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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.

366 of 555 comments (clear)

  1. daily mail reporting by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Can a legitimate news outlet tell us if this is a REAL concern?

    1. Re:daily mail reporting by Moblaster · · Score: 4, Insightful

      It's absolute nonsense. About Dailymail.co.uk, according to Wikipedia: "The Daily Mail is a British daily conservative, middle-market[2][3] tabloid newspaper owned by the Daily Mail and General Trust." The simplest science tells us the entire premise of this article is a bunch of baloney. A gallon of gasoline produces about 20 pounds of CO2 emissions -- http://www.eia.gov/tools/faqs/... This comes simply from burning the carbon in the fuel with oxygen in the air. One carbon atom plus two oxygen atoms, simple chemistry. The amount of "emissions" from driving 20 to 40 miles (the typical range a gallon of fuel will get you) can be measured directly -- it's how much weight the tire loses. A fraction of a gram, perhaps? And the brakes? Some number of tens of milligrams of brake dust? Similarly the "emissions" from the road idea is pure nonsense. If the roads "lost" a few hundred pounds of material every time an electric car used up a charge, we'd have heard about it. Since it is weight-based, we could safely assume an 18-wheeler would vaporize a couple of TONS of asphalt every few hundred miles. This is a nonsense paper appealing to poor, uneducated people without the analytical context -- or, more fairly to intelligent people without higher education credentials, just the simple, plain common sense -- necessary to recognize a propaganda job of absurd proportions. There is no science or fact behind this article. It is a pack of lies designed to anger people as much as necessary to hold their attention long enough to make a few more cents showing them advertising. The Dailymail is beyond shameful -- to the extent it tries to pass off this drivel as truth, it is an affront to human decency itself.

    2. Re: daily mail reporting by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Informative

      You have, of course, validated the parents point by not even reading TFS which clearly talks about particulate emissions.

    3. Re:daily mail reporting by Maow · · Score: 3, Insightful

      You've made some excellent points, as have other posters in this thread.

      When I first saw the source, I immediately thought "Bullshit!"

      However, upon reading the TFS, it's possible that they're technically correct.

      CO2 is a form of pollution to be sure, but it's decidedly not particulate matter pollution.

    4. Re:daily mail reporting by ShanghaiBill · · Score: 5, Informative

      And the brakes? Some number of tens of milligrams of brake dust?

      Not even that. Electric cars use regenerative braking. So if an electric car going 100 kph needs to stop, the engine runs backwards to slow it down to about 10 kph, and the brakes just handle the last 10% of the speed reduction, but since energy is proportional to the velocity squared the brakes are only dissipating the last 1% of the energy.

      Electric cars produce far less brake pad dust than gasoline cars, and the brake pads often are good for the life of the car. The fact that the authors include brake pad "emissions" indicates that they know nothing about how electric cars work, collected no actual data, and just made up their results to generate clicks.

    5. Re:daily mail reporting by BigBuckHunter · · Score: 5, Insightful

      You've made some excellent points, as have other posters in this thread.

      When I first saw the source, I immediately thought "Bullshit!"

      However, upon reading the TFS

      They're reporting that an electric vehicle, which breaks mainly through electromagnet resistance used to regenerate electrical power, produces more break dust than a gasoline powered vehicle that uses breaks.

      This doesn't even deserve the title of bullshit.

    6. Re:daily mail reporting by phantomfive · · Score: 4, Informative

      The paper is talking about particulate matter emissions. Your analysis makes sense, but you're mostly talking about gaseous emissions, so it doesn't contradict the paper.

      Summary is sensationalist, though.

      --
      "First they came for the slanderers and i said nothing."
    7. Re:daily mail reporting by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Informative

      Can we have a reality check here!!!!???

      The magazine is owned and run by Elsevier B.V.
      The CEO is this guy:
      https://www.elsevier.com/about/company-information/management/ron-mobed

      Does --
      "Ron is a Fellow of the Institute of Directors and of the Energy Institute. He holds a bachelor's degree in engineering from Trinity College, University of Cambridge and a master's degree in petroleum engineering from Imperial College, University of London."

      --- this somewhat smack of propaganda, because my anal smoke detector went off!!!
      And has anyone in the main stream media even done the fact-checking to spot the obvious conflict of interest? FUCK NO.

    8. Re:daily mail reporting by Vinegar+Joe · · Score: 5, Informative

      This is modded "Insightful"????

      The DM took the report from The Sunday Times which was basing it's report on a study published in the journal Atmospheric Environment.

      https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/...
      http://www.journals.elsevier.c...

      --
      "The average reporter we talk to is 27 years old......They literally know nothing." - Ben Rhodes
    9. Re:daily mail reporting by Vinegar+Joe · · Score: 1

      He would be much more knowledgeable and trustworthy if he had a degree in Modern Dance, right?

      --
      "The average reporter we talk to is 27 years old......They literally know nothing." - Ben Rhodes
    10. Re:daily mail reporting by ArmoredDragon · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Without picking sides, you can't just dismiss this outright. There may be something to this, but it'll need to go through peer review if it hasn't already, in addition to being reproducible.

    11. Re:daily mail reporting by Pezbian · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Electromagnetic braking was the first thing that came to mind. Thank you.

      Someone at Daily Fail is asleep at the switch once again.

      --
      In a world of the blind, the one-eyed man is king--and the two-eyed man is a heretic.
    12. Re:daily mail reporting by Applehu+Akbar · · Score: 3, Insightful

      "The magazine is owned and run by Elsevier B.V."

      Yessiree, here's an example of one of those prestigious Elsevier journals: http://www.journals.elsevier.c...
      Small wonder that scientists line up to pay this buggy-whip publisher $3000 per research paper for the privilege of having their copyright stolen.

    13. Re: daily mail reporting by misnohmer · · Score: 5, Informative

      1. Electric engines can go forwards and backwards. I have an EV and reverse is not a real gear, motor actually turns in reverse
      2. I had a hybrid for over 7 years, after 50K miles I sold it with 80% original brakes - most of my braking was regenerative. So over the 50k miles I used up 20% of one set of pads.
      3. In my current EV, I rarely touch the brake over 20mph. Most of my braking is pure regen, which by the way can easily generate >50KW of power (more than most homes) which is captured by the battery.

    14. Re:daily mail reporting by dgatwood · · Score: 2

      They're reporting that an electric vehicle, which breaks mainly through electromagnet resistance used to regenerate electrical power, produces more break dust than a gasoline powered vehicle that uses breaks.

      Regenerative braking isn't exclusive to EVs. You can also use it on hybrids, which presumably weigh a lot less than an EV.

      I'm not saying that this story isn't full of crap—it probably is—but....

      --

      Check out my sci-fi/humor trilogy at PatriotsBooks.

    15. Re:daily mail reporting by Sique · · Score: 1, Troll

      But still, the braking energy has to be transmitted to the tarmac via the tires, and the tires lose rubber as you brake. You don't have much particles from asbestos and steel coming from the brakes themselves, but most of the particles are rubber anyway.

      --
      .sig: Sique *sigh*
    16. Re: daily mail reporting by easyTree · · Score: 1

      a propaganda job of absurd proportions

      That's the daily mail's function you insensitive clod!

      Three parts celebrity stalking/titillation, two parts xenophobia-inducing nonsense, add water and stir.

    17. Re: daily mail reporting by TheRaven64 · · Score: 1

      Regen braking is a gimmick that is useless in real life situations

      Regenerative breaking works in the same situations where engine breaking works on a conventional ICE. If you're not using engine breaking for most of your deceleration, then you're either typically driving in a computer game situation (motorway with small children that run across the road every 5 minutes), or you're not a very good driver and are spending a lot more on fuel than you need to.

      That said, the number of people around here who accelerate towards traffic lights and then brake hard because, surprise surprise, it's still red when they get there is astonishing.

      --
      I am TheRaven on Soylent News
    18. Re:daily mail reporting by Barsteward · · Score: 2

      i would have thought as long as you are not locking the wheels under braking or burning tyres under acceleration, you'd lose about the same amount as you would just moving.

      --
      "The hands that help are better far than lips that pray." - Robert Ingersoll (1833-1899)
    19. Re: daily mail reporting by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      I drive a gas powered car and haven't put new brake pads on in over 110k miles. It's probably about time, but just sayin.

    20. Re: daily mail reporting by Feyshtey · · Score: 1

      Batteries aren't.

      --
      "But we have to pass the bill so that you can find out what is in it,..." - Nancy Pelosi
    21. Re: daily mail reporting by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Insightful

      heres my limited peer review. from wikipedia for both cars...
      top weight range for Tesla Model S: 4300-4900 or so lbs.
      top weight for Audi A8- 4400-4800 or so lbs.
      Gonna call bullshit on the "heavier electric car more impactful net emissions-wise than gas engined car" thesis of TFS.
      Yes, these two cars are peers.

    22. Re:daily mail reporting by KozmoStevnNaut · · Score: 2

      Maybe a tiny bit more, due to weight transfer to the front wheels. On the other hand, you also have weight transfer away from the rear wheels, so maybe it evens out.

      If there was a significant loss of material from tires caused by simple driving around and braking normally, tires wouldn't last ~50,000 kilometers.

      --
      Eat the rich.
    23. Re: daily mail reporting by KozmoStevnNaut · · Score: 1

      I hope you're not driving 100mph or even 100kph between city blocks.

      I rented a BMW i3 a little while ago, and drove it right across Copenhagen, red lights and all, without touching the brake pedal. It's all about looking further ahead, anticipating traffic and making the most of the regen braking (which is significant on the i3 with full regen enabled). BMW calls it "one-pedal driving", and it really does work, even in stop-and-go traffic.

      --
      Eat the rich.
    24. Re: daily mail reporting by Rei · · Score: 4, Insightful

      That's exactly the point. It's only about PM. The one type of emission that it's long been known that BEVs don't beat ICEs on. They would also, on the current US grid average, cause more SOx emissions... except for the fact that most SOx-emitting US power plants are already at their sulphur limits, so if they want to sell more power, they have to scrub more. BEVs usually come out slightly ahead on NOx, a moderate improvement on CO2 and trouce ICEs on VOCs and CO. Furthermore, all powertrain-related emissions are moved from "ground level in densely populated areas" to "tops of smokestacks in less densely populated areas", reducing their health effects. It's also worth noting that the grid is getting cleaner, at a surprisingly fast rate, due to the switch from coal to wind + natural gas.

      How brake emissions are supposed to work against BEVs is beyond me - because of regenerative braking, BEVs use physical brakes significantly less.

      --
      Monkeywrench Ex Machina.
    25. Re:daily mail reporting by RabidReindeer · · Score: 1

      The problem with this kind of "analysis", is that even it it's true - and considering the source that's a significant "IF" - it's also predicated on an unchanging world to further its political agenda.

      If traditional automobiles have an edge on pollution and operating costs, it's in large part due to 100+ years of being fine-tuned. When the automobile first arrived, there were no convenient service stations and not much in the way of roads optimized to carry them. We spent a great deal of effort creating that environment, but the naysayers want to pretend that God created it that way in 4300 BC and that's the only possible way it could be.

      If batteries are too heavy and too bulky, but there is enough demand or subsidy then lighter and more compact means of producing and/or storing electricity are going to be explored. Gasoline itself is one means, of course, although because of its high cost once it leaves the pump, not one with too many advocates long-term. Or it may simply result in a redesign of tires and brakes, if that's where the problem stems.

      It's as meaningless to point to how things are now as a reason for not improving them as it is to wail about how solar power "disappears" when the sun goes down. Anyone who burns coal should know that solar power can be stored for millions of years, much less overnight, and that's just one of the older and dirtier ways to do it.

    26. Re: daily mail reporting by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Interesting

      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.

    27. Re: daily mail reporting by Zak3056 · · Score: 4, Funny

      Batteries aren't.

      You'd better get down to the battery recycling center and let them know that they're making a horrible mistake.

      --
      What part of "shall not be infringed" is so hard to understand?
    28. Re: daily mail reporting by tepples · · Score: 1

      If you're not using engine breaking for most of your deceleration, then you're either typically driving in a computer game situation (motorway with small children that run across the road every 5 minutes)

      Parking lots and school zones are known for this sort of needing to come to a complete stop.

      or you're not a very good driver and are spending a lot more on fuel than you need to.

      Is everybody driving a gasoline vehicle with an automatic transmission automatically "not a very good driver"?

      That said, the number of people around here who accelerate towards traffic lights and then brake hard because, surprise surprise, it's still red when they get there is astonishing.

      A signaled crosswalk allows predicting a change from green to yellow ten seconds in advance, which gives adequate time to regeneratively brake most of the way to a stop. Some intersections have a signaled crosswalk, but not all.

    29. Re: daily mail reporting by pchasco · · Score: 1

      One needs only to spend sixty seconds scrolling the typical Facebook newsfeed to know that this behavior is not strictly limited to fucking liberals. (I'd argue it's prone more to older conservatives who grew up trusting their news sources, rather than my generation who more often know better.)

    30. Re: daily mail reporting by Rhipf · · Score: 1

      To be fair electricity isn't renewable. It is the source of that electricity that can be renewable. Currently a lot of the electricity is derived from non-renewable sources but that doesn't have to be the case.

    31. Re:daily mail reporting by dryeo · · Score: 2

      When I had a diesel (and the summery mentions diesels), I usually just downshifted and used the engine compression to brake. Did learn to tap the brake pedal to stop the cops from pulling me over to check that my brake lights worked. With a 23.1 compression ratio, that little Nissan truck slowed down quick with engine compression.
      Large diesels often have exhaust limiters (jake brakes) that help using engine braking.

      --
      https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Inverted_totalitarianism
    32. Re: daily mail reporting by pixelpusher220 · · Score: 1

      To be fair, a billion people moving into already occupied territory is likely to cause a significant number of deaths let alone health effects as resources are stretched thin.

      --
      People in cars cause accidents....accidents in cars cause people :-D
    33. Re: daily mail reporting by zieroh · · Score: 1

      Regen braking is a gimmick that is useless in real life situations.

      Thanks. You saved me from having to read the rest of your comment.

      --
      People who say "sheeple" have about as much sophistication as an AOL user, and in fact are probably actually AOL users.
    34. Re: daily mail reporting by dryeo · · Score: 1

      When I had a diesel and usually used engine compression for braking, I put on a couple of hundred thousand kms and never needed to do the brakes (actually I did bleed them once), and they weren't the really hard pads that wear down the rotor instead of the pads either, at least according to my measurements (used vehicle so I'm not totally sure of the quality of parts. I junked the truck at 500,000 kms due to rust)

      --
      https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Inverted_totalitarianism
    35. Re: daily mail reporting by dryeo · · Score: 1

      Most automatics have a shifter with markings like P-2-1 and you can put it in first at any speed and it'll downshift automatically. I've currently got an automatic and when downshifting sometimes the tires will chirp when going from 2nd to 1st.

      --
      https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Inverted_totalitarianism
    36. Re:daily mail reporting by randallman · · Score: 1

      Glad to see there are still a few intelligent commenters on Slashdot. I've been visiting less and less as the quality of comments has fallen. I never came here for the articles, just the intelligent discussion.

    37. Re: daily mail reporting by tepples · · Score: 1

      So to ensure I understand and can summarize this to others, an automatic goes at least P, R, N, D, L, where L = engine braking. Did I miss anything?

    38. Re: daily mail reporting by AndyMoney · · Score: 1

      You can receive a huge portion of the benefits of regen braking in a GAS only car by driving smart. Regen provides the largest benefit to those who use the brakes a lot. Would I be correct in assuming you get better than EPA rated MPG in the cars you drive?

    39. Re: daily mail reporting by xupere · · Score: 1

      Regenerative braking can provide up to a certain amount of deceleration based on the speed of the vehicle. Low speeds need to use the conventional brakes to come to a complete stop or hold the vehicle in place. But if you're at moderate speed and the driver (or an automated system) requests more deceleration than the regenerative braking can supply, it still uses that first and then makes up the difference with the conventional brakes. So you still put less wear-and-tear on the conventional brakes.

      Source: I work on this stuff. Disclaimer: could vary between different vehicle's (supplier's) design decisions / algorithms.

    40. Re:daily mail reporting by Sique · · Score: 1

      It's more complicated. How much you lose depends on the acceleration you put your car through. Braking, turning corners and pushing the gas pedal all cause the car to accelerate (in the physical sense), and the force (acceleration times mass) has to be transmitted to the tarmac. If you have to use more force, the abrasion of the tires increases. So all of them, heavier cars, better brakes and tires that allow for more cornering force put more particles in the air. Electric braking only reduces a single source of abrasion, that of the brake shoes and brake discs. It's actually not much (compare the size of brake shoes and discs with that of the tires, and how often you have to change them).

      --
      .sig: Sique *sigh*
    41. Re:daily mail reporting by ceoyoyo · · Score: 1

      When you're changing speed or direction there's more wear on the tires because they have to transfer more force. Its hard to see that on the tires themselves, but you can see it on the roads. Gravel roads usually have washboards at intersections and pavement gets more potholes.

