Is Keeping Your Old Car Better For The Environment?

What Hacker News said

Recommends farisjarrah · 2021-09 · on “Tesla pushes U.S. to boost fuel economy penalties”

Engineering Explained youtube channel tackled this question: [this video] The verdict appears to be that the answer to this question is a bit more complicated then a blanket "Its better to buy a new car for the environment" but its highly dependent on gas milage and time of ownership, as well as new gas car vs new hybrid car vs new electric car. He does take into account carbon needed to build the cars too. It seems that in most cases a new EV will be better for the environment then your 10 year old honda in roughly 4 years. Skip to 6 minutes in the video for when he starts showing compiled data of when its better to buy a new car vs keep old.

Recommends widdershins · 2021-10 · on “The race to grab all the UK’s lithium before it’s too late”

A video I watched recently comes to a very different conclusion on almost every point you raised: that buying a new electric car is better for the environment within ~5 years of use, taking into account the 'new car' footprint. I'm not an expert, so I won't claim to know who's correct. But the linked video provides lots of numbers, and you didn't, so I lean in favour of that conclusion. [this video]

Cites eptcyka · 2021-10 · on “SUVs are offsetting EV car gains”

The average age of cars on the road is above 10 years, if I recall correctly. This is plenty of time to rack up enough mileage to offset the carbon cost of manufacturing. Using averages, it seems like replacing a car with average MPG (25) with a car with 35 MPG, it only takes 7 years of driving to be better off CO2 wise. It takes even less for electric cars. I think most people overestimate how much CO2 is produced during manufacturing vs how much CO2 is produced by driving. I'm mostly going off of this video - [this video] Moreover, I don't believe that there is a daily commute that's more than 120 miles each way, and this is well within the capabilities of even reasonably priced electric cars t

Cites theluketaylor · 2021-11 · on “That Electric Car’s Not as Green as You Think”

Engineering Explained covered this is a recent video. tldr while it obviously depends on how much you drive, you need a pretty efficient ICE car for sticking to lower carbon overall. [this video]

Cites djhn · 2022-01 · on “The Idiocy of Tiny Houses and Electric Vehicles”

Though not a write up per se, Engineering Explained has made several videos with reasonable estimates: [this video] [LINK] [LINK]

Cites balls187 · 2022-07 · on “9,000-pound electric Hummer shows we can’t ignore efficiency of EVs”

I would be curious so see how the Hummer EV compares not based on national average, but in a markets where electricity is not produced via fossil fuels, and in a market where electricity is produced via fossil fuels. Engineering Explained covered this in part, in his video asking whether or not it is better for the environment to keep your current (presumably ICE) car, or buy a new EV. [this video]

Cites cycomanic · 2025-08 · on “How much do electric car batteries degrade?”

> From an environmental perspective, I bet I could drive that truck for the rest of my natural life before I consumed more resources or exhausted more pollutants than would be required to manufacture a new one. Unless you drive much less than the avarage this is not true, engineering explained [1] did a video about this, and comparing a 24 MPG to a 35 MPG car you produce more CO2 with the 24 MPG car compared to a new 35 MPG car (including the manufacturing) considering your GMC has much worse fuel efficiency that break even point would be much earlier. This is not even considering the impact of recycling... So the best thing for the environment you could do is buy a new more fuel efficient c