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Scientists: Electric Vehicles Produce As Many Toxins As Dirty Diesels (dailymail.co.uk)
An anonymous reader writes: Thanks to ongoing efforts to reduce engine emissions, nowadays only 10% to 15% of particulate emissions from traffic are coming from vehicles' tailpipes. The remainder originates in tire, road surface and brake wear. A study by Victor Timmers and Peter Achten published in Atmospheric Environment has now found that the extra weight of electric vehicles causes non-tailpipe emissions to increase by about as much as the omission of the internal combustion engine saves. Atmospheric particulates have been shown to cause cancer, cardiovascular disease and respiratory diseases and are widely considered as the most harmful form of air pollution. Achten said, "We found that non-exhaust emissions, from brakes, tires and the road, are far larger than exhaust emissions in all modern cars. These are more toxic than emissions from modern engines so they are likely to be key factors in the extra heart attacks, strokes and asthma attacks seen when air pollution levels surge." The study shows that non-exhaust emissions a vehicle produces is directly related to its weight. Scientists found that electric and eco-friendly vehicles weighed around 24 percent more than conventional vehicles, which in turn contributes to more wear on the tires.
When you use the brakes in an EV the brake pads generally aren't used, instead the motor is used as a generator converting kinetic energy into stored power. I don't see this mentioned in the abstract, are the authors really not including this?
Yes, virginia, many of the hybrids and electrics if not all of them use regen braking. And yes, it does work. You feel a noticeable drag on the car when it kicks in.
You do use your regular brake pads though. The regen braking is good for a lot of things but it is not enough to stop the car quickly enough. I will say this though your brake pads last for frigging ever, as in so far they have lasted through over 150k miles on the factory pads, and there is still life left.
TO be honest though this is all well publicized including with studies. Why don't you google it.
Assuming 'smell' is an accurate indicator of anything, I just had my brakes replaced and I can definitely smell them. On the other hand, I can't recall the last time I've smelled exhaust from a vehicle. It was certainly something from the early 90's.
Laws are rules for the court, but merely a bottom bar to hit for life. Think beyond laws in your actions always.
10 years is a ridiculously low estimate for an automotive battery pack. Nissan Leafs with 150k on them have barely any degradation, and Tesla tested their packs up to 750,000 miles with 14% capacity loss. It's basically a non-issue.
Panasonic rate the cells in the Tesla packs for 900,000 miles to 80% capacity. The tests suggest that is about right. So to EOL the pack in 10 years you should need to do 90,000 miles/year, which is quite unusual (most people do less than 20k/year). Even then, an 80% pack still gets you over 200 miles in a Model S, so it would make more sense to either carry on driving it or reuse the pack in some other application (e.g. PowerWall). You certainly wouldn't want to toss something so valuable and useful away.
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SJW, n: "Someone I don't like, and by the way I'm a fuckwit" - AC
You need pretty extreme conditions to smell the brakes or tires.
Are you smelling brakes and tires a lot now?
Exactly. Try opening the car windows in a long road tunnel. You smell high concentrations of exhaust. Try hanging around in a tunnel only trafficked by electric vehicles. (No such road tunnel exists, but you could hang around in a train tunnel where they don't run diesels.) You'd smell wet mouldy tunnel, not brakes or anything like that.
Electric vehicles being heavier is bullshit. Most electric cars are of the small variety, weighing about a ton. Compare to 2.5 ton SUVs.
"Likely to be a factor?" See, they didn't research that. Or perhaps they did, but didn't get the conclusion they wanted. This anti-electric lobbying is crazy. Why lobby for any particular kind of car? Just make what people buys. Existing car makers are perfectly positioned for that - they already know all the non-combustion parts of car tecnhology - which is a lot. Newcomers like Tesla didn't merely have to know about electric power, they also need to get a grasp on design, brakes, safety and so on.
I'd say the same thing on the hybrid front. Some quick Google-fu shows that Priuses are definitely not heavier than a Camry, and the difference in weight between them and a Corolla is 100-200 pounds.