    42. Re: daily mail reporting by fyngyrz · · Score: 1

      Particulate emissions aren't a significant problem in this context -- car pollution. So the article, true or not, provides no reason whatsoever to be concerned about electrics vs. IC.

      That's the bottom line.

      --
      I've fallen off your lawn, and I can't get up.
    43. Re: daily mail reporting by Nethemas+the+Great · · Score: 2

      No this place here or here in the U.S. and if you're motivated feel free to set one up yourself.

      --
      Two of my imaginary friends reproduced once ... with negative results.
    44. Re: daily mail reporting by Nethemas+the+Great · · Score: 1

      To be fair maybe regulators should have/be placing pressure on vehicle component, e.g. tire, brake, etc., manufacturers to reduce the toxic materials being used/released. These components that are being spoken of are no different than those used in traditional vehicles.

      Given the increased appetite--in the U.S. at least--for over-sized land yachts weight certainly isn't an issue exclusive to BEVs. A 2013 Nissan Leaf has a curb weight of 3,291 lbs a Lincoln Navigator has a curb weight of at least 5,780 lbs. All but the densest person should be able to correctly pick the winner there. A Ford Focus weighs in at at least 2,800 lbs. So sure, it's got almost 500 lbs on the Leaf. But the Leaf doesn't shed a few pounds worth of carcinogens every 3000 to 5000 miles. Neither does it have to get rid of a bunch of toxins before "fueling" up.

      --
      Two of my imaginary friends reproduced once ... with negative results.
    45. Re:daily mail reporting by 91degrees · · Score: 1

      We're talking about "toxins" though - one of those things that the Mail is obsessed about (and yes, they're misusing this term as well). I guess Carbon dioxide is excluded from that, and they're looking only at carcinogens or something.

    46. Re:daily mail reporting by Fallen+Kell · · Score: 1

      Exactly, and the big issue is Carbon in the UPPER ATMOSPHERE, not so much particulates on the ground.

      If you are concerned with global warming, yes. If you are concerned with lung cancer, pulmonary disease, and asthma, no.

      --
      We were all warned a long time ago that MS products sucked, remember the Magic 8 Ball said, "Outlook not so good"
    47. Re:daily mail reporting by WaffleMonster · · Score: 1

      The simplest science tells us the entire premise of this article is a bunch of baloney. A gallon of gasoline produces about 20 pounds of CO2 emissions -- http://www.eia.gov/tools/faqs/... This comes simply from burning the carbon in the fuel with oxygen in the air. One carbon atom plus two oxygen atoms, simple chemistry.

      Being too lazy to find a non pay walled copy of the paper abstract makes it brutally clear this isn't in any way shape or form about CO2 pollution. This is about particulate pollution. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/...

      This is a nonsense paper appealing to poor, uneducated people without the analytical context -- or, more fairly to intelligent people without higher education credentials, just the simple, plain common sense -- necessary to recognize a propaganda job of absurd proportions. There is no science or fact behind this article.

      Have you even read it?

      There is no science or fact behind this article. It is a pack of lies designed to anger people as much as necessary to hold their attention long enough to make a few more cents showing them advertising. The Dailymail is beyond shameful -- to the extent it tries to pass off this drivel as truth, it is an affront to human decency itself.

      Most media tries to pass off drivel as truth.

      It's absolute nonsense.

      Your post shoots the messenger, appeals to intellect, relies straw man arguments about CO2 pollution and invalid analogies stemming from initial failure to understand nature (PM != CO2) of the topic.

      This paper may in fact be absolute nonsense yet you have failed to deliver evidence commensurate with your claim.

    48. Re: daily mail reporting by I4ko · · Score: 1

      It doesn't have to run in reverse. It still spins is the same direction, if there is no electricity applied, but a load applied it will mostly function as a generator. The direction of rotation usually doesn't change between the motor being driven by power and then the same motor being driven by the wheels having the battery as load. Saying that the motor runs in reverse means it is spinning in the opposite direction and for you to force that you would need to use power from the batteries and will mash your transmission.

    49. Re:daily mail reporting by Culture20 · · Score: 1

      Hey when the court jester tells you something you might check his sources. Don't worry you cons do the same thing anyways.

      When the court jester tells you something, it's usually more true than anything anyone else in the court might say. He is privy to the conversations of those in the know, and is the only one who can insult the king and court with impunity. The town fool is the one to double check, but determining who is a fool can be tough, because there's often more than a dozen. Even then, don't double check the sources, check the statement itself.

    50. Re: daily mail reporting by I4ko · · Score: 1

      There are other computer simulated scenarios - mountains in the background, flat road, with 3 lanes and not a lot of cars and stop lights only as frequently as half a mile. Otherwise known as Phoenix. It is easy to pace myself so I drive at steady speed with the cruise control constantly engaged between my start point and my finish point with my legs off the pedals, and while I would like to use engine braking, I simply don't have to. I get measurably better than the advertised MPG for my vehicle too.

    51. Re:daily mail reporting by Mr.CRC · · Score: 1

      Ah yes, the old "peer review" is what makes things real, argument. Appeal to authority much?

      While reproducibility is a necessary criterion for things to be scientifically valid, peer review is not. Peer review is just one (imperfect) mechanism for quality control of scientific publications. The scientific method stands by itself, and is perfect. It is a discipline of thought and methodology. It does not require peer review.

    52. Re:daily mail reporting by samwichse · · Score: 4, Insightful

      It's actually worse than that:

      Victor R.J.H. Timmers: Listed as the first author.
      https://uk.linkedin.com/in/vic... [linkedin.com]

      Hmmm... bachelors in engineering. No experience in the automotive field, 2 months experience as a RA studying the environment. Then he started working for INNAS BV as an intern and got first authorship on this paper.

      How about Peter A.J. Achten (second author)?
      Zero other publications listed, but his contact in ScienceDirect is the address of... INNAS BV.

      Let's see, what does INNAS BV do?
      http://www.innas.com/fallacies... [innas.com]

      Interesting, looks like they developed the Chiron (R) Free Piston Engine, a two stroke engine that is supposedly "not dirty."

      Convenient of them to put their product, and the paper of the two people that published this... thing... right there on the same page next to each other so we can all see the real motivation of it.

      Sadly, this paper will get batted around the internet and become more and more exaggerated by anyone with an anti-electric agenda like that idiot hit piece comparing a Prius to a Hummer. Yes, that thing is still quoted everywhere and always.

      Address all complaints to vrjhtimmers@gmail.com ... that guy's going to have to change email addresses shortly if this crap paper hits the fan like it probably will.

      Ugh.

      Sam

    53. Re: daily mail reporting by dryeo · · Score: 1

      I obviously made a typo (realized after posting and leaving the house) and it should have been D-2-1 or D-L, ignoring park, reverse and neutral.
      Yes, on most automatics I've driven, 2 is some engine braking and 1 is even more. If put in 1 at too high of a speed, the tranny will go into 2nd until it slows down enough (perhaps 30 mph) to safely go into 1st. Really old automatics only had low but same idea. Newest have more and someone was complaining to me that they borrowed a fairly new VW which was automatically downshifting when he took his foot of the gas pedal.
      I learned the hard way about engine braking when I was first driving, went miles up a mountain, windy dirt road. Coming back down I overheated the brakes, which was very scary. Someone explained engine braking to me and I never made that mistake again. At that almost all my vehicles after that have been manuals where using engine braking comes a lot more naturally.

      --
      https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Inverted_totalitarianism
    54. Re: daily mail reporting by dryeo · · Score: 1

      We're talking automatics, which won't let you put it into 1st at high speeds. Put it in 1st and it'll gear down into the appropriate gear as you slow down, usually about 50 kmph to go into 1st which will have a milder ratio then 4.56:1, perhaps close to 2:1 plus the torque converter to double the ratio when starting off.
      I don't think too many manuals have such a low 1st either, at least none I've owned and the old trucks that did have a bull low had no synchros on it and it wasn't usually used unless off-road or loaded right up and starting on a hill.
      Besides, can't modern engines rev up that high? I can remember revving my old Datsun up close to that, needed with a 4:875 rear end and 1:1 4th gear (14 in tires) if you wanted to hit a hundred miles an hour. Little sowing machine really took off when you passed 6 grand

      --
      https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Inverted_totalitarianism
    55. Re: daily mail reporting by Zak3056 · · Score: 1

      You'd be an idiot to throw large batteries into a landfill--and not only for environmental reasons, but because there is a significant value to the components of even a lead acid battery, much less something more advanced.

      --
      What part of "shall not be infringed" is so hard to understand?
    56. Re: daily mail reporting by rch7 · · Score: 1

      It is very popular BS to compare Model S with Audi A8 or Mercedes S. Model S is no match other than price tag. You may compare it to BMW 5 or something like that at best.

    57. Re: daily mail reporting by BranMan · · Score: 1

      To be fair, my first thought on reading the Fine Summary was that IF it were accurate - that road, tire, and brake dust are 10x the particulate emissions of all the ENGINES on the road today - and from the source we do need to be somewhat skeptical - then holy crap Batman - we've won! I mean, if engine emissions are that low, we never need any new emissions regs for particulates - we've effectively eliminated them.

      Now we need new standards on brakes and tires - we need EPA regs to improve THEIR 'emissions' next. That is a staggering amount of progress vs. air quality - like, wow!

      Yeah! 'Merica!

      Anyone else got that sense of awe? Or is it just me?

    58. Re:daily mail reporting by BDF · · Score: 1

      CO2 is a form of pollution to be sure

      Please stop breathing. The plants are offended by your stupidity.

    59. Re: daily mail reporting by BDF · · Score: 1

      Try median vs median of similar occupancy class vehicles. You're changing the argument. What do THOSE number come to?

    60. Re:daily mail reporting by aurizon · · Score: 1

      Well, a gas car wears off about 20-30 pounds of rubber in 100,000 miles(more if he burns out a lot) and in the same 100,000 miles he wears off about 2 pounds of brake shoe. These end up as road dust or various sizes, most of which settles, but a small amount. That gas car at 30 miles per gallon burns about 3500 gallons(20,000 pounds) which consumes about 40,000 pounds of oxygen for 60,000 pounds of H2O and CO2 - all of which is in the air. There is a little nitrogen oxide - ~~200 pounds.
      A Tesla burns 24% more rubber, but with regenerative braking, only half the brake dust is made. There is zero production of CO2 and H2O, except by the breathing of the passengers.

      On balance Tesla = far less on all counts, except rubber. The rubber dust is 80% carbon black and 20% rubber polymer which is eaten by bacteria

    61. Re:daily mail reporting by SivDotnet · · Score: 1

      I have always argued that the negatives of producing batteries (fetching raw materials from all over the world and the landfill or whatever they end up in when they are spent) are much worse than say modifying our vehicles to run on hydrogen. Admittedly you would still have the particulate issue from brakes and tyres etc but that's just another problem to crack. I think filling up with hydrogen would be much quicker and would give you similar range and refill times to fossil fuels. Most people argue that to produce the hydrogen would mean using electric and thus ramp up the CO2 further back up the chain to the power station level. At least there, as another poster pointed out, at least that is a single (or relatively few) points to fix in the chain and if the electric was produced by wind or solar it wouldn't be a problem. I have also seen in Gizmag that there are research projects that have figured out ways to make Hydrogen as part of a desalination plant and another where they were using algae to break down waste matter to produce Hydrogen. The other great benefit is as a petrol head who likes the sound of a thumping V8, that we could be green and still have that great noise! Whereas with electrics you stand the risk of being run over because you didn't hear the damn things coming!?

      --
      Martley, Near Worcester UK.
    62. Re:daily mail reporting by carbonates · · Score: 1

      The article is from a peer-reviewed scientific journal titled "Atmospheric Science,' published by Elsevier. Maybe you need to read the article.

    63. Re:daily mail reporting by slapout · · Score: 1

      To cast doubt on the validity of a source, you decided to use...wikipedia?

      --
      Coder's Stone: The programming language quick ref for iPad
    64. Re:daily mail reporting by Maow · · Score: 1

      CO2 is a form of pollution to be sure

      Please stop breathing. The plants are offended by your stupidity.

      Hey Big Dumb Fuck, how about you breath some air at 50% co2, or even 10% co2 for a while, see how that goes?

      It will certainly solve some stupidity around here.

    65. Re:daily mail reporting by BDF · · Score: 1

      You still haven't validated your idiotic claim that CO2 is a pollutant. By your logic Oxygen, Nitrogen, and every other gas necessary for life is a pollutant because too much of it can be harmful. So I reiterate -- if you think CO2 is a pollutant, do your part. Stop emitting it. Otherwise, let the plants do their job. https://www.youtube.com/watch?...

    66. Re: daily mail reporting by LinuxLuver · · Score: 1

      Typical Liberal-hater can't see FUD from the fossil fuel industry for what it is. In this case, the issue of climate affecting emissions is ignored. Gives the game away really.

      --
      Only boring people are ever bored.
    67. Re:daily mail reporting by BDF · · Score: 1

      Let's also not forget the fact that CO2 would have to increase 150x the current levels to reach 6% (where it would actually become toxic to humans), and if it didn't exist -- we wouldn't exist. It's a required component of the atmosphere for life to exist, not a pollutant.

    68. Re:daily mail reporting by macpacheco · · Score: 1

      Every vehicle that performs regen breaking have little break pad wear. So both pure EV and plugin EV generate very little particulates from break pad wear.
      The argument about tires is like saying, we shouldn't drive at all, cause all tires pollute the environment.
      The whole thing sounds like a huge heap of boloney, we should realize there is such things as scientists for hire that will say pretty much anything whoever pays them enough money tells them to say.

    69. Re:daily mail reporting by Maow · · Score: 1

      You still haven't validated your idiotic claim that CO2 is a pollutant.

      Info here:

      In Massachusetts v. Environmental Protection Agency (in 2007), the US Supreme Court held that the Clean Air Act gives the EPA the authority to regulate tailpipe emissions of greenhouse gases. Two years after the Supreme Court ruling, in 2009 the EPA issued an endangerment finding concluding that

      "greenhouse gases in the atmosphere may reasonably be anticipated both to endanger public health and to endanger public welfare....The major assessments by the U.S. Global Climate Research Program (USGCRP), the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), and the National Research Council (NRC) serve as the primary scientific basis supporting the Administrator’s endangerment finding."

      Greenhouse gases including CO2 unquestionably fit the Clean Air Act's broad definition of "air pollutants," and must be listed and regulated by the EPA if it can be determined that they endanger public heath and/or welfare.
      Alternatively, the definition of "pollution" from Encyclopedia Brittanica is:

      "the addition of any substance (solid, liquid, or gas) or any form of energy (such as heat, sound, or radioactivity) to the environment at a rate faster than it can be dispersed, diluted, decomposed, recycled, or stored in some harmless form."

      Thus legally in the USA, CO2 is an air pollutant which must be regulated if it may endanger publich health or welfare. And according to the encyclopedic definition, CO2 is a pollutant unless our emissions can be stored "harmlessly."

      So, US Supreme Court found it so.

      By your logic Oxygen, Nitrogen, and every other gas necessary for life is a pollutant because too much of it can be harmful.

      Well, 100% nitrogen has been looked at as a method of capital punishment in certain barbaric countries, so yes, one could say that too much is a "pollutant".

      And co2 is used to kill critters in labs when experiments are finished, or in poultry farms when bird flu breaks out.

      So I reiterate -- if you think CO2 is a pollutant, do your part. Stop emitting it.
      Otherwise, let the plants do their job.
      https://www.youtube.com/watch?...

      Plants can't keep up to the gigatons of emissions of sequestered co2 emitted by humans yearly. Only a moron would think they could. Oh wait...

    70. Re:daily mail reporting by Maow · · Score: 1

      It's a required component of the atmosphere for life to exist, not a pollutant.

      Logic fail: you say it's a requirement (true) but therefore that it can't be a pollutant (false).

    71. Re:daily mail reporting by BDF · · Score: 1

      Plants can't keep up to the gigatons of emissions of sequestered co2 emitted by humans yearly.

      Good to know. Apparently we all died of CO2 poisoning. Thanks for enlightening me. Oh, nevermind....human emissions of CO2 (yes, including cars/manufacturing) is a drop in the bucket compared to what nature does regularly. Common sense facts and thousands of years of evidence to the contrary invalidate your baseless argument. Partisan politics in any branch of government does nothing to change a scientific fact. Legislating (from the bench no less), that 2+2 equals five is not a supporting argument. But thank you for re-validating my point. By your logic anything and everything is a pollutant -- because it is POSSIBLE to do bad things with it if you try REALLY hard.

      Well, 100% nitrogen has been looked at as a method of capital punishment in certain barbaric countries, so yes, one could say that too much is a "pollutant".

