts of deep electric vehicle adoption, September 22, 2022. ↵

8 E & E News: Renewable Energy, Why Electric Vehicles Won’t Break the Grid, September 19, 2022. ↵

9 U.S. Energy Information Administration, 2020 Residential Energy Consumption Survey, Detailed end-use consumption and expenditure estimates, Tables CE5.3a (pdf) (436 KB) & CE5.3b (pdf) (371 KB) June 2023. ↵

10 U.S. Department of Transportation, Federal Highway Administration, NextGen Origin-Destination Data Products, accessed June 28, 2024. ↵

11 AAA Electric Vehicle Range Testing Report (pdf) (7.3 MB, February 2019) ↵