Sustainability 2015, 7, 1-x manuscripts; doi:10.

3390/su70x000x
OPEN ACCESS

sustainability
ISSN 2071-1050
www.mdpi.com/journal/sustainability
Review

The Truth behind Sustainable Transportation

Received: / Accepted: / Published:

Abstract: There are a plethora of new environmentally friendly transportation options on

the market. These new transportation methods are all cars. Are consumers just supposed
to take the word of the manufacturers that these new technologies are better for the
environment and more sustainable? There needs to be some substantial data to prove their
claims. Are the new hybrid, plug in hybrid, electric, hydrogen fuel cell, and solar powered
cars actually more sustainable? Do they release fewer emissions to warrant any actual
change? When the batteries of these new sustainable cars need to be disposed of, are they
done in the correct manner? The good news is that the answer to most all of these
questions is positive. For the most part, the new alternative fuel cars live up to all the hype
they have created.
Keywords: hybrid; plug in hybrid; electric; emissions

1. Introduction
Cars have changed throughout the course of our history. The environment has changed even more.
Over the course of millions of years, Earth has changed from a molten planet, to an ice planet and most
recently, a habitable planet full of life. Earth is full of plants, animals, and humans. Humans have
made countless discoveries which have led to even more inventions. It is possible that one of the best
inventions for all of humans, the car, has become one of the worst inventions for the environment. It is
important to note, however, that through the lifespan of the automobile industry, there have been
countless changes, some of which are now trying to reverse, slow down, or even eliminate the
problems that they have caused for our planet.
2. Background
The first gas powered car was invented in the late 1800s, however for the sake of this analysis, the
beginning of the mass marketing of cars will be used as the beginning point of this history timeline.

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The first mass produced car was the Model T which was invented by Henry Ford in 1908(Mahmassani,
2012). The Model T had an average initial MPG (miles per gallon) of 17 (Ford Model T, 2015)
whereas the MPG of the gas powered cars for 2016 are required to have a minimum average MPG of
37.8 (How Automakers Will Meet 2016 CAFE Standards, 2010). Before the Clean Air Act was
passed in 1970, the cars of the United States were, for the most part, unregulated. There were no
restrictions on the manufacturing process nor on the emissions that were emitted form cars. Since the
implementation of the Clean Air Act, there have been many more pieces of legislation that have been
passed in order to ensure that the automobile industry does not continue to harm the environment
nearly as much as it has in the past. Some of these pieces of legislation include but are not limited to
Vehicle Fuel Economy Testing in 1971, Auto Maintenance Regulation in 1973, and Lead Gasoline
Phase Out in 1973 (EPA History, 2015). Not only was legislation created to help ensure the safety of
the environment, but the legislation also benefited human health.
Over the years there has been a slow shift in the car industry. When stricter regulation and consumer
demand has called for a change, the car makers responded. Cars that are more environmentally
friendly are slowly picking up popularity. As of June 2015, 37 states are even incentivizing the
purchase of a clean air vehicle (Hartman, 2015). According to Hartman, in most cases, it is cheaper to
get from point A to point B in a fuel efficient vehicle than it is to get there in a gasoline powered car.
Some examples of these fuel efficient cars are hybrids, plug in hybrids, electric, hydrogen fuel cell,
and solar cars. All of these cars are supposed to be better for the environment. The question is, are
they really better for the environment or are their hazards just shifted to a different part of their
makeup?
The first of the fuel efficient cars that will be discussed is the hybrid car. The hybrid car was first
widely available in 1997. This hybrid is called the Toyota Prius and it had an initial MPG of 46
(Comparison of Toyota hybrids, 2015). Today the 2016 Toyota Prius is said to have an average MPG
of 55 with a combined MPG of over 100. At the time of its creation, the Prius was seen as an
innovative car. Over the years, the hybrid technology has become more and more efficient. The
premise of the hybrid car is that at low speeds or when stopped, the car runs on electricity. When the
car is running at a higher speed, which is more fuel efficient, the car runs on gasoline. When the car
runs on gas, the car simultaneously charges its battery so when it slows or stops, it is able to draw the
energy from the battery. The hybrid market has seen an increase in competition. In 1997 there was
one hybrid car in production, the Prius, today there are around 4 different hybrid cars per car brand.
The second of the fuel efficient cars that will be discussed is the plug in hybrid car. The history of the
plug in hybrid car is much shorter. The first mass produced plug in hybrid for the United States was
the Chevrolet Volt which was released in 2010 (Plug-in Hybrid, 2015). The general way that a plug in
hybrid car functions is that at lower speeds the car runs only on electricity. Once the car is going fast
enough, the car will switch to gasoline. The second way a plug in hybrid car can work is that it runs
only on electricity until the battery runs out at which point the car switches to only gasoline. In order
to recharge the battery, the car must be plugged into an electric charging station or an electrical outlet
(How Do Plug-in Hybrid Electric Cars Work?, n.d.). Although plug in hybrid cars are growing in

