Most people know Daimler for its most famous brand, Mercedes-Benz. But the company that invented the combustion-engined car goes beyond the three-point star logo. As a pioneer, it is concerned about CO2 emissions. And it realized the EQC – its first production fully electric car – can reduce them by 70 percent through its lifecycle, calculated in 200,000 km.
Gallery: The Mercedes-Benz EQC Can Reduce Carbon Emissions By More Than 70 Percent
The car can go much further than that, as the ICE vehicles it produces also live beyond the 300,000 km it set as a measuring standard. But the fact is that, from production to recycling, the EQC can generate 17.2 tons of carbon dioxide in the best-case scenario. A GLK 350, which had no hybrid option, produced 67.2 tons of the gas.
More Daimler EV News:If you do the math, you’ll see that the EQC reduces the CO2 emission by 74.4 percent. That makes Daimler pretty conservative in saying that it saves only 70 percent.
The company also says that the EQC’s production emits more carbon dioxide because “battery cell production, in particular, requires a great deal of energy.” It is a pity it does not inform how much more CO2 an electric car production produces when compared to an ICE vehicle. Perhaps Daimler could include that in its future sustainability reports.
In the GLC file, the German automaker says the GLC 350 produces just 37.9 tons of CO2 in its lifecycle because it would be a plug-in hybrid, but we missed how much regular versions of this model generate in terms of CO2. Daimler informs just the numbers of the GLK, an SUV that was replaced by the GLC.
If the EQC is powered by the current EU electricity mix, it generates 32.4 tons of carbon dioxide. Much more than it would with renewable energy sources, such as hydropower, solar, or wind generation. Yet, it is still 51.8 percent cleaner than an equivalent ICE vehicle.
That says so much about the benefits of owning an electric vehicle that we do not even need to mention how energy efficient they are. All that with the power generation as it is today, and it is clearly evolving. Isn’t the future bright and promising?