Conventional gasoline vehicles are sometimes treated as the clean baseline in manufacturing comparisons — but internal combustion engine (ICE) vehicles also carry significant manufacturing footprints that are rarely discussed.
ICE vehicle manufacturing involves steel and aluminum smelting, precision machining of engine blocks, transmission components, exhaust systems, and catalytic converters — all of which are energy-intensive. Catalytic converters require platinum-group metals, which are themselves mined under conditions that raise environmental concerns. ICE vehicles also require a lifetime supply of petroleum — a product that must be extracted, transported, and refined, all at substantial environmental cost, before it is ever burned in the engine.
When full lifecycle analyses account for both manufacturing and operation, the picture for EVs is clear. ICCT data shows that over the entire life of a vehicle — from raw material extraction through manufacturing, operation, and end-of-life — a 2024 battery-electric car in North America produces 66 to 74% fewer total greenhouse gas emissions than an equivalent gasoline vehicle. The manufacturing comparison, when taken in isolation, flatters gasoline cars by ignoring the decades of fuel combustion that follow. A complete, honest comparison strongly favours the EV.