      And co2 is used to kill critters in labs when experiments are finished, or in poultry farms when bird flu breaks out

      Yep. You can also drown in distilled water. It is, therefore a pollutant. We could go on forever with the bar set this low....

    72. Re: daily mail reporting by Feyshtey · · Score: 1

      Recycled is not the same thing as renewable.

      --
      "But we have to pass the bill so that you can find out what is in it,..." - Nancy Pelosi
    73. Re:daily mail reporting by BDF · · Score: 1

      Actually I said that it is not a pollutant -- it's plant food necessary for the creation of Oxygen and the sustaining of life on Earth. Whether or not it can become one (by combining it with other elements to create something new) is irrelevant. I've also stated that if you disagree so vehemently, that you act on your misguided ideas and stop exhaling. Since you're still here, you've clearly demonstrated that you have no real belief in the fallacy you continue to perpetuate.

    74. Re: daily mail reporting by 400_guru · · Score: 1

      The largest producer in the world of lead for batteries is in fact a plant that recycles lead acid batteries! Lead is VERY recyclable. You may be surprised to find out that the acid from those batteries ends up as a key ingredient of laundry detergent!

      --
      There are two rules to success in life: 1) Don't tell everyone all that you know.
    75. Re:daily mail reporting by Maow · · Score: 1

      Plants can't keep up to the gigatons of emissions of sequestered co2 emitted by humans yearly.

      Good to know. Apparently we all died of CO2 poisoning.

      Obviously your brain did.

      Thanks for enlightening me. Oh, nevermind....human emissions of CO2 (yes, including cars/manufacturing) is a drop in the bucket compared to what nature does regularly. Common sense facts and thousands of years of evidence to the contrary invalidate your baseless argument.

      You're wrong, again, common sense as you apply it is neither common, nor sensible, and the evidence that you failed to provide is also wrong:

      Although our output of 29 gigatons of CO2 is tiny compared to the 750 gigatons moving through the carbon cycle each year, it adds up because the land and ocean cannot absorb all of the extra CO2. About 40% of this additional CO2 is absorbed. The rest remains in the atmosphere, and as a consequence, atmospheric CO2 is at its highest level in 15 to 20 million years (Tripati 2009). (A natural change of 100ppm normally takes 5,000 to 20,000 years. The recent increase of 100ppm has taken just 120 years).

      Read that to your self, out loud and slowly. Check the links at the source if you want - all the way to the original scientific research publications and accompanying data.

      Partisan politics in any branch of government does nothing to change a scientific fact. Legislating (from the bench no less), that 2+2 equals five is not a supporting argument.

      Good thing their decision was based on facts and the only fact you have is ... nothing.

      But thank you for re-validating my point. By your logic anything and everything is a pollutant -- because it is POSSIBLE to do bad things with it if you try REALLY hard.

      A hammer is a tool. It can also be a murder weapon. Why are you finding this concept so difficult?

      Well, 100% nitrogen has been looked at as a method of capital punishment in certain barbaric countries, so yes, one could say that too much is a "pollutant".

      Yep. You can also drown in distilled water. It is, therefore a pollutant.

      If it's in the lungs in sufficient quantities then yes, it could be called a pollutant although that would be stretching the definition, it wouldn't be hugely wrong.

    76. Re:daily mail reporting by BDF · · Score: 1

      Me: human emissions of CO2 are a drop in the bucket compared to what nature does.... You: WRONG AGAIN! You: Citation -- "our output of 29 gigatons of CO2 is tiny compared to the 750 gigatons moving through the carbon cycle each year" I see your point. I am clearly wrong. The plants are still mocking you, but they're glad you kept accurate measurements of atmospheric CO2 levels for the last 20 million years. It's certainly compelling and infallible evidence.

    77. Re:daily mail reporting by Ol+Olsoc · · Score: 1

      Without picking sides, you can't just dismiss this outright. There may be something to this, but it'll need to go through peer review if it hasn't already, in addition to being reproducible.

      People who lie large SUV's better hope to high heaven it is not true. Reading through what I could of the paywalled paper, it does ot come to the conclusion that the daily Mail dos, that electric cars are spewing out Toxins at the rate that diesel engines are.

      The paper notes that weight reduction is a noteworthy goal, not the hyper ventilating "Electric cars are gonna kill us." that's bullshit, and it is a lie for all that matter.

      Here's the rub. Are electric cars the heaviest vehicles on the road? Nope they aren't. Let's take the Cadillac Escalade, which has a cub weight of 5840 pounds. The Tesla Model S has a curb weight of 4,647 pounds. Since the "emissions" are related to weight, like shed tire rubber and brake materials, and the Escalade is almost 1200 pounds heavier, it will shed whatever that weight will make it shed, as well as whatever it's engine produces.

      A denialist level cherry picking of data - not on the part of the scientists, but of the newspaper that published what for all intents and purposes, is what the boys down at the shop call a big damned lie. This is going to be just like the Prius batteries give out at XXXX number of miles and all the other BS that is promoted in anti-electric car circles.

      --
      The shepherds did so well protecting the flock that the sheep no longer believed that wolves existed.
    78. Re:daily mail reporting by BDF · · Score: 1

      Oh....and, a peer-reviewed study published in Quaternary Science Reviews (2013) found that the present day carbon dioxide level of 400 ppm was exceeded — without any human influence — 12,750 years ago when CO2 may have reached up to 425 ppm. Sorry (Tripati 2009).

    79. Re:daily mail reporting by Ol+Olsoc · · Score: 1

      The problem with this kind of "analysis", is that even it it's true - and considering the source that's a significant "IF" - it's also predicated on an unchanging world to further its political agenda.

      Well, the scientists were pretty much pointing out that that further reductions or shed materials were possible, and that weight reduction was a path to doing just that. Makes sense. The whole scary Toxins thing was just a nasty bit of irresponsible reporting that stoops to the level of being a total fabrication.

      Because there isn't anything that an electrical car can shed based on weight that a petrofueled car won't shed as well - because of weight. Looking at the curb weight of a lot of vehicles, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/... , I'm curious if the good newspaper is as concerned about those as well. I suspect not.

      I suspect that they've picked up some cherry picking and fabrication tips from the denialist factions.

      --
      The shepherds did so well protecting the flock that the sheep no longer believed that wolves existed.
    80. Re:daily mail reporting by Ol+Olsoc · · Score: 1

      because my anal smoke detector went off!!!

      Tell your friend to slow down a little!

      --
      The shepherds did so well protecting the flock that the sheep no longer believed that wolves existed.
    81. Re:daily mail reporting by Ol+Olsoc · · Score: 1

      This paper may in fact be absolute nonsense yet you have failed to deliver evidence commensurate with your claim.

      An important question to ask, is - will an internal combustion vehicle of the same weight as an electric vehicle shed less particulate material?

      While not addressed in what I read of the report, it certainly does appear to be based on matter dropped by auto parts such as rubber wear in the wheels, brake pad and rotor wear.

      So until we have that comparison, the Daily Mail's report is less than worthless, very bubble sensationalist, and the report by the scientists is a statement that Captain Obvious might make. That's not remotely shooting the messenger, it's based on simple physics that a 5th grader should understand.

      Because of course a heavier vehicle is going to produce more wear on those components. Electric, diesel, gasoline, woodgas doesn't matter - It's kinda not just reserved for battery powered vehicles.

      And since there are a lot of heavier vehicles running around than the Teslas - the heaviest electrical vehicle I know of - are they now a bigger concern?

      --
      The shepherds did so well protecting the flock that the sheep no longer believed that wolves existed.
    82. Re:daily mail reporting by gzuckier · · Score: 1

      It's actually worse than that:

      Victor R.J.H. Timmers: Listed as the first author. https://uk.linkedin.com/in/vic... [linkedin.com]

      Hmmm... bachelors in engineering. No experience in the automotive field, 2 months experience as a RA studying the environment. Then he started working for INNAS BV as an intern and got first authorship on this paper.

      How about Peter A.J. Achten (second author)? Zero other publications listed, but his contact in ScienceDirect is the address of... INNAS BV.

      Let's see, what does INNAS BV do? http://www.innas.com/fallacies... [innas.com]

      Interesting, looks like they developed the Chiron (R) Free Piston Engine, a two stroke engine that is supposedly "not dirty."

      Convenient of them to put their product, and the paper of the two people that published this... thing... right there on the same page next to each other so we can all see the real motivation of it.

      Sadly, this paper will get batted around the internet and become more and more exaggerated by anyone with an anti-electric agenda like that idiot hit piece comparing a Prius to a Hummer. Yes, that thing is still quoted everywhere and always.

      Address all complaints to vrjhtimmers@gmail.com ... that guy's going to have to change email addresses shortly if this crap paper hits the fan like it probably will.

      Ugh.

      Sam

      A free piston engine? Great! gimme a few. or do they get you on shipping and handling?

      --
      Star Trek transporters are just 3d printers.
    83. Re: daily mail reporting by cwsumner · · Score: 1

      ... Is everybody driving a gasoline vehicle with an automatic transmission automatically "not a very good driver"?

      Yes, actually!

      And get off of my lawn! 8-P

    84. Re: daily mail reporting by Zak3056 · · Score: 1

      Recycled is not the same thing as renewable.

      Close enough, in this instance (I can make short claims with no substance, too).

      --
      What part of "shall not be infringed" is so hard to understand?
    85. Re:daily mail reporting by Maow · · Score: 1

      Me: human emissions of CO2 are a drop in the bucket compared to what nature does....

      You: WRONG AGAIN!

      You: Citation -- "our output of 29 gigatons of CO2 is tiny compared to the 750 gigatons moving through the carbon cycle each year"

      I see your point. I am clearly wrong.

      Glad you finally figured out that adding 3-4% per year from formerly-sequestered storage is problematic - that's impressive that you managed to understand the concept.

      Apology accepted.

      The plants are still mocking you, but they're glad you kept accurate measurements of atmospheric CO2 levels for the last 20 million years. It's certainly compelling and infallible evidence.

      It is compelling, though not "infallible". You see, there's this thing called "science" - you seem to not have heard about it.

      They do this thing called "research" where they try to find out facts about things. Supposedly it works better at modelling reality than pulling ideas out of one's ass.

      You really ought to check it out, they do some pretty impressive stuff in a wide variety of fields.

    86. Re:daily mail reporting by Maow · · Score: 1

      Oh....and, a peer-reviewed study published in Quaternary Science Reviews (2013) found that the present day carbon dioxide level of 400 ppm was exceeded — without any human influence — 12,750 years ago when CO2 may have reached up to 425 ppm. Sorry (Tripati 2009).

      That may be, so how did humans 12,750 years ago feed 7+ billion people from acidifying oceans and changing agricultural patterns?

      And how many cities of 1 million or more people did they have situated on ocean shores?

      Maybe if we can figure out how they did it then, we could use their techniques for dealing with it now and in the future.

    87. Re:daily mail reporting by RabidReindeer · · Score: 1

      Well, if I'm not missing out, the reason that these obese Big Mac-stuffed Hummer drivers (OK, that was nasty, but it was fun) are so up in arms isn't about weight per se, it's about toxins, and toxins due to weight. So if they are really so concerned about the environment and they think that only petro-fueled vehicle can save it, then they should shed a few pounds and trade in the Hummers for Mini Coopers.

      Some toxins are unique to gasoline-powered vehicles. Some are unique to diesel, some to electric vehicles and so on. Some, such as brake dust are going to be pretty common to almost every type of vehicle.

      The solution isn't to sit around and wail about how bad any alternatives are, it's to put some effort into mitigating the problems that the alternatives bring. Just, to cycle back to the beginning of what I said, like we did 100 years ago with internal combustion.

    88. Re:daily mail reporting by ArmoredDragon · · Score: 1

      Ah yes, the old "peer review" is what makes things real, argument. Appeal to authority much?

      I personally couldn't care less about your opinion.

    89. Re: daily mail reporting by Feyshtey · · Score: 1

      Thank you sincerely, you self-righteous, petty dipshit.

      In point of fact, I have a great deal of respect for Musk, Tesla Motors and the designs they have created. I mean, hell, they are badass vehicles. I double that respect for the reason that Musk has made many (all?) of his patents freely available for the open market in hopes that his designs can be used by both established manufacturers and entrepreneurs. And then his passion for space exploration puts the icing on the cake.

      But we weren't talking specifically about Musk, were we.

      No, we were talking about one fucking moron who made a blanket statement that "electricity is renewable". To a degree, yes, it is, provided the SOURCE of the electricity is. It's not when the source is a coal plant, and it cracks me up to no end when coworkers sit there and pat themselves on the back for how responsible they are for driving their fully electric (non-Musk) shitbox and I know it is being fueled every day by the coal plant that powers our region.

      Electricity is renewable when it's solar, wind or hydro. But even then there's an environmental cost. Something has to store that power. And batteries are notoriously nasty contraptions. They are getting better. They are getting more and more recyclable. They are getting safer. But no intellectually honest person would ever claim they are "free". To do so shows bias, ignorance and stupidity.

      And why is it that zealots of the church of environmentalism (do not mistake that for actual environmentalists) can tell me every damn second of every day that a naturally occuring gas in the atmosphere that plants must have and thrive on when the concentration rises is causing the planet's weather to dramatically change, but somehow absorbing the energy from the sun before it hit's the planet's surface, taking the energy from the planet's running water, and taking the energy from the wind that moves our weather around won't also have a marked impact on the planet's weather patterns as they are put into greater and greater use? Are there any studies deeply investigating that?

      https://weather.com/science/en...

      Oops.
      I guess they are.
      And I guess it does.

      Read as; Not Free. There is an environmental cost in manufacturing, and directly in application.

      I know its convenient to throw "Renewable" around like a fucking hand grenade and hope that people will just scatter rather than actually engage you. But eventually people like you are going to have to stop the Gregorian Earth chant long enough to actually discuss your bullshit.
      ,,,

      --
      "But we have to pass the bill so that you can find out what is in it,..." - Nancy Pelosi
    90. Re: daily mail reporting by Feyshtey · · Score: 1

      See my response to the Anonymous Coward's reply above.

      --
      "But we have to pass the bill so that you can find out what is in it,..." - Nancy Pelosi
    91. Re: daily mail reporting by Zak3056 · · Score: 1

      Thanks for more than a one liner, but I've gotta ask: what, exactly, does that have to do with batteries? Batteries are, in fact, extremely recyclable--they are probably the poster child for recycling, since the whole damn battery gets reused in the process and (unlike aluminum recycling) the process is not especially energy intensive. If I wanted to call a physical product "renewable" the battery would probably be the first thing that came to mind.

      FWIW, I do agree with your general hatred of the abuse of the term, but in this case, it actually does fit.

      --
      What part of "shall not be infringed" is so hard to understand?
    92. Re:daily mail reporting by Mr.CRC · · Score: 1

      You also couldn't refute it, and did a piss poor job of hiding that fact. Fuck off.

  2. Heh heh by rmdingler · · Score: 1, Offtopic

    Same preface as the Exxon/Mobil employee handbook.

    --
    Happiness in intelligent people is the rarest thing I know.

    Ernest Hemingway

    1. Re:Heh heh by Bing+Tsher+E · · Score: 1

      It's all a conspiracy, by Big Oryl!

    2. Re:Heh heh by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      Of course it is. Not to say it couldn't be true, but as it happens, the paper they published costs $$$ to obtain and verify. When someone actually verifies the results and "translates" them to real-world language, nobody will remember anything about the original paper. All it'll leave around is this lingering FUD.

    3. Re:Heh heh by Feyshtey · · Score: 1

      Hell, go further than that. Utilize the attorneys general of states to threaten to prosecute anyone who delivers a message counter to your agenda.

      --
      "But we have to pass the bill so that you can find out what is in it,..." - Nancy Pelosi
    4. Re:Heh heh by samwichse · · Score: 1

      Well, let's just take a little look at who published this, eh?

      Victor R.J.H. Timmers: Listed as the first author.
      https://uk.linkedin.com/in/vic...

      Hmmm... bachelors in engineering. No experience in the automotive field, 2 months experience as a RA studying the environment. Then he started working for INNAS BV as an intern and got first authorship on this paper.

      How about Peter A.J. Achten (second author)?
      Zero other publications listed, but his contact in ScienceDirect is the address of... INNAS BV.

      Let's see, what does INNAS BV do?
      http://www.innas.com/fallacies...

      Interesting, looks like they developed the Chiron (R) Free Piston Engine, a two stroke engine that is supposedly "not dirty."

      Convenient of them to put their product, and the paper of the two people that published this... thing... right there on the same page next to each other so we can all see the real motivation of it.

      Sadly, this paper will get batted around the internet and become more and more exaggerated by anyone with an anti-electric agenda like that idiot hit piece comparing a Prius to a Hummer. Yes, that thing is still quoted everywhere and always.

      Address all complaints to vrjhtimmers@gmail.com ... that guy's going to have to change email addresses shortly if this crap paper hits the fan like it probably will.

