But how much does an electric car pollute? Still much less than a petrol one

When colleagues or family members ask for an opinion on the electric car at the table or at the bar counter, there is always someone who doubts the environmental benefits of electric propulsion. The arguments are always the same: “how do you dispose of the battery?”, “and don’t you think of the children who mine cobalt in the Congo?”, “we generate electricity with gas and coal”. It is good to doubt, but without forgetting to inform yourself on the basis of scientific literature and the most recent independent research. If we can be indulgent with the uncle who loves the roar of the engine, with the Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni we are forced to be more meticulous. On several public occasions he has questioned the actual ecological advantage of electric cars, to criticize the European directive being approved to stop the sale of polluting vehicles from 2035. Meloni, for example, argued that “electric cars themselves are not free from negative ecological externalities”, citing as examples the disposal of batteries and the extraction of the materials needed to produce them. Furthermore, according to the prime minister, “the simple incentive to use electricity risks relocating production to non-EU countries, where, moreover, those products are often made with highly polluting plants and processes”.