Mentor Name
Dr Somi Shin
Course Title
Introduction to research methods
Course Number
RSCH 202
Submitting Campus
Worldwide
Student Status
Undergraduate
Project Abstract
This research aims to define the relationship between electric vehicles (EVs) and the total CO2 emissions of the world. The research question is “does the transition to EVs actually make an impact on the total CO2 emissions”. The dependent variable for this research is the total carbon emissions of 195 countries from 1990 to 2019. This secondary data is obtained from the World Bank. The key independent variable used is the total number of Tesla EVs sold in each country from 1990 to 2019. We use Tesla as the company has an exceptionally high market share in the EV market. Another independent variable used is the energy consumption for each country from 1990 to 2019. We propose to collect the independent variables through an independent data collection company called “bright data”. The results from the preliminary regression analysis show that both the sales number of EVs and the energy consumption are significant. Every EV sold reduces the total CO2 emissions by 26,100 metric tonnes. Every 1 exajoule of energy consumed, increases the CO2 emissions by 30.958 billion metric tonnes. This huge difference in impact suggests that focusing on clean energy would be a better strategy than adopting EVs.
