Does a diesel car emit less CO2 than an electric one? A 5 million euros question…

It’s clear that we are going through a period of particular activity of the climate denial movement. For some people it’s a new threatening wave of contrast to scientific knowledge, but it’s probably the swan song with which all the last desperate forces are called to court to try at least to slow the wave of (although slow) transition in act.

One of the new fronts that has created more discussion and instilled greater doubts is linked to mobility, in which there is a tendency to contrast the ever greater, and inexorable, spread of electric mobility.
In fact, news has come from many parties that diesel would emit less CO₂ per km travelled.

Truth or mystification?

This is a false news, as a study by the RSE (Ricerca Sistema Energetico) explains very clearly and concisely, which obviously takes into account the entire life cycle of the car, including the production and disposal of the fateful batteries.

Some conditions, such as the generalization of studies conducted in Germany (where the energy mix is largely composed of coal), the comparison between cars with different performance and the reduction of the effective useful life considered for electric cars, lead to question the clear advantage of the electric car. But these are particular situations that do not reflect the reality nowadays and which will become increasingly anachronistic, considering the growing diffusion of energy production from renewable sources.

It should be clear, the transition to the electric cannot be considered the universal remedy for mobility, because the greater diffusion of public mobility and soft mobility (pedestrian and bicycle) remain the imperatives of every public administration to achieve more sustainable mobility, but it doesn’t make sense to question it in favor of an engine (diesel) which is destined to end soon in museums.

Technicians in this sector claim, in fact, that the greater wave of communication in favor of diesel is due to the urgent need of the automotive sector to fund warehouse stocks, because from 2020, and even more from 2021, the new emission limits will indeed knock out the combustion engines more and more and boost hybrid and electric. You could ask for confirmation of these new trends, for example, to Mercedes, which has decided to lay off 10,000 employees due to the delay in investments in the electric car sector.

Throughout this debate, the news of the 5 million euro fine that the Antitrust Authority has issued to ENI cannot go unnoticed because “it presented a highly polluting diesel as green”. The motivation is related to the misleading advertising messages in which diesel was associated with the word “green”.

In this case it is not a comparison with the electric engine, but it is still part of a system that tends to attribute a low environmental impact to diesel mobility.