Speaking in Berlin this week Tesloa CEO Elon Musk suggested that the public is overly concerned about the Volkswagen emissions cheating scandal, calling for more attention to the more troubling issue of carbon dioxide emissions.
According to a Bloomberg story, Musk pointed out that while Germany is becoming a major sustainable power producer, Germans are not doing well as renewable energy consumers, especially in transportation where the country remains reliant on diesel and gas.
Volkswagen has acknowledged that 11 million of its cars worldwide had emissions systems rigged to deceive regulators and cheat pollution testing rules. The scandal led to the resignation of the company’s CEO and is putting the issue of auto emissions under scrutiny around the world.
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) states that while diesel vehicles produce more carbon dioxide than gas cars, but their higher fuel efficiency offsets diesel’s high carbon content. European diesel regulations have focused on carbon dioxide, while EPA rules attempt to manage both carbon dioxide and diesel’s high nitrogen oxide (NOX) emissions.
Electric cars, like Tesla’s Model S, produce no tailpipe emissions, however fossil fuels are used to produce most of the electricity generated to power the batteries for electric cars.