"As green as we are honest. Action, not an apology -- PZI"
The Full Picture
Ready to Get Started?
The most important environmental decision is the one you make today. Not in 2030.
We are not anti-electric vehicles. We believe in the transition. But belief without honesty is just another form of greenwashing. Australians deserve the full picture. Here it is — unfiltered.
The truth about electric vehicles that no showroom will tell you:
- Build emissions: Manufacturing an EV can generate up to 40% more carbon than a petrol car before it leaves the lot — almost entirely from battery production. You start behind.
- Child labour: Around 70% of the world's cobalt comes from the Democratic Republic of Congo, where Amnesty International has documented children as young as seven working in artisanal mines. That is part of what powers the battery.
- Water use: Lithium extraction in Chile's Atacama can consume up to 65% of the region's fresh water in some areas — water that indigenous communities and ancient ecosystems have depended on for thousands of years.
- Toxic legacy: Only a small fraction of EV batteries are currently recycled. The rest are stored or buried. The pollution does not vanish — it moves into soil, groundwater, and communities far from where the car is driven.
- Tyre wear: EVs are significantly heavier than equivalent petrol cars, and that weight wears tyres faster — releasing microplastic particles. Tyre and road wear is one of the largest sources of microplastics entering our oceans, according to the IUCN.
- Braking distances: The additional weight of an EV battery can extend braking distances compared to equivalent petrol vehicles — a fact rarely mentioned on the showroom floor.
- Resale values: EV resale values have fallen sharply. Battery degradation, rapid technology change, and limited second-hand demand mean today's expensive electric vehicle may be worth a fraction of its price within a few years.
- Grid reality: An EV charged from a coal-heavy grid can carry a larger lifetime carbon footprint than a modern, efficient petrol car. Clean at the tailpipe. Dirtier at the power station.
- The timeline: 21 million vehicles are registered in Australia today, with an average age of over 10 years. This fleet will not be electric by 2030, and not by 2035 either. Anyone who tells you otherwise is selling something.