      Ugh.

      Sam

    5. Re:Heh heh by samwichse · · Score: 1

      Sorry to reply to my own post, but as an addendum: at what point are an intern and an engineer "scientists?"

    6. Re:Heh heh by KGIII · · Score: 1

      When, and if, they follow the scientific method.

      --
      "So long and thanks for all the fish."
    7. Re:Heh heh by cwsumner · · Score: 1

      ... at what point are an intern and an engineer "scientists?"

      When, and if, they follow the scientific method.

      And also, Engineers know a lot more about what is real than any "scientist".

      Of course, just because someone calls themselves an engineer, or a scientist, doesn't mean they really are.

  3. Occam's razor by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Insightful

    Everyone is familiar with the smell of internal combustion.

    You need pretty extreme conditions to smell the brakes or tires.

    Are you smelling brakes and tires a lot now?

    1. Re: Occam's razor by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Funny

      Sounds pretty sciency

    2. Re:Occam's razor by fluffernutter · · Score: 1, Interesting

      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.
    3. Re:Occam's razor by DaHat · · Score: 1

      Under what circumstances are you able to smell your own car... when I assume you are driving it?

      I've a 'certified used' 2011 boring mini SUV which I discovered that often at stoplights when I had the fans blowing I could eventually smell exhaust in the vehicle... which turned out to be due to a cracked exhaust manifold (and the position of the air intake for the cabin), which when replaced things were fine again.

      When a car drives down the road in front of my house I don't smell them, when I'm waiting at a cross walk I don't smell the cars near by puffing away.

      On rare occasion I will be following a rather old vehicle which puts off a visible puff of exhaust and I may catch a whiff... but otherwise... not so much.

    4. Re:Occam's razor by DaHat · · Score: 1

      Given I've got a remote start which I remember to use on occasion... I have engaged in most of the activities you specified without smelling anything (both with this vehicle, as well as a 2002 model from another make & model) ... perhaps you need to get your particular unit into a mechanic to be checked out.

    5. Re:Occam's razor by marcello_dl · · Score: 4, Insightful

      You probably live among cars smell, so you probably filter it out. I remember coming from the nearby mountains and getting out of the car in the city, appalling.

      Anyway as you say smell is subjective.

      Let us talk about the volume of vaporized stuff, this study says basically that modern cars let out less fuel fumes in 50000 km than the volume differential between new and used braking pads and tires.

      I say somebody has misplaced a decimal point somewhere or is still using the fuel consumption data of volkswagen.

      --
      ---- MISSING MISCELLANEOUS DATA SEGMENT --- [sigdash] trolololol
    6. Re:Occam's razor by Mashiki · · Score: 1

      You need pretty extreme conditions to smell the brakes or tires.

      Are you smelling brakes and tires a lot now?

      Nope you don't. You only need to get the brakes hot, lots of stop and go traffic like you see in cities will do that. And for tires all you need is a hot day(25-30C) on asphalt and you'll start to smell the tires. Anyone who lives near a busy highway(within 5km) will know that smell right off the bat. Kinda different on a lot of the newer cars though, since anything made in the last 4 years will likely use ceramic brake pads, and that has a very distinct odor. Since the shoes no longer get hot enough to smell, you'll actually start to smell the brake fluid in extreme cases which has a very sweet-sharp smell to it.

      Funny thing about internal combustion engines though, anyone who ever apprenticed as a mechanic will know this one. You can tell how well a car is running just by the smell. It should have an almost sweet almond like odor to it. Anything else like oily, sharp stink, or sulpher like and there's problems.

      --
      Om, nomnomnom...
    7. Re:Occam's razor by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      Smoke and mirrors.

      Electric cars may be heavier than a more typical car of the same class, but people are still driving hugely inappropriate cars instead of taking transit or carpooling.

      Like, flip the argument around, this article thus implies:
      - That fat people that drive are contributing more to the vehicle wear, thus increasing pollution
      - That driving heavy trucks (that people actually need for work) cause more pollution than a passenger car

      So logically we should ban obese people from driving. Right? Isn't that the logical conclusion to draw from this? Take away their mobility scooters too.

      About the only thing the article has going for it. It omits taking into consideration regenerative braking for example, where as in a conventional fuel car, all braking is done manually, and people tend to slam on the brakes, thus increasing the wear rate. Once automated driving comes a long, this issue will be a non-issue because automated vehicles will avoid using the brakepads except to hold the car in park.

      Only the tire and road wear can really be considered an issue, and todays electric cars are actually lighter than cars produced in the 70's, back when cars used to be all-steel. Todays cars tend to contain a lot of plastic and fiberglass. So really, the argument is circular, "electric cars are heavier, thus wear through tires and road faster" but really it's "tires and road surfaces cause pollution, and's caused by extra weight, everyone better stay in their house." Really, if that weight isn't in the car, it's in the passengers, and you only get around that by walking and taking rail transit, and even then you're wearing through the rubber in your shoes and the sidewalk anyway.

    8. Re:Occam's razor by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Interesting

      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.

    9. Re:Occam's razor by gnupun · · Score: 1

      Are you smelling brakes and tires a lot now?

      Actually, it's tires, brakes and roads. We know roads deteriorate within 5 to 7 years of use -- most of the road surface is no longer smooth and has to be repaved. So where did the road material go, other than emissions? Roads are manufactured from raw materials that are byproducts of petroleum processing. My guess is tires and brakepads are a tiny portion ( 10%) of these emissions.

    10. Re:Occam's razor by mrchaotica · · Score: 1

      I definitely smell the brakes and tires of my '90 Miata occasionally (usually due to [legal] racing or enthusiastic driving), but never smell the exhaust.

      --

      "[Regarding the 'cloud,'] ownership was what made America different than Russia." -- Woz

    11. Re:Occam's razor by mrchaotica · · Score: 1

      Most electric cars are of the small variety, weighing about a ton. Compare to 2.5 ton SUVs.

      No, that would be stupid. Compare to actually-comparable conventional small cars, such as Civics and Corollas. (Or Fits and Yarises, depending on just how small the EV in question is.)

      --

      "[Regarding the 'cloud,'] ownership was what made America different than Russia." -- Woz

    12. Re:Occam's razor by MightyYar · · Score: 1

      this study says basically that modern cars let out less fuel fumes in 50000 km than the volume differential between new and used braking pads and tires.

      No, the study says that modern GASOLINE cars let out fewer PARTICULATES than the volume differential between new and used braking pads, tires, and road surface. This is reasonable, since there isn't very much particulate emissions from a modern gasoline engine.

      --
      W..w..W - Willy Waterloo washes Warren Wiggins who is washing Waldo Woo.
    13. Re:Occam's razor by bluefoxlucid · · Score: 2

      Roads get water in cracks, which freezes and expands, damaging the road surface by prying it open. Cracks form by hot and cold expansion during day/night cycles from the sun shining on them and from patterns in driving. Enough small cracks without a freeze-thaw cycle will leave bits of road unsupported, meaning your road is made up of protruding pencil-eraser-sized platforms instead of one flat sheet, and the stress of a moving or braking vehicle wiggles these until they break apart (and the edges chip etc.).

      Old road material gets crushed up and mixed with substrate.

    14. Re:Occam's razor by BostonPilot · · Score: 1

      Yeah, and the other thing that wasn't mentioned is that most electric & hybrid vehicles use regenerative braking, so electric vehicles should produce much less brake dust than conventional vehicles.

      So, maybe just tires and whatever the road is made of. Somehow doesn't seem that much, but maybe we're just used to it.

      The article does, at the bottom, point out that reduction in CO2 is still a big advantage of electric vehicles.

    15. Re:Occam's razor by ceoyoyo · · Score: 1

      There's quite a bit of tire dust off roads. I'd be surprised if brake dust contributed much, but might as well throw it in. The particulate emissions in modern gasoline car exhaust is extremely low, so it's not terribly surprising that tire dust is responsible for the majority.

    16. Re:Occam's razor by fluffernutter · · Score: 1

      I have a lot of soot on my rims, come to think of it.

      --
      Laws are rules for the court, but merely a bottom bar to hit for life. Think beyond laws in your actions always.
    17. Re:Occam's razor by gzuckier · · Score: 1

      You probably live among cars smell, so you probably filter it out. I remember coming from the nearby mountains and getting out of the car in the city, appalling.

      Anyway as you say smell is subjective.

      Let us talk about the volume of vaporized stuff, this study says basically that modern cars let out less fuel fumes in 50000 km than the volume differential between new and used braking pads and tires.

      I say somebody has misplaced a decimal point somewhere or is still using the fuel consumption data of volkswagen.

      the usual talking point is that current vehicles emit fewer emissions driving full blast than pre-emissions control cars did just sitting there, from evaporation in tanks vented to the atmosphere.
      haven't measured it myself

      --
      Star Trek transporters are just 3d printers.
  4. Brought to you and paid for by by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

    the Petroleum Institute and Oil Producing Export Countries.

    1. Re:Brought to you and paid for by by TheMiddleRoad · · Score: 1

      No shit!

  5. Does The Paper Account For Regenerative Braking? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Interesting

    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?

  6. Brakes? Tires? by Moof123 · · Score: 5, Informative

    Who knew that stuff was so deadly toxic? Really?

    First off, electric cars use their brake pads less, not more. Regenerative brakes do most of the work, and the brakes last 2-3x longer than a regular gasoline car. Tire do last a little less long, but most of those are big particles, and I have never heard of tire dust being considered a major health risk.

    Sounds like a hatchet job...

  7. So if it's all about weight... by hyades1 · · Score: 4, Insightful

    According to this, we should obviously ban trucks from city streets. How many cars would it take to equal the weight of an 18-wheel rolling warehouse loaded with plates, cutlery and mini-fridges for Walmart?

    --
    I've calculated my velocity with such exquisite precision that I have no idea where I am.
    1. Re: So if it's all about weight... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      THANK YOU! No one ever talks about the 18 wheeled elephant in the room.

    2. Re:So if it's all about weight... by mykepredko · · Score: 3, Insightful

      What about SUVs and light duty trucks?

      According to the WSJ (http://online.wsj.com/mdc/public/page/2_3022-autosales.html) more light duty trucks are sold than cars.

    3. Re: So if it's all about weight... by hyades1 · · Score: 1

      You're very welcome. And I'm glad to see I wasn't the only one here to mention them.

      --
      I've calculated my velocity with such exquisite precision that I have no idea where I am.
    4. Re:So if it's all about weight... by hyades1 · · Score: 1

      Excellent point.

      --
      I've calculated my velocity with such exquisite precision that I have no idea where I am.
    5. Re:So if it's all about weight... by hyades1 · · Score: 1

      Thanks. I meant that as a rhetorical question, but you gave me a really interesting answer to it.

      --
      I've calculated my velocity with such exquisite precision that I have no idea where I am.
    6. Re:So if it's all about weight... by eth1 · · Score: 1

      According to this, we should obviously ban trucks from city streets. How many cars would it take to equal the weight of an 18-wheel rolling warehouse loaded with plates, cutlery and mini-fridges for Walmart?

      Enough that their total weight and combined emissions would be more than that of the tractor-trailer rig that's required to carry the same amount of goods to where they need to be?

    7. Re:So if it's all about weight... by slinches · · Score: 1

      Banning trucks might be a difficult task, but we could drastically reduce the average vehicle weight and reduce commuter fuel consumption/emissions to 1/3 of what it is today if everyone drove these to work: Elio

      ~1300lbs, 84/49 hwy/city mpg, fully enclosed, A/C, heat and seats two. The best part is that they will only cost $6800. That's low enough that it will pay for itself in just fuel savings so you can buy one to go alongside your family vehicle.

      --
      Knowledge Brings Fear
    8. Re:So if it's all about weight... by rwa2 · · Score: 1

      Shhh, just be quiet and maybe they'll ban speedbumps

  8. FUD!! by rgbe · · Score: 1

    Electric and hybrid cars use regenerative breaking, such that when the driver brakes lightly the car will use the electric motor as a generator and recharge the battery, hence the braking emissions would be largely reduced. Heavy breaking will use the disc brakes as well as regenerative braking at the same time, so there will be some emissions then, but still less than classical vehicles.

    1. Re:FUD!! by rhubarb42 · · Score: 1

      yes. this "science" will now be quoted by the EV haters as justification to hate them more.

    2. Re:FUD!! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      "use regenerative breaking"

      No, no they don't... They rarely break at all, as a matter of fact.

      " when the driver brakes"

      Here you got it right.

      " Heavy breaking will use the disc brakes as well as regenerative braking "

      Dude, it's not a fucking coin toss.

    3. Re:FUD!! by rgbe · · Score: 1

      Thanks for pointing out the typos. My spelin is bahd at the best of tymes.

    4. Re:FUD!! by EvilSS · · Score: 1

      Electric and hybrid cars use regenerative breaking, such that when the driver brakes lightly the car will use the electric motor as a generator and recharge the battery, hence the braking emissions would be largely reduced. Heavy breaking will use the disc brakes as well as regenerative braking at the same time, so there will be some emissions then, but still less than classical vehicles.

      Which is why the paper lists their brake emissions as 0 mg/vkm.

      --
      I browse on +1 so AC's need not respond, I won't see it.
  9. except for Tesla they aren't that heavy by YesIAmAScript · · Score: 4, Insightful

    And they also cut down on brake dust by using regenerative braking as much as possible.

    I think there's some room to move here, to ensure EVs are better on particulates.

    Maybe we have to discourage the purchase of 6,000lb Teslas and instead encourage the purchase of 3600lb LEAFs and Bolts.

    This thing that particulates being widely considered the most harmful form of air pollution is also new to me. They're a serious problem for sure, but I think other trace emissions like NOx are still quite significant. And that's all ignoring CO2.

    --
    http://lkml.org/lkml/2005/8/20/95
    1. Re:except for Tesla they aren't that heavy by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      This should not be down modded. there are assholes that mod their diesel pickups to emit more soot then factory settings would, by a long shot. Its called rolling coal. Google it. This isn't some farmer with a dirty pickup he drives into the city twice a year. this is dumb redneck kids putting oversized injectors in their over sized truck just to blow soot in the faces of passersby.

      The only reason they do it is to be fucking dickheads to environmentally conscious people, motorcyclists, and pedestrians. And people are bitching about brake dust and tire wear? Well look to tractor trailers. Most of that shit should be on a train anyways.

    2. Re:except for Tesla they aren't that heavy by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      Maybe we have to discourage the purchase of 6,000lb Teslas and instead encourage the purchase of 3600lb LEAFs and Bolts.

      While I agree with the sentiment, those cars are still extremely heavy compared to similar-sized diesel or petrol cars. It would probably be good to focus on improving tyre compounds to reduce wear and to make the compounds such that the particles that are produced break down quickly into harmless materials.

      This thing that particulates being widely considered the most harmful form of air pollution is also new to me. They're a serious problem for sure, but I think other trace emissions like NOx are still quite significant. And that's all ignoring CO2.

      Particulates have been the main focus of air quality improvement programmes for the last few decades because of their effects on human health. NOx is essentially irrelevant in current atmospheric conditions almost everywhere. CO2 is not a pollutant, it's a greenhouse gas. That's an entirely different problem than air pollution.

    3. Re:except for Tesla they aren't that heavy by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      I show a curb weight of closer to 4600 pounds for the Tesla model S. That's a lot more than an Accord, but a proper comparison would be with the BMW 7 series or Mercedes S class. The BMW is a little lighter, while the Mercedes is similar.

      If everyone just cared about particulate emissions, we'd be driving tiny cars.

      Right now, expensive cars are typically also heavy (which also makes them do better in accidents, where they do more damage to other vehicles, and take less damage in return). Electric cars are typically expensive, so the people that buy electric cars would probably be buying other heavy vehicles.

    4. Re:except for Tesla they aren't that heavy by drinkypoo · · Score: 2

      If particulates are now such a huge problem,

      Not just now. They always have been, especially the smallest particles. This fact is NOT NEWS. (The study is crap, but particulates are real, and I am talking about them.)

      why isn't even redneck moron with a purposefully black-cloud beltching Cummin's not sitting in jail for environmental terrorism.

      They should be, and it is in fact illegal to tune your vehicle to "roll coal". However, it's not actually about the particulates. What is in fact the worst automotive emission is not particulates but unburned hydrocarbons, AKA "raw fuel". How do you roll coal? By making your vehicle inject excessive fuel for the incoming air. Not only do you make more soot, but you also pass unburned fuel.

      Sadly, MERICA FUCK YEAH

      --
      "You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
    5. Re:except for Tesla they aren't that heavy by EvilSS · · Score: 2

      And they also cut down on brake dust by using regenerative braking as much as possible.

      I think there's some room to move here, to ensure EVs are better on particulates.

      Maybe we have to discourage the purchase of 6,000lb Teslas and instead encourage the purchase of 3600lb LEAFs and Bolts.