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popularity, they are currently not as popular as the conventional hybrid car. The average MPG of a
plug in hybrid is 45. There are currently only 17 plug in hybrid cars being manufactured however not
all of them are priced for the average consumer (Cars, 2015).
The third of the fuel efficient cars that will be discussed is the electric car. The first electric car was
invented in 1834 (Bruno G. Pollet et al., 2012) yet the electric car was not mass produced until the
Nissan Leaf came onto the market in 2010 (Nissan Leaf, 2015). Although Tesla was releasing all
electric cars as far back as 2008, they were not affordable to the average consumer. According to the
Environmental News Network, the United States leads the world in the number of electric cars;
capturing 41% of the global market. Electric cars operate solely on electricity. Once the batteries are
depleted, the car must be charged in order to run again. In 2010 the Leaf had an approximate MPG-E
of 99 or 80 miles of travel time (Voelcker, 2010). Today most all electric cars have a range of just over
100 miles of travel time with the exception of Tesla whose cars have over 200 miles of travel time. In
approximately five years-time, the number of electric cars being produced has increased to 14 different
cars (Cars, 2015). Of the fuel efficient cars, the electric cars appear to be the most expensive.
The fourth of the fuel efficient cars that will be discussed is the hydrogen fuel cell car. Hydrogen fuel
cell cars are still few and far between and most all of them are currently in the design and production
stage. Since these cars are still in their production and testing stages and hydrogen fuel cells are such a
new technology for cars, it is understandable that these cars are priced at 2-3 times a normal car,
making this new and clean technology unaffordable to the mass consumer market. There are not
currently any hydrogen fuel cell cars for sale yet Toyota is taking orders for their hydrogen fuel cell
vehicle; the Mirai. The Mirai has been released on several occasions in the NASCAR system. The
Mirai will be able to travel approximately 300 miles before it has to change out its canisters of
compressed fuel (Riofrio, 2015).
The fifth and final of the fuel efficient cars that will be discussed is the solar powered car. Of the fuel
efficient cars, the solar car is the most difficult to come by. Solar cars are not currently made for mass
consumption, rather, they are essentially made to prove it can be done, for research, and for contests.
In 2014 Ford announced that it was in the process of creating a C-MAX Solar Energi for mass
consumption and everyday use (Let the Sun in: Ford C-Max Solar Energi Concept Goes Off the Grid,
Gives Glimpse of Clean Vehicle Future, 2014). Solar powered cars are straight forward in terms of
use. The solar photovoltaic cells on the car capture the energy from the sun which in turn directly
powers the car. The light energy from the sun is the gasoline. There is no need to charge the car or fill
it with gas. Although Ford has the intention of releasing a mass consumption solar powered car, it is
safe to presume that based on the pricing of other environmentally friendly car technologies, that the
solar powered car will be expensive; at least in the beginning.

