Environment
Being electric means no tailpipe emissions, so no pollution, no direct CO2 and virtually no noise. As the national grid transitions to more renewable energy sources, the environmental impact of EVs just keeps falling, whereas combustion engines simply get dirtier with age. Although the UK is one of the world's 18 countries that's reducing it's CO2 output, there's a great deal more we need to do to achieve the government's targets of banning petrol and diesel vehicles by 2035 and achieving zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2050.
A litre of petrol weighs around 750g but results in over 2 kg of CO2 being generated when it's burnt. For example, a motorcycle that averages 50 mpg, which releases 100g of CO2 per km, will pump 8 kg of CO2 into the atmosphere, even though the gallon of petrol weighs just 3.4 kg. Over 1000 miles that motorcycle would emit 160 kg of CO2 into the atmosphere, or 160g per mile.
Although electric vehicles have no tailpipe emissions, unless they're recharged from 100% renewable sources, such as wind, solar and hydro, there will be off-board CO2 emissions i.e. those released from oil, gas and coal power stations.
The average unit or kilowatt hour (kWh) of electricity generated in the UK during 2019 resulted in around 250g of CO2 being released into the atmosphere. Even a high performance electric motorcycle like the Zero SR/F will travel around 9 miles on a kWh of electricity, which equates to 18g per km. That's a staggering 80% reduction in CO2 vs the petrol motorcycle above. In the case of smaller and less powerful electric models, the off-board CO2 falls to around 8g per km.