      This thing that particulates being widely considered the most harmful form of air pollution is also new to me. They're a serious problem for sure, but I think other trace emissions like NOx are still quite significant. And that's all ignoring CO2.

      The paper takes this into account and lists brake emissions as 0 mg/vkm for EVs.

      --
      I browse on +1 so AC's need not respond, I won't see it.
  10. Brakes on EV's last LONGER than on ICE vehicles by rhubarb42 · · Score: 1

    Regenerative braking does NOT use the brake pads. So how can they produce more pollution? Blaming EV's for stirring up tire materials on the road put there by every vehicle is disingenuous as well.. Bad science.

    1. Re:Brakes on EV's last LONGER than on ICE vehicles by rhubarb42 · · Score: 2

      actually HEAVY cars polluted greatly. Singling out EV's merely to make that point is disingenuous. SUV's pollute more than sedans could easily be the headline. Yes i own an EV and it's better on so many levels of public policy. Decreasing weight will increase the EV range. So i suspect if they can cut weight, they will. Batteries may become lighter for same power density. ICE's will never not emit pollutants associated with burning carbon fuel. .EV's can if they source from renewable. And guess what, the electric market is slowly moving that way.

  11. Re:Does The Paper Account For Regenerative Braking by Adriax · · Score: 2

    Do they account for the fact not every car is a 500lb sub-compact? I find the 24% heavier data point bogus as I watch SUVs and heavy duty trucks drive by.

    --
    I don't suffer from insanity, I enjoy every minute of it!
  12. Re:Brakes? Tires? by rgbe · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Not only that, the disc pads on a vehicle are very small compared with the fuel burned. Imagine a 0.1kg brake pad that lasts 200,000km verses 160'000 Litres of fuel burned over the same distance.

  13. Re:Brakes? Tires? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    You ever wonder why there aren't piles of rubber dust on the sides of the interstate? I used to wonder as well. IIRC, the UV rays from the sun break the rubber down into smaller organic molecules. Seems like they're making a bigger deal out of tire pollution as well.

  14. Missing the point by blackwizard · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Obviously driving has environmental impacts. This is not news. Bringing this up reminds me of this essay:

    http://www.abstractconcretewor...

    But when comparing the two classes of vehicles, the entire supply chain needs to be considered. You can use existing electrical infrastructure (and possibly renewable energy) to charge an electric vehicle. For a traditionally-fueled vehicle, you need to consider exploration, extraction, refinery, transportation, and disaster mitigation.

    I think the lesser of two evils is clear.

    1. Re:Missing the point by BlueLightning · · Score: 2

      Correct - except don't forget to factor in the manufacturing of the batteries, which will probably also need replacing after 10 years (though many will probably replace the entire car within that timeframe).

    2. Re:Missing the point by riverat1 · · Score: 3, Informative

      When those batteries get replaced they still have a lot of life left in them. What's the standard for replacing EV batteries? When they're down to 80% of the original range? With all that life left in them they can be moved to stationary installations where weight and volume don't matter so much and be useful for years to come.

    3. Re:Missing the point by Phydeaux · · Score: 1

      Ah, you must live near one of those naturally occurring lithium battery fields I've been hearing so much about. You know, the ones where chaste young women frolic out into the fields with wicker baskets and collect the full-grown batteries just as they reach the peak of ripeness, in a wholly sustainable and zero-emission farming collective?

      No? What? You mean you need to find and then mine the base ore in Argentina or Brazil, transport it to China, extract it, refine it, ship it across the Pacific Ocean yet again to the USA and then turn it into batteries? Then you need to worry about the toxic chemicals used in the manufacturing (and recycling and recovery) of the lithium. You know, like disaster mitigation. Cause you've got to put the overburden someplace, right?

      You are correct Sir, I think the lesser of two evils is clear.

    4. Re:Missing the point by marcello_dl · · Score: 1

      Do Not Touch My Rac.

      --
      ---- MISSING MISCELLANEOUS DATA SEGMENT --- [sigdash] trolololol
    5. Re:Missing the point by AmiMoJo · · Score: 4, Interesting

      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.

      --
      const int one = 65536; (Silvermoon, Texture.cs)
      SJW, n: "Someone I don't like, and by the way I'm a fuckwit" - AC
    6. Re:Missing the point by burtosis · · Score: 1

      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.

      While those numbers seem reasonable for short term use you are leaving off the time component. Batteries age and lose capacity even if they undergo zero charge discharge cycles. The batteries in cars are no different.

    7. Re:Missing the point by jlv · · Score: 2

      I don't think there are many LEAFs that "have barely any degradation" after 150k miles. The original battery chemistry in the 2011 and 2012 models (when it was first introduced) have had terrible battery capacity losses, especially in hot climates. It's reported all over at MNL. A typical one: http://mynissanleaf.com/viewto... Many folks with LEAFs that are 4+ years old have been getting warranty replacements of the battery pack.

      (In fact, I don't think there are that many LEAFs at 150k miles total yet)

      What's the standard for replacing EV batteries?

      In the LEAF community, there isn't a standard. You only replace it if the cost of a new pack ($6K) is worth what it adds to the range of your vehicle. Alternately, if it hasn't lived up to the guarantees under the warranty, and you can get a replacement for free. Nissan's warranty is it will hold more than 8 of 12 capacity bars (as shown on the dash); that's not 66%, since the as people have discovered over time the bars are not completely linear. Hence the subject of the above linked post: the owner wants to know when he'll lose the 4th bar in order to qualify for a warranty replacement.

      Not all older LEAFs are fairing so badly. My LEAF is down to 94% capacity after 2 years and 20K miles in New England weather. This is with the 2013 battery pack which has (overall) held up better than the 2011/2012s.

      That said, a used LEAF with 30% capacity loss is still a car that can travel 50+ miles one-way, which is more than enough for many commutes. This is why used LEAFs selling for $9K are a bargain.

    8. Re:Missing the point by mrchaotica · · Score: 1

      For a traditionally-fueled vehicle, you need to consider exploration, extraction, refinery, transportation, and disaster mitigation.

      My "traditionally-fueled vehicle" (well, one of them anyway) runs on modified vegetable oil, "extracted" from restaurant grease traps and "refined" by filtering, adding alcohol to cause transesterification, and washing to remove the soap.

      --

      "[Regarding the 'cloud,'] ownership was what made America different than Russia." -- Woz

    9. Re:Missing the point by AmiMoJo · · Score: 1

      The very early packs had faults that reduced their life span. Nissan fixed them with free replacements. The new ones don't have any such issues. In fact, in 2016 models Nissan has removed the 80% "long life" charge option because it proved unnecessary.

      Also, Nissan has never sold a single replacement battery to a customer. They have replaced some under warranty due to faults, but never actually sold one to someone who just wore their pack out.

      You also have to remember that pack degradation isn't linear. You tend to lose 5-6% in the first couple of years / 20k miles, but then it levels off around 92-94%. It's a lot like hard drive mortality - you get some die really really early (the battery is made up of thousands of individual cells) and then most will have a normal lifespan. Plus the chemistry just works that way, the losses are not linear with use.

      --
      const int one = 65536; (Silvermoon, Texture.cs)
      SJW, n: "Someone I don't like, and by the way I'm a fuckwit" - AC
  15. From the same people who brought you... by dimethylxanthine · · Score: 3, Insightful
    ...such studies as:
    • "Global warming doesn't exist"
    • "Smoking can be good for you", and
    • "Go back to bed America, your fat lobbyists are in control. Oh, and keep drinking Bud you fucking morons!"
  16. How do you eat an elephant? by TWX · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Answer is one bite at a time.

    Gotta start somewhere. Sorry petroleum industry, but it looks like the focus of your products will have to change. Trying to forestall it with claims so transparent even auto enthusiasts are embarrassed by them won't help.

    Whatever remaining aspects of pollution from electric cars can be addressed in-time.

    --
    Do not look into laser with remaining eye.
  17. Toxins != carbon by jonnythan · · Score: 1

    This is talking about particulate matter and toxic substances released into the air during operation. Modern ICEs are really incredibly clean when it comes to these emissions.

    It is NOT talking about carbon emissions. ICE vehicles emit carbon as they burn fuel, and electric vehicles do not. Electric vehicles can be 100% carbon-neutral in operation if they are charged by appropriate technologies (solar, wind, etc).

    1. Re:Toxins != carbon by whoever57 · · Score: 2

      It also equates particulate matter from tyre and brake wear to that of particulates in diesel emissions. Is this valid? Are the particles similarly sized?

      --
      The real "Libtards" are the Libertarians!
    2. Re:Toxins != carbon by drinkypoo · · Score: 1

      This is talking about particulate matter and toxic substances released into the air during operation. Modern ICEs are really incredibly clean when it comes to these emissions.

      False. They produce just as much soot as ever, it's just finer particles now. And those finer particles are more dangerous, because your cilia can't sweep particles smaller than about 5 microns out of your lungs at all. The PM2.5 stuff that gasoline engines make and that diesels with catalysts make is the most dangerous kind of all, and gassers make just as much of it as diesels. Because you can't see the particles, and because modern vehicles are very good at burning all the hydrocarbons (the part you can smell) you think they've gone away, but they haven't. They've just gotten smaller and more dangerous.

      For diesel, the fix is to go back to not using catalysts, and using only carbon-neutral fuel, along with ultra-efficient drive cycles which do cost fuel, but which reduce emissions. This is in fact the fix for the VWs... it's a software tweak that will reduce their power output, but which will fix their emissions right up. Of course, it reduces mileage as well, but they still retain good mileage and diesel fuel still takes less energy to produce than gasoline, so that's still a win for energy efficiency. For gasoline, the fix is to throw them away and replace them with EVs. You can't make the soot particles bigger because of the nature of the fuel. There's literally no fix.

      --
      "You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
  18. Conflict of interest? by De_Boswachter · · Score: 2

    I could not read the Elsevier (almost synonymous for low impact factor) article, since it's behind a paywall. So I could not see whether the authors had declared conflict of interest in the acknowledgements section of the paper, or by what money the study was funded.

    However, I did find the following: Peter A.J. Achten works at INNAS BV, Breda, the Netherlands, a company that manufactures hydraulic systems for hybrids and fuel-efficient cars and free-piston diesel engines.

    1. Re:Conflict of interest? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Informative

      If you know about Evilsevier you should know about http://sci-hub.cc/

      Here's the direct link to the paper.

  19. Re:Does The Paper Account For Regenerative Braking by pem · · Score: 4, Insightful

    I have first-hand knowledge that pads aren't used much with an electric car, and second-hand knowledge that that's how it works with a hybrid, as well -- my co-worker with the hybrid said the people at the garage marvelled at the lack of brake pad residue.

  20. Re:Does The Paper Account For Regenerative Braking by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Interesting

    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.

  21. Re:Does The Paper Account For Regenerative Braking by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    From the paper: "...brake wear of EVs tends to be lower because of their regenerative brakes ...so we have assumed a conservative estimate of zero brake wear emissions for EVs"

  22. Re:Once again, hydrogen looks to be the future by Ksevio · · Score: 1

    But hydrogen has terrible energy density and we don't have widespread distribution networks for it. Ultimately it'd just be a battery for an electric car that's not as good as other options.

  23. Re:Once again, hydrogen looks to be the future by rubycodez · · Score: 1

    Most hydrogen comes from steam acting on hydrocarbon fuel, the electricity for making the steam also from burning hydrocarbon fuel. Glad you like to keep big petro in business, Trump is your man

  24. Re:Good enough for me by gfxguy · · Score: 1

    And when people don't like it, all you have to do is put up walls around the city to keep them from leaving. Problem solved.

    --
    Stupid sexy Flanders.
  25. Re: Once again, hydrogen looks to be the future by alucardX · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Hydrogen is not a better way to store energy for electric drive cars. You need to do more research if you really believe this.

  26. Re:Brakes? Tires? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    Yes - how are the emissions from tires on EVs different than ICE cars? And definitely have to double down on the brakes - due to regenerative braking, I finally had to replace the pads on my Prius - at 160000 miles (the battery is still doing fine). So if you want to attack EVs then go after the additional initial energy expenditure and emissions when the car (and its components) are produced.(one of the reasons the best thing to do is rive a car until it's engine fails emissions).

  27. Re:Does The Paper Account For Regenerative Braking by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Insightful

    My boss had to replace the front brake pads on his Prius after ten years and 120,000 miles. The rear ones are still good.

  28. Yay for weight reduction! by nintendoeats · · Score: 1

    The fact that toxic emissions are primarily not from the ICE is news to me and very interesting. Further, it is nice to see a second reason for the EPA to encourage low vehicle weights. Thanks to safety equipment (which, to be clear, I am happy to have) and increasingly absurd amounts of automation, cars have become substantially heavier even as materials science has made strides. Weight doesn't have much of an effect on highway fuel economy and in North America that is more important than in-town for most people. The side-effect has been that low-cost cars aren't as fast or lively in the corners as they could be. As a person who will take weight-savings over displacement any day, things haven't really been going my way. Any impetus for regulation to focus on weight will make things better for everyone, car lovers and people who just want to get from A to B.

    As for EVs, this sounds like another problem that is looking for new battery tech. I still feel like the EV needs another 20 years or so. That said, I'd strangle a sea-monkey for any Tesla as a second (erm, third) car.

    1. Re:Yay for weight reduction! by TheMiddleRoad · · Score: 1

      The paper is bullshit.

    2. Re:Yay for weight reduction! by nintendoeats · · Score: 1

      Why?

    3. Re:Yay for weight reduction! by whoever57 · · Score: 1

      The paper is bullshit.

      Don't be coy with your criticism, say what you really mean!

      --
      The real "Libtards" are the Libertarians!
    4. Re:Yay for weight reduction! by TheMiddleRoad · · Score: 1

      You got me.

    5. Re:Yay for weight reduction! by TheMiddleRoad · · Score: 1
    6. Re:Yay for weight reduction! by TheMiddleRoad · · Score: 1

      See my post far below.
      https://hardware.slashdot.org/...

    7. Re:Yay for weight reduction! by jlv · · Score: 1

      I still feel like the EV needs another 20 years or so.

      After 2 years and 20K miles in an EV, I will never again have my daily drive be an ICEV.

      Forget the lack of tailpipe emissions.
      Forget the "clean/green" vehicle (mine is 90% charged from solar).
      Forget even the complete lack of engine noise and rumble.

      Just focus on the 100% torque when you press the accelerator. That silent "whoosh" as you pull away and leave the other cars behind in their exhaust fumes.

      EVs are just more fun to drive.

    8. Re:Yay for weight reduction! by nintendoeats · · Score: 1

      That's why I want a Tesla. It just doesn't work in Cnada though. I can drive to my parent's house 1800 km away in a single day. EVs are nowhere near that. There is also aesthetic pleasure in the combustion engine. I don't want to lose that alltogether.

  29. Re: Once again, hydrogen looks to be the future by SuperKendall · · Score: 1

    Don't tell me, tell Toyota.

    Hmm, I wonder if Toyota knows more about engineering cars, or you?

    --
    "There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
  30. delete $car{spare_tire} if $car{commuter}; by alantus · · Score: 1

    Spare tires are 12 Kg of unnecessary extra weight that every single car carries around all the time, wasting gas and releasing more toxins to the environment.

    How about getting rid of the spare tire for commuting cars, and rely on some service to bring a spare tire to you when you need it?
    The service should be provided for free by all cities as a measure to reduce pollution.

    And thinking on a global scale, it would add up to a save us from a lot of CO2 emissions.

    1. Re:delete $car{spare_tire} if $car{commuter}; by whoever57 · · Score: 2

      Spare tires are 12 Kg of unnecessary extra weight that every single car carries around all the time

      Manufacturers are already doing this. Replacing the spare tyre with a tyre sealer and inflation kit.

      --
      The real "Libtards" are the Libertarians!
    2. Re:delete $car{spare_tire} if $car{commuter}; by blindseer · · Score: 1

      How about getting rid of the spare tire for commuting cars, and rely on some service to bring a spare tire to you when you need it?

      As a commuter I am quite happy with carrying my own spare, thankyouverymuch.

      I can recall two times I made use of my spare and both times I was able to resolve my problem precisely because I had a spare. The first time I was headed to an appointment at the VA clinic in the next county. My plan was to head out early, grab something to eat on the way, and then go to the clinic. While driving down the interstate I hit something that punched a large hole in the tire, big enough to poke a finger through. I was able to change the tire with my spare and get on my way. I didn't have time to eat, and I ended up ten minutes late for my appointment, but generally I fixed the problem in little time and my day was not adversely affected. I had a late lunch and I ended up getting a new set of tires a few weeks earlier than planned.

      The second time I had to use the spare it was a cold cold night and a tire went flat because the idiots that put on my new tires didn't seat it properly. It was late at night and I was quite likely the only person for a mile around. I was able to change the tire and be on my way in probably a half hour.

      In both cases I could have easily called someone but that would have turned a half hour inconvenience into potentially hours of waiting for someone to do what I am perfectly capable of doing myself.