3. Results and Discussion

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Since the invention and mass use of cars, the impacts on our environment have been drastic.
According to the EPA the majority of greenhouse gas emissions from transportation are CO2 emissions
resulting from the combustion of petroleum-based products, like gasoline, and internal combustion.
The EPA also found that over 25% of the greenhouse gasses released into the atmosphere in the United
States in 2013 were from transportation alone (Projected Greehouse Gas Emissions, 2010). According
to the United States Department of State US Climate Action Report, the greenhouse gas emissions
have increased from 63 to 74 from 2010 to 2015. The State Department further projects the
greenhouse gas emissions to increase from 74 to 86 from 2015 to 2020.
3.1. Greenhouse Gas Emissions
With the invention of these new technologies comes the question of what are the impacts. How much
of a reduction of emissions is there with the fuel efficient vehicles? Are there new or extra parts in
these cars that are more dangerous than the emissions that are released from gas powered cars? Is the
disposal of these parts regulated or are they, too, harming the environment? Can the invention and
production of these new technologies disprove the projections of scientists and actually lead to a
decrease in greenhouse gasses?
3.1.1. Emissions Comparison
One of the first items that should be looked into is how different are the emissions from gas powered
cars to hybrid, plug in hybrid, electric, and hydrogen fuel cell cars? Are these results large enough to
actually make a difference? According to Meisterling and Samaras, plug in hybrid electric cars were
found to have reduced greenhouse gas emissions by 38-41% over gas powered cars and reduced
greenhouse gas emissions by 7-12% over regular hybrid cars. Additionally it was found that plug in
hybrid cars reduce the lifecycle of greenhouse gas emissions by 32% compared to gas cars however
when compared to regular hybrid cars, there was only a minimal reduction. According to Mahmassani
and Anair, electric cars that charge entirely from renewable sources like wind and solar power produce
virtually no global warming emissions, and electric cars can produce lower emissions than even the
most fuel-efficient hybrids. These measurements take into account that the emissions would be from
the charging stations and not necessarily directly from the car. The US Department of Energy found
that emissions from hydrogen fuel cell cars are not a concern for air quality. They also found that
hydrogen's effects on petroleum use and using hydrogen as a fuel reduced petroleum use by nearly
100% regardless of fuel pathway (Alternative Fuels Data Center, 2013). These results lead to the
conclusion that the alternative fuel cars that were analyzed had a significantly reduced level of carbon
emissions which over time could have a large impact on our greenhouse gas reduction goals.

3.2. New Technologies Come with New Parts

With the creation of new fuel efficient technologies in cars, it is evident that there are new parts in
these cars or that there are in increase in the number or size of some of the parts in the existing cars.
Take the hybrid, plug in hybrid, electric, solar, and hydrogen fuel cell cars for example. To allow all of

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these cars to be able to run on electricity, there was a significant increase in the battery size and/or
number of batteries contained in each car. Etacheri et al noted that hybrid cars require a minimum of
60kg of batteries, the plug in hybrid requires 60kg to 200kg of batteries, and the electric car requires at
least 450kg of batteries in order to operate and have a reasonable storage capacity (Etacheri et al.,
2011).
3.2.1. Types of Batteries
With the need for energy storage in hybrid, plug in hybrid, electric, solar, and hydrogen fuel cell cars
comes the need for larger or more batteries per car. Additionally, when a battery is charged and
depleted more frequently it tends to ware out. What are these car batteries made of? What happens to
all of these batteries? Are they properly disposed of? Do they cause a threat to the environment or
other wildlife? How are they regulated? What are the penalties for not following the regulations?
These are all questions that need to have a clear answer.
The first question to answer is what are car batteries made of? There are two main types of car
batteries and they are the lithium ion battery and the nickel metal hydride battery. According to
Scrosati et al. there is also a very promising alternative source provided by the lithium sulfur cell
battery. There is no need to have doubts about the supply of lithium to sustain the manufacturing of
these batteries as new deposits are still being discovered which amount to several hundred thousands
of megatonnes (Scrosati et al., 2011). However, Etacheri et al. found that hydrogen fuel cell cars
would have the most promise for energy storage but the hydrogen fuel cell cars are not as practical due
to operation and hydrogen storage issues. For this reason Etacheri et al. concludes that the lithium ion
battery is the only reasonable energy density life cycle for electric car application. They also found
that the nickel metal hydride battery is not as effective because it has about half of the energy density
that the lithium ion battery does (Etacheri et al., 2011). Like Scrosati et al., Etacheri et al. also believes
in the future of the lithium sulfur cell battery.
3.2.2. Lithium Ion Batteries
Since the lithium ion battery is the most common and has the longest future at the moment, it will be
analyzed in terms of makeup and potential environmental damage. The main components of the
lithium ion battery are the anode, cathode, electrolyte, and separator. These components contain
lithium metal oxide, graphite powder, lithium salts, organic solvents, aluminum current collector, and
micro-porous membranes. (Lowe et al., 2010). The way the battery works it that the lithium ions
move between an anode and a cathode on either side, which creates an electric flow (Lowe et al.,
2010). Some of the other components in the lithium ion battery include poly vinylidene fluoride,
nickel manganese cobalt, carbon black, and polyethylene or polypropylene.
Many of the materials that are found in the lithium ion batteries are safe for disposal (Lithium-ion
Battery Overview, 2012). However there are some individual exceptions to this. According to Wood,
graphite powder has long lived radioisotopes which are capable of entering the environment therefore
in order to properly dispose of the graphite powder in batteries the graphite powder needs to be sealed

