There's no question that there is a significant environmental impact, and challenge, in the ramp up of EV vehicles. We only have one lithium mine in the US, in Nevada. The mining uses a huge amount of water and has a really significant environmental impact. All energy sources are a trade off of environmental impact vs. good, and the under-publicized part of the EV vehicle trend is the lithium ion batteries, where the lithium comes from, how quickly mining and battery production can be ramped up. I'm less concerned with battery disposal, they are quickly finding ways to make them more recyclable.
From my reading I find that most calculations lead to showing a 1/3 advantage with EV cars when evaluating cradle to grave of EV vs. IC. Some claim a 2/3 advantage but from what I've seen that is simply evaluating miles/gallon fuel use and not the complete picture. To me, 1/3 is a huge factor, there are not a lot of technologies that improve on older tech by 33%.
I don't think the push toward EV is a sham, or smoke and mirrors, or anything like that. The environmental gains are real. As mentioned in prior posts we have to have eyes open to where the electricity is coming from, where the batteries and lithium are coming from, but I'm convinced of the overall advantage.
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