      The service should be provided for free by all cities as a measure to reduce pollution.

      Nothing is "free" when provided by the government. Why is it that so many people think the solution to every problem is more government? This would no doubt raise taxes for every resident for what would no doubt be third rate service. There are countless private services that can do this, all competing for my money to drive down prices. I have roadside insurance for things like this, and it costs me very little every year. In both cases I gave above I could have called for someone to change my tire, but I did not think that using that service for such a minor issue was necessary.

      I would be interested in seeing how much removing the spare tire would actually reduce pollution. Of all the ways to reduce pollution I'd think that removing the spare tire is one of the worst ideas. In my situation I could have easily called on someone to help but had I been on a longer trip which took me further off the beaten path I could have been left waiting hours to get moving again. In the case of that freezing cold night that could have turned a minor inconvenience into a life threatening issue.

      I realize you limited your suggestion to "commuters" but how does one separate a commuter from a non-commuter? This is especially relevant if the government gets involved since they will be tasked with enforcing this. I mean if the city wants people to stop carrying a spare tire to save on fuel then are people going to be fined if they are found with a spare tire while "commuting"?

      On top of it all people are free to take the spare tire out of their cars to save on weight, nothing is stopping them. These same people can then purchase roadside service insurance from any of numerous private companies offering such services. We don't need government to get involved in this.

      Perhaps what bothers me most about this idea is that we place more and more reliance on government. I view the government as a necessity, we need government. I also view the place of government as doing things that only a government can do. Government should not be changing tires.

      And thinking on a global scale, it would add up to a save us from a lot of CO2 emissions.

      That may be true but since carrying a spare has saved me many hours of inconvenience, and perhaps many hundreds of dollars from having to pay someone to bring me a tire, I'm not likely to give up my spare tire any time soon. I can imagine a lot of people died for lack of a spare tire and a strong enough cell phone signal. You can gamble on that if you like, I won't.

      --
      I am armed because I am free. I am free because I am armed.
    3. Re:delete $car{spare_tire} if $car{commuter}; by alantus · · Score: 1

      Nothing is "free" when provided by the government. Why is it that so many people think the solution to every problem is more government?

      ...

      I also view the place of government as doing things that only a government can do. Government should not be changing tires.

      Governments can do things that individuals / companies can't do because its economically unattractive.

      Its hard for a private company to offer a service fast enough for people to give up their spare tire at a decent price.
      If a company guaranteed to change your tire anywhere in the city in 30 minutes or less, and another company offered the same service with no time guarantee for half the price, people would choose the second one and continue carrying their spare tire for emergencies, thinking they are saving money.

      Anyway, this could be done without any government involvement too, its just harder.

      And thinking on a global scale, it would add up to a save us from a lot of CO2 emissions.

      That may be true but since carrying a spare has saved me many hours of inconvenience, and perhaps many hundreds of dollars from having to pay someone to bring me a tire, I'm not likely to give up my spare tire any time soon.

      You probably waste more money in gas by carrying the spare tire and jack all the time than by calling someone when needed, you just don't realize it. And you might be able to call a friend or family instead.

      I've only needed the spare twice in around 10 years of commuting by car, perhaps I am lucky.
      Nowadays I commute by bicycle, but if I still used the car I would experiment with this for a year by keeping track of money spent on gas and distance traveled.

      Its a simple way to reduce pollution, it doesn't require any money investment or new technology, just some commitment.

      Another way would be to turn off the air conditioner / heater when people leave their homes. I noticed people in the US tend to leave the AC running when they leave, they say it wastes less electricity by leaving it on rather than turning it on/off when they come and go. I doubt it.

      I know its hard to take actions that inconvenience our lives or makes us spend more money than we could, but at the same time people worry about global warming, lung cancer, etc. We need to change while we can.

    4. Re:delete $car{spare_tire} if $car{commuter}; by drinkypoo · · Score: 1

      How about getting rid of the spare tire for commuting cars, and rely on some service to bring a spare tire to you when you need it?

      So, you are on the side of the road where rubberneckers affect traffic patterns. Then a service has to come to you and disturb them again. The only time this isn't going to cost everyone energy is when traffic is already stopped. If you want to solve this problem, get run-flats. They require TPMS so you know when you have a puncture. You can drive straight to the tire shop without having to do anything but slow down to 55, which you are supposed to do on your doughnut spare anyway.

      Personally, what I want is a full-sized spare back, to save me from having to make a special trip to the tire shop which costs me time and which costs fuel. And I'll get one eventually, and my car has a deep enough well for it. I just need to score a fifth 17" wheel.

      --
      "You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
    5. Re:delete $car{spare_tire} if $car{commuter}; by mrchaotica · · Score: 1

      I removed the spare tire from my car because it's 26 years old (which means I don't trust it) and similar-sized replacements are no longer made.

      : (

      --

      "[Regarding the 'cloud,'] ownership was what made America different than Russia." -- Woz

    6. Re:delete $car{spare_tire} if $car{commuter}; by JesseMcDonald · · Score: 1

      Governments can do things that individuals / companies can't do because its economically unattractive.

      Such things are economically unattractive because they are wasteful. Governments can do such things, of course, relying on their powers of taxation and regulation to force the situation, but they shouldn't. Wasting resources like this imposes an external cost imposed on all of society.

      --
      "The state is that great fiction by which everyone tries to live at the expense of everyone else." - Bastiat
    7. Re:delete $car{spare_tire} if $car{commuter}; by blindseer · · Score: 1

      You probably waste more money in gas by carrying the spare tire and jack all the time than by calling someone when needed, you just don't realize it. And you might be able to call a friend or family instead.

      It may be true that I'd save more money by removing my spare and having to call for a service truck once in a great while but in both of the cases I had to use my spare I was exceedingly glad I had that spare. In first case I was on my way to the local VA clinic for an appointment, rescheduling a missed appointment is exceedingly difficult. Had I missed it would be highly probable that I would not have been able to make it up for weeks or months.

      As for calling family for help I have done that. My brother lives nearby and he has a (beat up) truck that I borrow on occasion. It's certainly nice to have a brother with a spare vehicle in town but how many people are so lucky? Also, I cannot rely on him to drop everything and come to my aid. When I have vehicle problems I want the issue resolved quickly, which often means fixing them myself. That means I carry a spare tire, a fire extinguisher, a first aid kit, a blanket, bottles of water, one of those all-in-one inflator/battery-jumper/light/radio/inverter things, jumper cables, and other emergency items. The room they take in my vehicle is pretty minimal even though the number of items is long. Having such items has made my life much safer and more comfortable.

      What other things could I take out of my truck to save on gas? Should I leave my fire extinguisher at home too? I have back seats I rarely use, should I unbolt those and leave them home? At what point does this reach the absurd?

      Its a simple way to reduce pollution, it doesn't require any money investment or new technology, just some commitment.

      Of all the weight in my vehicle I doubt that removing such a small fraction that is the spare tire I'd save enough money to make up for it. Unless you can show some real world data on how much fuel can be saved then I have to doubt the fuel savings would even be noticeable.

      I know its hard to take actions that inconvenience our lives or makes us spend more money than we could, but at the same time people worry about global warming, lung cancer, etc. We need to change while we can.

      If we are going to talk about doing something that can save us from global warming then I say we need nuclear power. If the government is going to do something meaningful about global warming then I think they should start with issuing licenses to build nuclear power plants instead of encouraging people to leave their spare tires at home. It seems to me that the government keeps asking people to be inconvenienced when the government can't be inconvenienced with actually doing something meaningful in a big way and let people build nuclear power plants.

      We should be building nuclear power plants at a rate of one per month in the USA. There are something like 100 nuclear reactors in the USA now and they provide about 20% of our electricity. By building one gigawatt nuclear power plant per month it would still take years to replace all the fossil fuel generation we have now, perhaps decades. Since getting even a single reactor built is such a problem right now getting them built at a rate of one per month would be miraculous but it is also a rate we'd have to maintain indefinitely to replace nuclear power plants once they've reached the end of their operable life span.

      But no, instead of doing something meaningful like building nuclear power plants we have some suggestions that do very little like leaving spare tires home, turning down thermostats, getting low flush toilets, CFL lights, and a bunch of other nonsense. If we had nuclear power then we could turn the thermostats to the max, open the windows, and see no addition to our CO2 output.

      Much of what people suggest to save energy is just nibbling at the edges of the problem. To ta

      --
      I am armed because I am free. I am free because I am armed.
  31. Re:Brakes? Tires? by mykepredko · · Score: 2

    I would expect brakes to last a lot more than 2-3x longer - on my last Prius, after 250,000km (155,000 miles) 80% of the brakes were still on the pads.

    As for tires, if a 24% increase in weight is SO bad, why aren't they going after the vehicles that are 100% heavier than the average car - SUVs?

  32. Re:Once again, hydrogen looks to be the future by SuperKendall · · Score: 1

    In order to scale hydrogen vehicles to the point of being attractive to consumers you need lots of local filling stations converting natural gas to hydrogen.

    "Natural gas" is terribly short-sighted, but otherwise yes, exactly, and that is the BENEFT of the technology. You have can have much shorter distribution networks for most areas than you have with gasoline, with many more stations spread all over.

    That is ALSO a vastly better system in times of crisis, rather than a few electric plants scattered here and there, or relying on vast networks of roads and refineries needing to function, local hydrogen production makes many areas somewhat self-sufficient in terms of energy,

    That is why hydrogen is the best answer, there are so many benefits at all levels.

    How efficiently that conversion process can sequester byproducts will dominate the overall carbon footprint of the hydrogen vehicle ecosystem.

    The carbon footprint will not matter one whit within a decade, and again you are short-sighted about production techniques.

    but what does an 'oops' at a hydrogen filling station look like?

    A harmless cloud dissipating almost instantly.

    --
    "There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
  33. Re:Brakes? Tires? by runningduck · · Score: 2

    Here is an article that discusses the health risks of rubberized materials such as crumb rubber on football fields.

    https://www.washingtonpost.com...

    Personally I do not think that this is a big issue for electric cars being the weight of batteries is what causes tire wear. It is the fact that electric cars are so damn quick off the line. If we can only make electric vehicles as sluggish as gas cars the tire problem would go aware.

    --
    -rd
  34. I wish I could mod down stories.... by Edis+Krad · · Score: 5, Informative

    Doing a two minute google search turns out the authors are an undergrad university student (according to LinkedIn) without a research background (google scholar turns empty), and a researcher with a company that develops combustion engines

    Not to pull an ad-hominem here, but I'd take the paper with lots of grains of salt.

    1. Re:I wish I could mod down stories.... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Informative

      Not only that but they werent comparing electric-only cars to internal combustion engine only cars. They compared ICE cars to the same model car with extra electric systems (batteries, motor/generator units, etc). If you compare normal ICE-only cars to electric only cars in the same category the weight differences become much less, and sometimes the electrics are even lighter (chevy volt is lighter than some of its mid-sized sedan counterparts). It was bullshit piece, but it doesn't surprise me at all that slashdot ran with it. The "editors" on this site post the most sensationalist articles they get sent into them without doing ANY form of research or even basic proof reading and spell checking.

    2. Re:I wish I could mod down stories.... by careysub · · Score: 2

      Also it should be pointed out that the sensationalist title about "producing as many toxins as dirty diesels" (copied from the sensationalist newspaper article, for pete's sake) isn't even supported by the paper. There point of comparison, misleading as it is, are modern extremely clean diesels (and assuming the claims of the diesel vehicle manufacturers are even accurate, which have learned recently often are not).

      --
      Starships were meant to fly, Hands up and touch the sky - Nicky Minaj
    3. Re:I wish I could mod down stories.... by EnsilZah · · Score: 1

      ...but I'd take the paper with lots of grains of salt.

      You mean particulate Sodium Chloride that's been linked to heart attacks and strokes?

    4. Re:I wish I could mod down stories.... by internet-redstar · · Score: 1

      The LinkedIn profile shows he is a 'researcher' at the same company of the other guy. Also they didn't measure anything nor have any scientific background in the field...

  35. Re: Once again, hydrogen looks to be the future by alucardX · · Score: 1

    Hydrogen storage is inferior in terms of energy efficiency.

  36. Never got how Electric Cars Made Sence by wisnoskij · · Score: 1

    We are not supposed to use electric heating because it is inefficient, how are cars supposed to be any different? What does it matter if the fuel is burned in a car or a power plant. If it reduces the weight of the car, how it is not more efficient to burn it on site?

    --
    Troll is not a replacement for I disagree.
    1. Re:Never got how Electric Cars Made Sence by Edis+Krad · · Score: 3, Insightful

      1) Not all energy comes from burning fossil fuels. Nuclear, Wind, Solar and Hydro could also be used to power an electric car. That alone should make it comparatively cleaner.

      2) As for efficiency goes, in a car about only 15% of the fuel energy is converted into motion. The rest is wasted as heat. Power plants are more efficient at using that heat and turn it into electricity, making again electric cars get more efficiency per unit of fuel burned.

      3) Gasoline must be carried to gas stations. Think of it as a hidden energy cost: The cost of running you car = the fuel it burns + the energy it took to get it to your car.

      On the opposite side, batteries are not as efficient storing energy as gasoline is, and there is also loss of power on transmission lines. I haven't done the math myself, but overall electric should be more efficient than gasoline cars.

    2. Re:Never got how Electric Cars Made Sence by Shados · · Score: 1

      Making heat (for your home) is a heck of a lot simpler and more efficient than turning burning fuel into something that can power an engine.

    3. Re:Never got how Electric Cars Made Sence by snadrus · · Score: 3, Informative

      4) Scrub Towers can be as tall, heavy, and complex as necessary to meet emissions guidelines since they're not driving down the road.

      Since line loss is estimated 8%-15% and AC-to-DC happens at a charge station and (if it's like my PC power brick) should be 97% efficient. Battery efficiency is a measure of storage, so it's uninteresting unless considering vehicle weight. There is some loss in charging, but I'd imagine it compares to the evaporation losses in gasoline. This about-20% loss (slightly-more weight-considered) turns-out to be much less loss than gasoline's 85% loss in just its final step. And considering the electric motor doesn't need to "keep up" when not providing force (instant torque), it's even better.

      --
      Science & open-source build trust from peer review. Learn systems you can trust.
    4. Re:Never got how Electric Cars Made Sence by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      Classic Electric heat is inefficient because you are taking high quality energy (electricity) and turning into low quality heat. Heat pumps though within a range are more efficient than burning natural gas. IE, more efficient to use natural gas to make electricity and use that to run a heat pump, than to burn it in a furnace.

    5. Re:Never got how Electric Cars Made Sence by AaronW · · Score: 1

      My Tesla uses a heat pump unless it is really cold out. Heat pumps are far more efficient than normal electric heaters. They're basically air conditioners run in reverse.

      --
      This post is encrypted twice with ROT-13. Documenting or attempting to crack this encryption is illegal.
    6. Re:Never got how Electric Cars Made Sence by drinkypoo · · Score: 1

      We are not supposed to use electric heating because it is inefficient, how are cars supposed to be any different?

      That is a shockingly ignorant question, but hey, I might have asked it once so I'll try not to be too shocked. The answer is that making heat and then converting it into electricity and back into heat again is horribly inefficient, but making heat and then converting it into electricity and then using that to move your car is actually a big win for efficiency. Car engines are about 25% efficient at best. Electric motors as used in EVs can exceed 90% efficiency. Transmission loss in this country is only about 5%, and you have fairly little conversion loss charging modern batteries (which have internal management) with modern chargers. The total system efficiency of an EV is much better as a result. In addition, EVs have no tailpipe emissions, so you get to benefit from centralized emissions management. At minimum it moves the pollution out of the places where the vehicles are driven, and at best it provides opportunity to do much better management.

      --
      "You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
    7. Re:Never got how Electric Cars Made Sence by gzuckier · · Score: 1

      We are not supposed to use electric heating because it is inefficient, how are cars supposed to be any different? What does it matter if the fuel is burned in a car or a power plant. If it reduces the weight of the car, how it is not more efficient to burn it on site?

      How is electric heating inefficient? Except for insignificant losses as visible light, noise etc, all the energy becomes heat. come to think of it, the light and noise eventually become heat as well.

      --
      Star Trek transporters are just 3d printers.
    8. Re:Never got how Electric Cars Made Sence by gzuckier · · Score: 1

      1) Not all energy comes from burning fossil fuels. Nuclear, Wind, Solar and Hydro could also be used to power an electric car. That alone should make it comparatively cleaner. 2) As for efficiency goes, in a car about only 15% of the fuel energy is converted into motion. The rest is wasted as heat. Power plants are more efficient at using that heat and turn it into electricity, making again electric cars get more efficiency per unit of fuel burned. 3) Gasoline must be carried to gas stations. Think of it as a hidden energy cost: The cost of running you car = the fuel it burns + the energy it took to get it to your car. On the opposite side, batteries are not as efficient storing energy as gasoline is, and there is also loss of power on transmission lines. I haven't done the math myself, but overall electric should be more efficient than gasoline cars.