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in a container that provides a barrier to the outside environment (Wood, 2006). According to
Contestable there are detailed guidelines as to how to dispose of lithium ion batteries. There are ways
that some of the components can be recycled. First, the different parts of the battery must be sorted.
All of the pieces are held together with the exception of the aluminum current collector. When the
pieces are separated, this allows of the precious metals to be recovered first. The powders must be
separated and reused for another product. For lithium batteries that are over 9 voles, as all car batteries
are, they must be taped on the outside to prevent a fire while they are in transportation (Proper
Disposal of Batteries, n.d.). Although many of the metals found in lithium ion batteries are toxic, they
are not toxic enough to require a hazardous materials disposal. According to Deutsche Bank between
2010 and 2020 the majority of hybrid, plug in hybrid, and electric cars will switch from nickel metal
hydride batteries to lithium ion batteries.

3.2.3. Nickel Metal Hydride Batteries

When it comes to nickel metal hydride car batteries, the case is quite different. The components of the
nickel metal hydride car battery are much more environmentally intensive (Majeau-Bettez et al.,
2011). The nickel metal hydride car battery is made up of rare earth metals and contains other
elements such as nickel and lanthanum. A heavy metal such as nickel can lead to adverse health
effects with prolonged exposure. These components also require special disposal. For example, the
alternative metals used as current collectors were found to be especially environmentally
consequential. As a whole the nickel metal hydride battery is not allowed to be disposed of in a
regular manner and it is not easily recyclable. Additionally, the production of the nickel metal hydride
batteries has a larger global warming potential than the production of the lithium ion battery (Singh et
al., 2011). According to the Hill et al., some companies such as Honda have begun to attempt to
recycle and reuse older hybrid car batteries. More specifically they are taking the rare earth metals
from the nickel metal hydride batteries and putting them into new nickel metal hydride batteries. In
such as case, every little bit helps to save on costs and resources for the consumer and manufacture
alike.

4. Conclusions
The point of this review was to assess whether or not the new environmentally conscious alternative
fuel cars are actually better for the environment than conventional gas cars. Some of the questions that
were answered during this analysis include are they really better for the environment or are their
hazards just shifted to a different part of their makeup, how much of a reduction of emission is there on
the fuel efficient vehicles, are there new or extra parts in these cars that are more dangerous than the
emissions that are released from gas powered cars, is the disposal of these parts regulated or are they,
too, harming the environment, and can the invention and production of these new technologies
disprove the projections of scientists and actually lead to a decrease in greenhouse gasses. However,

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the most important of these questions is are alternative fuel vehicles such as hybrids, plug in hybrids,
electric, hydrogen fuel cell, and solar powered cars better for the environment than gas powered cars?
It was found that for the most part, these alternative fuel cars really are better for the environment. In
all but one case their emission were either reduced or eliminated altogether. This is true for both new
technology parts and also for their emissions released both directly and indirectly. The one exception
for this was the cars that run on the nickel metal hydride batteries. The problem in these cars was the
actual nickel metal hydride battery. This battery was found to be composed of heavy Earth metals and
other unfavorable components which if used incorrectly could lead to adverse health effects. The
nickel metal hydride batteries should follow the strict instructions for safe disposal.
Additionally, it was found that there could be up to a 100% reduction in emissions for the new
alternative fuel cars if they did the right things. For a 100% reduction in emissions, one would have to
have an electric powered car which is charged only with renewable energy such as wind power or solar
power. Other emission reductions were in the 50% or more range for hybrid and hybrid electric cars.
As to the question about whether new or increased number of parts had an effect on emissions, once
again the answer is for the most part no. The exception to this would once again be the nickel metal
hydride batteries which should be avoided at all costs in the production of alternative fuel cars. Since
most of the parts on these alternative energy cars are not dangerous, they do not follow any stricter
regulations than those followed by conventional gas cars.
Most important of all, is the question of can the invention and production of these new technologies
disprove the projections of scientists and actually lead to a decrease in greenhouse gasses? The answer
is that it is possible. Although current projections show that through 2020 greenhouse gasses will
continue to increase, the EPA model did not predict beyond 2020. With an increase in the number of
hybrid, plug in hybrid, and electric cars being sold and a future market for mass consumption hydrogen
fuel cell and solar powered cars, there will be a significant decrease in the greenhouse gasses emitted
from these cars. It is certain that purchasing an alternative fuel car will lead to a reduction in
greenhouse gas emissions.
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