Scrapping petrol cars (even new ones) for EVs could lower emissions

Embargoed until: Publicly released: 2026-08-07 04:00

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Replacing a 2-year-old petrol SUV with an EV, rather than driving it for another 14 years, could nearly halve its owner's lifetime carbon emissions, US researchers found. The team looked at a range of vehicle efficiencies, electricity grids and emissions from EV manufacturing, and found consistent emissions benefits to swapping to EVs earlier. However, selling used petrol vehicles instead of scrapping them could eliminate this benefit by lowering used-car prices, they found. The researchers recommend government policies that encourage the scrapping of petrol vehicles to help speed up emissions cuts.