      Some day aliens will land on earth and looking over our transportation systems, will ask us: what's the deal with all the portable space heating units?

      --
      Star Trek transporters are just 3d printers.
  37. Re:Once again, hydrogen looks to be the future by whoever57 · · Score: 1

    and can refuel in a reasonable time.

    What's a reasonable time? It takes only a few seconds after arriving home to plug in an electric car. Is a few seconds reasonable?

    For longer journeys, there are fast DC chargers which will charge Teslas or other brands to 80% charge in about 30 minutes. Unfortunately, there are 3 incompatible standards for the DC chargers.

    --
    The real "Libtards" are the Libertarians!
  38. "Never going to happen" by SuperKendall · · Score: 1

    Boy, does Toyota have a video for you!

    --
    "There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
  39. Re:Does The Paper Account For Regenerative Braking by allquixotic · · Score: 5, Informative

    As a savvy owner of a Prius c hybrid, I think I have some insight into this... Basically, the brake pads *are* used quite a lot by aggressive drivers who tailgate and have to brake hard when the car in front of them slows down. People who drive with a proper following distance ahead of them will rarely have to use the disc brakes.

    Hybrid vehicles (and EVs, probably) have smaller brake pads than similarly sized conventional vehicles (though the actual stopping power of the disc brakes in an emergency is just as good as regular cars). The brake pads are about half as thick on my Prius c as the brake pads on my Honda Civic. That's because the manufacturer expects you to use them less often. I'm sure there are some insane drivers out there who can burn through the brake pads on a vehicle like mine in well under 50,000 miles, but those same people would burn through the brakes on any vehicle just as quickly.

    I've learned to "feel" the difference between the cut-over between regenerative braking and the disc brakes. The disc brakes slow you down WAY faster. There's not a discrete and obvious jolt when you gradually depress the brake pedal; it's incredibly smooth; but to use an analogy, as long as I'm slowing down at about the same rate as a truck can slow down when using the jake brake (engine braking - that loud "farting" sound that large trucks sometimes make when slowing down), I'm using the regenerative braking system only. If I'm slowing down much faster than that, the disc brakes are being engaged (the brakes and the regenerative braking can be active at the same time, unless you are braking at what would be considered "emergency" speeds, in which case the regenerative braking system disengages, perhaps because it can't handle that amount of torque or current).

    As for the article itself: 24 percent?! That's total bullshit.

    The Prius c is literally a Yaris Hybrid (it's marketed as such in some parts of the world). It's the Toyota Yaris -- a compact car -- with the Toyota Hybrid Synergy Drive in it. So, it's a Yaris, *plus* the weight of the HSD.

    The curb weight of the Yaris is 2335 pounds. The curb weight of the Prius c is 2500 pounds. That's only a 7.066% increase. That's a far, far cry from the 24% the article cites.

    OK, you say, let's look at *electric* vehicles specifically, not just hybrids. Because hybrids don't have to lug around 500 pounds of lithium-ion batteries. Hybrid batteries tend to weigh under 200 pounds, with the smallest hybrids' ~1 kWh batteries weighing less than 100 pounds.

    Let's take the Chevy Spark. The conventional Spark weighs in around 2270 pounds. The EV? 3000 pounds. That's a 32% increase for basically the same passenger and cargo volume. Fair enough. But 3000 pounds isn't out of this world, and is in the ballpark of many upscale compact cars like the (conventional) Honda Civic.

    Another example. The 2016 Nissan Leaf weighs around 3150 pounds. I did some research to try and find a conventional vehicle with similar interior measurements (headroom, cargo space, etc.) and I came up with this: The 2016 Honda Civic EX has a total (usable) interior volume of 110.1 cubic feet with a curb weight of 2799 pounds. The 2016 Nissan Leaf has an interior volume of 116 cubic feet. So for 6 more cubic feet of interior (5.4% more), the vehicle weighs 351 pounds (25.4%) more.

    Based on these limited comparisons, it seems like the article's claim about the increased weight of electric vehicles is factual. However, it is absolutely not valid to make the leap to saying that plug-in hybrids or conventional hybrids are anywhere near as bad in terms of added weight.

    What I'm not convinced of, however, is the severity and environmental impact of tire and brake wear, regardless of vehicle weight. EVs and hybrids also run with low rolling resistance tires, which should reduce the amount of tire "stuff" in the air, in any case. Did they take that into account?

    However, switching out a gasoline engine for a TDI diesel engine adds about 300 pounds to a sedan-

  40. Re:Does The Paper Account For Regenerative Braking by JBMcB · · Score: 3, Insightful

    They are 24% heavier than the same-sized ICE vehicle.

    --
    My Other Computer Is A Data General Nova III.
  41. TANSTAAFL? by Chas · · Score: 1

    OH NOEZ!

    Say it ain't so Joe! Say it ain't so!

    --


    Chas - The one, the only.
    THANK GOD!!!
  42. Re:Does The Paper Account For Regenerative Braking by beelsebob · · Score: 1

    I have first hand knowledge of owning an eGolf. The amount of regeneration depends (in that vehicle) on the charge state of the battery. If you're below about 70% charge, then under normal circumstances, all braking is regenerative. Above that charge level, or when you use particularly heavy braking, and the actual disks will get used a certain amount.

  43. Pray tell, how long again? by SuperKendall · · Score: 3, Insightful

    What's a reasonable time? It takes only a few seconds after arriving home to plug in an electric car.

    For how many apartment dwellers is that true for again?

    Oh what's that, you were only considering people who had homes instead of everyone? A replacement transportation system works only if it works for EVERYONE.

    Also that 30 minutes is about ten hours if you increased the number of Teslas on the road substantially. A 30 minute fill-up time, even if reduced to fifteen minutes, simple cannot scale to ALL CARS.

    If you take ten seconds to actually think about the implications of what happens when ALL CARS are electric the mass-market solution is dictated to you and requires no skill to predict.

    --
    "There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
    1. Re:Pray tell, how long again? by whoever57 · · Score: 1

      It's much more practical to install lots of chargers than lots of hydrogen stations. Most people can use a 110V outlet as long as they charge every night and drive a typical commute.

      --
      The real "Libtards" are the Libertarians!
    2. Re:Pray tell, how long again? by Gavagai80 · · Score: 1

      For how many apartment dwellers is that true for again?

      There's no inherent problem with plugging in at work, or at the library, or the many other places with connections -- especially if you have Tesla range and thus don't need to plug in very often. I live in an apartment and am self-employed so can't plug in at work, but if it made financial sense (which it won't for me for a very long time) I'd be happy to buy an electric and just plug it in while I'm at the library or walking a trail that has plugin spots in the lot. I drive about 400 miles a month so I'd only need to do that every couple of weeks.

      If conventional gas stations were situated where you could just stick the pump in and wander off for a walk or do some shopping, it would be much more pleasant even if it took way longer. Unfortunately gas stations can never do that because of the environmental hazards.

      A replacement transportation system works only if it works for EVERYONE.

      That is simply not the case. There's no problem with having variety. Some vehicles are diesel, some gas, some electric, some CNG, and you can try to sell hydrogen cars for all I care.

      --
      This space intentionally left blank
    3. Re:Pray tell, how long again? by bluefoxlucid · · Score: 1

      Conventional fill-up stations operating as high-speed charging ports would use a flywheel to pre-store energy, thus smoothing out their access on the grid. Larger or simply more flywheels would allow off-peak storage, and recharging is constant (you can grid draw to regenerate the flywheel even while tapping power from it), thus making the power draw of all EV recharging equivalent to the base load average of all Tesla energy consumption.

      Next problem.

    4. Re:Pray tell, how long again? by Khyber · · Score: 1

      "A 30 minute fill-up time, even if reduced to fifteen minutes, simple cannot scale to ALL CARS."

      Vehicles stop charging after a while, you know. Did you utterly forget the idea of using the cars as portable storage or load-balancing? Why, you could pull energy from some already plugged-in-but-not-charging vehicles to handle the demand!

      You lack vision.

      --
      Still waiting on Serviscope_minor to wake up to fucking reality and realize that Jessica Price isn't going to fuck him.
    5. Re:Pray tell, how long again? by randallman · · Score: 1

      It wouldn't be a big deal to install receptacles at apartment parking spaces. Even a measly 110V/20A outlet would give you 50-60 miles per day, enough to keep you topped off. Any transition will require adjustments. Electric is the easiest transition of all. Power lines run everywhere and electrical outlets like NEMA 14-50 are easy for any electrician. No special training (other than being an electrician) required.

      Imagine if no automobile infrastructure of any kind existed. Creating a gasoline infrastructure, which requires drilling, pumping, transport, refining, transport, station construction, more pumping ... would seem impossible. Any electric infrastructure is simple and straightforward by comparison. Barring some major discovery, we will always use electricity as the backbone of our infrastructure. EV transport is a natural fit.

      And nobody is forcing you to buy an EV today. You can happily drive an ICE while the EV early adopters push the tech into the mainstream. I'm not terribly old, but I've seen this pattern enough. Why would you pay $1,000 for a CD Player? That's just a rich man's toy. My cassettes sound just as good and (insert advantages). Look at so and so wasting their money on that portable bag phone. Why would anyone do that? It doesn't even work at my house. John payed $8,000 for a flat screen just so he can hang it on the wall. I can get a bigger TV (that weighs 200 lbs) for $1,500. How ridiculous!

      I'm starting to believe that people are just wired differently. Many can't see things other than how they are today.

    6. Re:Pray tell, how long again? by SuperKendall · · Score: 1

      You idiot, It doesn't matter if they stop charging. Im not talking about the electric load but a physical car taking up a physical charging port!

      God do you battery electric people have a complete inability to understand the simplest implication of anything? It would seem so. Someone says one thing and all you can do is squawk back "load balance! Load balance! Awk!".

      --
      "There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
    7. Re:Pray tell, how long again? by Khyber · · Score: 1

      " Im not talking about the electric load but a physical car taking up a physical charging port!"

      Installation of a breaker box, wiring, and outlets is SO FUCKING SIMPLE.

      But I'm pretty sure you've never touched basic electrical wiring in your life, given your current words.

      --
      Still waiting on Serviscope_minor to wake up to fucking reality and realize that Jessica Price isn't going to fuck him.
  44. Link to the paper - More info here by TheMiddleRoad · · Score: 5, Informative

    http://31.184.194.81/10.1016/j... = Sci-hub link.

    It's absolute garbage "research". Speculation layered upon speculation. It has the quality of a rant.

    Victor Timmers is still getting his BEng. He was a research intern. Yay!
    https://www.linkedin.com/in/vi...

    Peter A.J. Achten is a hydraulics engineer for INNAS.
    http://www.innas.com/

    Some gems from their trash:
    "Despite the lack of direct research, there is significant indirect evidence..."
    "Many studies and emission inventories suggest..."
    But here's my favorite:
    "It can be hypothesised that..."

    WTF?

    1. Re:Link to the paper - More info here by cbeaudry · · Score: 1

      Indeed, it reads like all current climate change research. Full of "Could" "May" "Can" instead of actual observations and facts.

  45. I don't believe this for a second by DougReed · · Score: 1

    * Research funded by the petroleum industry cooperative.

  46. worthless by TRRosen · · Score: 1

    sort of ignores the fact that most hybrids use regenerative braking and harder compound tires.

  47. Re: Bullshiat by beelsebob · · Score: 1

    Prius C curb weight - 2496lb
    Range Rover curb weight - 4918lb
    F150 curb weight - 4049lb
    Force Cayenne curb weight - 4488lb

  48. Tanker Trucks by wildsurf · · Score: 1

    Boy, those 40-tonne tanker trucks must stir up a crap-ton of particulate pollution. If only there existed a car that didn't require all the gasoline those trucks are toting around.

    --
    Weeks of coding saves hours of planning.
  49. Re: Brakes? Tires? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    bollocks!
    My PHEV uses the very same tyres (note the correct English spelling) as a good few other vehicles.
    I just had to replace one due to a puncture. 14K miles. The mechanic said that it was good (apart from the screw that caused the puncture) for at least another 10K. Far better than I used to get on my old (non hybrid) car.

    The report is from the Daily Fail. Everything that comic reports has to be taken with a huge pinch of salt.
    The report ignores the fact that for many owners, their driving style changes when driving a hybrid in order to extend the electic range. mine has and that is for sure.
    My PHEV is charged from the solar panels on my roof. 20miles of local journeys at zero cost and pollution (IMHO). Get home and plug it in again.

  50. Re:Does The Paper Account For Regenerative Braking by DaHat · · Score: 1

    The conventional Spark weighs in around 2270 pounds. The EV? 3000 pounds. That's a 32% increase for basically the same passenger and cargo volume. Fair enough. But 3000 pounds isn't out of this world, and is in the ballpark of many upscale compact cars like the (conventional) Honda Civic.

    Unless you are driving something on the order of a tank (and a super heavy one at that), there is always going to be a heavier vehicle you can compare to, just as you can always point to someone who is more out of shape/uglier/poorer/etc than you... it doesn't change your own actual position.

    The point here I believe is that given electric cars are heavier than their non electric counterparts, their owners are not as green as they thought... and pointing to your neighbor driving a 188 ton faithful reproduction of the Panzer VIII Maus doesn't change the fact that the EV owner is putting off more brake/tire particulates than they would in a conventional auto.

  51. Re:Brakes? Tires? by DaHat · · Score: 1

    Granted I'm getting old and my eyes probably aren't working as well as they used to... when I'm driving at 60-80mph on the interstate... it's often hard to make out much of any 'dust' on the roads other than snow... which has this odd tendency to come down in significant volumes then be blown away.

    Unless vehicles were putting off rather visible plumes of particulate matter when driving down the road, I would imagine nature would help keep the road clean given it's a narrow tract of land where it's deposited and the wind does tend to blow from time to time.

  52. Re:Once again, hydrogen looks to be the future by legRoom · · Score: 2

    True - it is a non-falsifiable hypothesis, since every time another "point of no return" prediction fails, they reschedule it another 5-20 years out.

  53. There will always be a leading cause of death by istartedi · · Score: 1

    This reminds me of the dire warnings about how such and such is now the leading cause of death. Guess what? There will always be a leading cause of death. There will always be a leading cause of pollution.

    It's good news in both cases. The leading cause of death is no longer smallpox or the plague, because we've effectively controlled those. The leading cause of pollution is no longer the tailpipe if we've effectively controlled it.

    I believe that in both cases there is no flaw with progress. We simply need to move on to the next problem and solve it, while taking care to make sure that old problems don't reoccur.

    --
    For all intensive purposes, "whom" is no longer a word. That begs the question, "who cares"?
    1. Re:There will always be a leading cause of death by JesseMcDonald · · Score: 1

      The leading cause of pollution is no longer the tailpipe if we've effectively controlled it. ... I believe that in both cases there is no flaw with progress. We simply need to move on to the next problem and solve it, while taking care to make sure that old problems don't reoccur.

      There is a difference between merely unmasking less immediate problems that were there all along and creating new ones. Yes, there will always be a leading source of pollution, but just the same let's try to ensure that the cure isn't worse than the disease. It's not enough that the problems are different. Replacing one known problem with an even worse one is not progress.

      --
      "The state is that great fiction by which everyone tries to live at the expense of everyone else." - Bastiat
  54. Re:Does The Paper Account For Regenerative Braking by careysub · · Score: 2

    Indeed I am driving a Prius, now with 230,000 miles on it - and I have never needed to replace the brake pads. I like getting high mileage, and so manage to use regenerative braking exclusively except for emergency stop situations (e.g. someone pulls in front of you suddenly from a slow lane).

    --
    Starships were meant to fly, Hands up and touch the sky - Nicky Minaj
  55. Re: Does The Paper Account For Regenerative Brakin by WarJolt · · Score: 1

    You haven't seen the way I drive a hybrid.

  56. Looks like we've moved beyond step 2 now by wheelbarrio · · Score: 1

    1. First they ignore you
    2. Then they laugh at you
    3. Then they fight you (make shit up) here we are hooray!
    4. Then you win...

  57. Blatant Hit-piece from Murdoch by Sir+Holo · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Why is The Daily Mail, a lowest-rung tabloid, being linked on the /. main page?

    The paper itself is so full of faults that I would have to write more than the paper's authors in order to describe them all. Others in this thread are doing that. I will take the time to make two counter-points, though:

    (1) Heavier cars, eh? You mean, like SUVs? The logical conclusion here is to promote sub-compact cars, public transport, and cargo transport by rail, rather than big-rig transport, of goods around the country. I don't think Rupert Murdoch would be in favor any of this, considering his investments in the fossil fuel industry.

