Electric Vehicles

Did Twitter CEO Elon Musk tweet that Tesla, his electric-vehicle and sustainable-energy company, was forced to recall its entire fleet? No, that's not true: The tweet was posted by a parody account impersonating Musk, the CEO of Tesla. The parody tweet (archived here) was published on December 22, 2022. It read: Tesla has just been informed by the NHTSA that…

Did Switzerland ban electric vehicles "due to their excessive energy use" on December 7, 2022? No, that's not true: The country only discussed a draft of legislation that suggested that electric car use might be limited to essential activities such as driving to work or visiting doctors -- but only in the hypothetical case of the most serious energy supply…

Will the state of California need to use more fossil fuels than usual to power electric vehicles to achieve its goal of going green? No, that's not true: A representative from the California Department of Energy said this claim was false, and that the state is committed to ensuring energy reliability during its clean energy transition. They expect that fossil…

Did a 2010 video "expose" climate change "fanatics" by proving that General Motors (GM) admitted that electricity for its hybrid car the Volt came 95 percent from coal? No, that's not true: The video is being used misleadingly and as of 2021, more utilities use natural gas than anything else. The GM Chevrolet Volt (which is no longer made) in…

Did California ask electric vehicle owners to avoid charging their cars during a strain on the power grid? Not really: Although the California Independent System Operator (ISO) has encouraged consumers to adjust their electricity usage during a potential power grid strain, the suggestion is not a call to avoid electricity altogether. The claim appeared in a Facebook post (archived here)…

Are electric vehicles (EVs) bad for the environment? Yes, that's partially true: Two experts in the field have looked over the claim for Lead Stories and come to two different conclusions. One believes the claim is accurate, while the other says that while parts of it are true, other parts were false and misleading. Some parts of the claim may…

Are electric vehicles having a negative effect on all societies around the world? No, that's not true: The Nature article that the Facebook user links to as support doesn't even agree with the user's claims that electric vehicles (EVs) do more harm than good. The math is correct, but the conclusion the Facebook user came to is not justified. The…

Is the October 2021 backlog of cargo ships off Los Angeles' harbors caused by the "California truck ban"? No, that is not true: Multiple organizations in the supply chain have confirmed the long wait times at the Los Angeles and Long Beach ports are due to a shortage of drivers, a burst of global shipping and other factors. The truck…

Is the Biden administration implementing a per-mile "driving tax" that would charge U.S. drivers an estimated eight cents per mile? No, that's not true: The Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, which has not passed at the time of writing, only details a pilot program for a vehicle-miles traveled fee (VMT fee). Additional legislation would have to be passed to implement…

Is the carbon footprint of mining the materials for electric car batteries greater than the carbon footprint of one year's U.S. air travel, are those batteries impossible to recycle and is this proof electric vehicles are worse for the planet than internal combustion vehicles? No, that's not true: The claims are made without providing credible sources of information. Plus, it…