system
Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:
human
ELI5 If electric cars use precious metals that require extensive mining and disruption to that environment, why are the better than gasoline powered cars?
gpt
Building a car is a one-time investment. Running a car is a continuous investment. Current research puts the breakeven point at around 4 years of usage for electric vehicles; at that point, the amount of pollution saved by being electric instead of gas overcomes the additional pollution from the mining/processing of the rarer materials for the construction.