Electric scooters are not as environmentally friendly as we thought

Electric scooter manufacturers like to praise their eco-friendliness by frequently reminding bikers that every two-wheeled trip can help reduce carbon emissions and fight climate change – but the truth is far more complicated.

A new study from North Carolina State University found that shared electronic scooters were perhaps more environmentally friendly than most cars, but that they were less environmentally friendly than many other options, including cycling, walking and some modes of transportation. Riders tend to think they are making the right choice by jumping on an electric scooter and therefore without carbon. But what they do not see is all the emissions produced by the manufacture, transportation, maintenance and upkeep of scooters without platforms.

"If you only think about the life cycle segment that you can see, which would be on a scooter where there is no exhaust pipe, it's easy to make that badumption "said Jeremiah Johnson, corresponding author of the study and badociate professor of civil engineering, construction and environment at NC State. "But if you step back, you can see all the other things that are a bit hidden in the process."

Johnson and his team have "stepped back" by doing what is called a "life cycle badysis" of the wharfless scooter industry. This involved looking at all emissions badociated with every aspect of a scooter's life cycle: the production of materials, such as lithium-ion batteries and aluminum parts; the manufacturing process; ship the scooter from his home country (mainly China) to his city of use; and collect, load and redistribute scooters as part of the wharfless service.

The findings of the study were both obvious and surprising. Driving a car was the least environmentally friendly option, but using the bus – especially a diesel powered bus on a busy route – was a better option than driving an electric scooter. Walking and cycling, or even an electric bike, was also significantly superior to using an electric scooter.

Overall, the average greenhouse gas emissions per kilometer of scooter traveled are slightly more than 200 grams of CO2. In comparison, the life cycle emissions of an average automobile barely exceed 400 grams of CO2. So, driving a scooter is clearly a winner compared to the car.

The problem is that only a third of scooter rides replace car trips. The NC State team conducted a survey of motorcyclists to find out how people used scooters and what types of trips they moved by choosing to drive a two-wheeled electric bike. Their findings – which are corroborated by other surveys of scooter drivers – indicate that 49% of bikers would have cycled or walked, 34% would have used a car, 11% would have taken a bus and 7% would not have taken the trip at all.

Even though about 63% of the electricity in the United States is generated from fossil fuels, the environmental impact of the electricity used to charge each scooter is relatively low – about 5% of the electricity generated. Overall impact, the researchers discovered. The main culprits were the materials used to build each scooter, mainly aluminum, and the carbon produced by vehicles used by independent contractors to collect and charge the scooters every night.

There are simple solutions to these problems that scooter manufacturers are already trying to solve. The first is to reduce the behavior of freelancers who pick up scooters at night to recharge them. Lime is trying to do this by introducing a new feature that allows its "juicers" to book a scooter in advance, thereby reducing the amount of unnecessary driving that occurs when centrifuges are looking for scooters to recover.

Another way to reduce the impact on the environment would be to build a better scooter that lasts longer than the models deployed at the very beginning of the scooter boom.

"If scooter companies are able to extend the life of their scooters without doubling the impacts of materials and manufacturing, it would reduce the burden per mile," Johnson said. "If you can make these things last two years, it would have a very important impact."

Scooter companies do it too. Bird has recently unveiled its latest generation scooter with a more durable battery and more durable parts. Lime has also developed new models that she believes improve the economic conditions of scooter units.

But in the end, the badertion that the scooter is the most environmentally friendly option available is simply wrong. And scooter manufacturers seem to be aware of it, at least on the surface. Last year, Lime said that to make his entire fleet of bikes and scooters completely "carbon-free", the San Francisco-based company will start buying renewable energy credits from new and existing projects.

This is a good idea (although the effectiveness of carbon offsets is somewhat skeptical), but it does not solve the main problem of the commercial model of the dockless scooter industry: the use of freelancers to collect and load a fleet of electric scooters. Lime said it hoped to be able to take these emissions into account in its carbon neutrality program, but this is not yet the case.