    (2) Electric cars rely primarily on regenerative braking. Essentially, the motors work in reverse to produce electricity when reducing speed (momentum, but ultimately kinetic energy) of the car – transforming that back into potential energy that is stored in the car's batteries. These motors are brush-less, meaning that there is no frictional contact, and thus no particulates produced. Compare this to regular car brakes, which are entirely frictional and heat-dissipating. Do we still use asbestos in car brake drums? Regardless, 'regular' brakes are two surfaces grinding against each other, creating micro-particulates. Drum brakes are going away, so it's all 4-wheel disk brakes. Usually made of metal.

    But on my high-end sports car, which requires ceramic brake pads, braking creates micro-particulates of ceramic materials that are not soluble in the human lung, which is the kind of thing that causes mesothelioma (blacklung, asbestosis, silicosis, and the many others yet to be named... until enough people exhibit direct signs of a specific material causing the mesothelioma). It's not hard to know which materials will be in this class, but my managers tended to 'shush' me when I brought up the topic years ago – but it has since-then become a major area of research. It is not hard to create a definitive list, but NSF only likes to fund incremental research, rather than fundamentals-based studies. Thus, I will simply keep my mouth (and my windows) shut.

    1. Re:Blatant Hit-piece from Murdoch by pipingguy · · Score: 1

      It's #BalanceBullshit for the earlier "sinking islands" story. They're both of similar quality and illustrate nicely how low and desperate #ScienceReporting has gotten.

    2. Re:Blatant Hit-piece from Murdoch by drinkypoo · · Score: 1

      Actually, you can trivially still get your hands on brakes lined with asbestos. They're illegal to produce here, and I think maybe even illegal to sell here, but there's still scads of them on eBay.

      > But on my high-end sports car, which requires ceramic brake pads,

      *rolls eyes* Uh huh.

      It probably was specified with them from the factory, and depending on the design of the rotor, switching away might be a big mistake.

      --
      "You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
    3. Re:Blatant Hit-piece from Murdoch by Sir+Holo · · Score: 1

      But on my high-end sports car, which requires ceramic brake pads,

      *rolls eyes* Uh huh.

      I put that in to get you to read the whole paragraph. :-P

      It's actually only a luxury sports car. And it is my girl's, not mine. I do get to 'give it the exercise it needs' when she is out of town.

      Factory spec for brake rotors is indeed ceramic. She couldn't wait for delivery of them, got some regular old steel ones, and they squeal like hell unless I spray that aluminum-containing anti-squeal stuff on them every week or so.

    4. Re:Blatant Hit-piece from Murdoch by Sir+Holo · · Score: 1

      It's #BalanceBullshit for the earlier "sinking islands" story. They're both of similar quality and illustrate nicely how low and desperate #ScienceReporting has gotten.

      Blame the journalists. They will ask for help in making sure that an article is at least semi-accurate. And then, at 3:00 am, the copy-editor will go through and use spell-check to 'correct' acronyms unknown to him, turning the article into an incomprehensible mess.

  58. Re:Don’t forget the batteries by careysub · · Score: 3, Insightful

    After all when someone is done with a Prius they just dump it in a landfill, where all the nickel in the battery will eventually leak out and contaminate ground water. What? No one does this?

    Well then, when someone is done with a Prius they BURN it! And all that nickel goes into the air! Wait, no one does that either.

    What does happen to a Prius once it exceeds its service life? People sell it to scrap dealers, who take the batteries out and ship them to reclaiming facilities where the valuable nickel is recovered and reused.

    Just more anti-environmental BS. Nothing to see here.

    --
    Starships were meant to fly, Hands up and touch the sky - Nicky Minaj
  59. Re:Brakes? Tires? by Macman408 · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Articles like this are almost as popular with news sites as "chocolate/beer/wine/cheese/bacon cures cancer!". From what I can tell, the publication was written by a summer intern who is about a junior in college, by reviewing other publications and making some guesses from the data contained therein. It's a good thought piece, i.e. "Hey guys, there's a lot of stuff that we haven't really done much to improve yet, maybe we should look into that." The publication doesn't make an argument that "electric cars are evil." It doesn't even have any real data of its own. And well over half of the particulate matter that they attribute is just stuff that was lying on the ground and the cars kicked up into the air; and because they claim that an EV is 24% heavier, it will kick up 24% more PM in its wake, which is probably not true. I'd be willing to bet that even if EVs average 24% heavier, they are probably not also 24% larger and 24% less aerodynamic; and the size and shape of the vehicle matter at least as much as the weight in creating a wake, if not more.

    On top of that, I don't know that reduction of particulate matter has ever been a huge concern for the EV market. Generally, the concerns are more along the lines of reducing CO2 (/CO/NOx/HCHO/NMOG/NMHC) emissions, oil consumption, monetary support to unfriendly OPEC nations, required maintenance, or fuel costs; or increasing support of new technology, renewable energy, etc. But, PM is certainly a health concern, so maybe the article's best use is just to point out that, as long as we're making a lot of other changes in our transportation system, maybe we should consider how we can change it to reduce PM emissions as well.

    TL;DR: Science reporting fails again.

  60. Re:Once again, hydrogen looks to be the future by riverat1 · · Score: 1

    If you paid attention to actual time scales in actual published scientific papers instead of sexed up headlines you wouldn't be saying that. For instance observed sea level rise has always been faster than predicted in any of the IPCC reports.

  61. Re:Once again, hydrogen looks to be the future by Firethorn · · Score: 2

    He was talking about elemental hydrogen, IE H2. H2 isn't a naturally occurring thing on earth, not in any significant quantities that is. There are no hydrogen mines.

    Ergo, the basic ways we get it are by electrolysis(minor source) and from hydrocarbons, of which the biggest is steam reformation from natural gas. However, this process takes up enough energy that in most applications it's just better to burn the natural gas directly.

    --
    I don't read AC A human right
  62. Re:Does The Paper Account For Regenerative Braking by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Informative

    They're taking into account regenerative breaking by assuming negligible PM emissions from the brakes of EVs. According to their literature study, most PM originates from resuspension which is linearly correlated to vehicle weight.

    Their results (based on literature averages):
    Comparison between expected PM10 emissions of EVs, gasoline and diesel ICEVs.
    Vehicle technology          Exhaust             Tyre wear           Brake wear          Road wear           Resuspension          Total
    EV                          0 mg/vkm           7.2 mg/vkm          0 mg/vkm           8.9 mg/vkm          49.6 mg/vkm
    65.7 mg/vkm
    Gasoline ICEV              3.1 mg/vkm          6.1 mg/vkm          9.3 mg/vkm          7.5 mg/vkm          40 mg/vkm
    66.0 mg/vkm
    Diesel ICEV                2.4 mg/vkm          6.1 mg/vkm          9.3 mg/vkm          7.5 mg/vkm          40 mg/vkm
    65.3 mg/vkm

    The study doesn't look that bad. Would have been nice if they would have taken into account oil, electricity, car or road production as well.

  63. Zomg! by easyTree · · Score: 1

    Back to the cancer-causing pollutants that have been tried and tested for generations!

  64. check funding... by SuperDre · · Score: 1

    And let's see who funded the research...... So why aren't tires and brakes more enviromentally friendly, surely after decades of research we should be able to create tires and brakes that produce less particles, but wait, that propably would mean a much longer lifespan, so they won't be able to sell as much as they do now. Also with brakes it would be possible to put all brakes in closures which would collect all the particles without it ever reaching the enviroment except when processed..

    1. Re:check funding... by EvilSS · · Score: 1

      Authors of the study are :

      Victor R.J.H. Timmers (a),
      , Peter A.J. Achten (b)
      a University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh EH8 9YL, UK
      b INNAS BV, 15 Nikkelstraat, 4823 AE Breda, Netherlands

      Write them and ask.

      --
      I browse on +1 so AC's need not respond, I won't see it.
  65. Re: Brakes? Tires? by shilly · · Score: 2

    If the article really claims that diesel has lower PM emissions than petrol, I think it's safe to say the entire article is bollocks and can be ignored.

  66. Winning by shifting goalposts by dbIII · · Score: 1

    When the goalposts are being shifted that far why bother playing - it's an insult to anyone watching.

  67. Re: Brakes? Tires? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    No passenger car wears the road beyond negligible amounts.Heavy trucks cause 99.99999% of road wear.

  68. Re:Once again, hydrogen looks to be the future by AaronW · · Score: 4, Informative

    The nice thing with my Tesla is I can charge virtually anywhere there's electricity. Granted, the superchargers take some time, but it's not a huge amount of time. Now, take the amount of time saved by charging every night. It takes only a few seconds to plug in and unplug vs the amount of time spent driving to one of a limited number of hydrogen refueling stations, waiting in line (if they're popular) and filling up. On top of that, the electricity is far cheaper than the hydrogen. Currently virtually all hydrogen is heavily subsidized since the actual price would not be cheap. Currently EVs are over twice as efficient compared to a hydrogen fuel cell car when once considers well to wheel. HFC vehicles aren't much better than hybrid vehicles when it comes to efficiency but they're still a lot more expensive to build. They have a very long way to go. Durability of the fuel cell stacks is currently about half that of a gasoline engine. A fuel cell stack as of the end of 2015 will need to be replaced at 75K miles. I did the math and the batteries in my Tesla will be good for at least double this. See this.

    The 2016 Toyota Mirai, a subcompact, is only rated at 66MPG. A Prius is 58 city, 53 highway and costs less than half the price of the Mirai. BEVs are typically over 100 for a similarly sized car. For example, a 2013 Leaf is the equivalent of 115MPG, almost twice as efficient. My 3-year old Tesla, a much larger vehicle with a lot more passenger and storage room, is 89MPGe. The newer ones are even higher. The Model 3 should be considerably higher than that. Long term, I don't see HFC vehicles competing much against pure electric cars. The complexity alone means that they will always be more expensive, especially as the cost of batteries drops. The cost today of a Toyota Mirai is $58,335. This is for a car with 0-60 of 9.4 seconds and a top speed of 108MPH, not much better than a Prius. The Mirai will suffer the same problems as a Prius as well. The Mirai depends on a battery pack for acceleration and regenerative braking, just like a Prius. My last car was a Prius. It does poorly going up mountain grades and the Mirai will suffer the same problem. Unlike a Prius, the power output of the PEM stack will be considerably lower by 75K miles. A BEV car can put out considerably more power for a longer time since it isn't restricted to the limited output of the PEM stack. I've taken my Tesla up a number of steep mountain grades where my Prius would struggle without breaking a sweat. The Tesla Model 3 and other long range BEVs will cost considerably less than the Mirai. The Model 3 will also have considerably more room inside and storage space. The ONLY advantage the Mirai has is that it can be filled relatively quickly. In just about every other metric it falls short. Today I can take my Tesla most places in the country with the number of places I can't drive to without superchargers rapidly diminishing. By the time the model 3 rolls out the entire country will be pretty much covered. As it is, in California where most of them are sold, even out of the way places are getting covered. There's a charging station going in right near the entrance to Yosemite, for example and even highway 395 along the eastern Sierra Nevada mountains is covered.

    Let's compare:

    Hydrogen filling stations

    vs

    Plugshare chargers
    Tesla Superchargers
    Tesla Superchargers by the end of 2016 (click on 2016). This number should double by 2017.

    The closest hydrogen fueling station to my house is 15 miles away from my house. My EV charging station is in my garage. This covers over 90% of my driving needs. I pay $50/month for the electricity and drive around 1000 miles/month. According to this article, the Mirai

    --
    This post is encrypted twice with ROT-13. Documenting or attempting to crack this encryption is illegal.
  69. Break wear? by fuzzyfuzzyfungus · · Score: 1

    Out of curiosity, does anyone know how much(or how little) electric vehicles are able to take advantage of 'regenerative braking' and/or the ability of electric motors to switch between forward and reverse extremely quickly in order to reduce the use of brake pads?

    I'd assume that, for regulatory reasons if nothing else, there's just no way that a vehicle without reasonably conventional brakes is going to get approved for highway use; but, in practice, do hybrid or fully electric systems actually end up using their brake pads to slow down very often, or are they typically able to partially or wholly handle the matter within the motor?

    1. Re:Break wear? by drinkypoo · · Score: 1

      but, in practice, do hybrid or fully electric systems actually end up using their brake pads to slow down very often, or are they typically able to partially or wholly handle the matter within the motor?

      I still have yet to drive any of these things, but all the modern ones have pretty extreme regen to the point that reviewers and drivers alike say you rarely have to use the brakes in normal driving, only in traffic or at stops. Most of them have configurable modes, and one of them is a legacy emulation mode with only light regen and one of them is an "eco" mode with heavy regen. When you let up off the accelerator, the vehicle slows rapidly - and virtually all of the velocity lost is converted to energy, less predictable losses. Mostly they don't engage the friction brake until after you've pressed the pedal down a bit, as well, doing regen in the upper parts of the travel.

      --
      "You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
    2. Re:Break wear? by BostonPilot · · Score: 1

      Different EVs use different amounts of regenerative braking. This seems to be more of a human factors thing than an electromechanical limit. There seem to be two schools of thought on how to control regenerative braking. One (that I highly prefer) is to use "one pedal driving" where taking your foot off the accelerator pedal causes regenerative braking to kick in. This actually feels pretty natural for those of us that drive manual transmissions and are used to the deceleration when we lift off the gas.

      The other way of doing this is to have the brake pedal cause regenerative braking at first, and then blend in friction braking as you depress the pedal further. On an early Prius I drove I could definitely feel inconsistencies in braking forces as the braking system switched from pure regen to friction braking.

      The first method, one pedal braking, means that the car will drive very differently for a person used to an automatic transmission. In fact, if the regen comes on too strong, it might even cause an accident if someone is used to taking their foot entirely off the gas pedal: too much regen could cause a following vehicle to rear end the driver.

      Several (most?) manufacturers allow the driver to change a setting as to how much regen will be used. In my Honda Fit EV the transmission selector has "D" (which acts more like an automatic transmission) and "B" (which increases the amount of regen used). Also, the vehicle notices when you are driving downhill and will increase the amount of regen (so that the vehicle won't accelerate downhill, even with your foot off the brake). I've driven down some very steep hills without the vehicle tending to accelerate which makes me think regen is capable of very strong braking forces when desired, but that manufacturers are worried that too strong a system will cause problems for the drivers.

      Personally, I just want a little dial so that I can turn it from "almost no regen" to "huge amounts of regen" depending on the driving situation.

  70. The Daily Mail is shit by gsslay · · Score: 1

    Utter shit.

    This is just another in a long line of lies, hysteria, propaganda and misinformation on all subjects. Anything that scares its readers into confirming their prejudices and knowing their place as consumer drones.

  71. Re:Brakes? Tires? by zmooc · · Score: 1

    I have never heard of tire dust being considered a major health risk.

    Where I live (.nl), in many places near houses, speed limits are much lower than the road design allows, in order to keep the fine dust in check. Since the advent of clean diesels, the majority of that comes from tires. Tire dust has always been a major health risk, containing irritants, allergenics and carcinogenic compounds and more. There's nothing new here, nevertheless everbody acts surprised :p

    --
    0x or or snor perron?!
  72. Re: Once again, hydrogen looks to be the future by pipingguy · · Score: 1

    Hey, you! Be quiet! Don't you know that everybody with an opinion is an (outspoken) expert now because of the internet?

  73. Get at the root cause by rcharbon · · Score: 1

    In all this discussion of climate change, pollution, carbon emissions, etc... people almost always leave out the core problem. The solution to these problems starts and ends with having fewer people. With advances in technology, each of us, as individuals, pollutes much less on average than we did in the past. But there are so many more of us, that doesn't matter.

    1. Re:Get at the root cause by PPH · · Score: 1

      We are working on a solution to this problem. It involves a 100 meter rise in the sea level.

      --
      Have gnu, will travel.
  74. Re:Brakes? Tires? by PeeAitchPee · · Score: 1

    bacon cures cancer!

    Hmm. Your ideas are intriguing to me and I wish to subscribe to your newsletter.

  75. Re:Good enough for me by Feyshtey · · Score: 1

    Awesome plan.
    Pack people in more tightly.
    Increase crime.
    Increase conflict brought on by dense proximity.
    Increase dependency on government programs.
    Increase the absolute reliance on just-in-time shipping and stocking of goods.
    And increase taxation to accomodate all the above.

    When the predictable results of rebellion become dangerous, jail dissidents and begin capital punishment for crimes against the State.

    Historically it's worked without a hitch in Soviet Russia, Maoist China, North Korea... Hey, wait a minute...

    --
    "But we have to pass the bill so that you can find out what is in it,..." - Nancy Pelosi
  76. Re:Does The Paper Account For Regenerative Braking by Drethon · · Score: 1

    I wonder if slowing with the regenerative breaking is as efficient as just taking your foot off the gas and coasting for a while. That is assuming you can predict traffic well enough to not need some kind of breaking.

  77. Re:Does The Paper Account For Regenerative Braking by Lonewolf666 · · Score: 1

    Interesting report, thanks.

    I'd like to add that it might be possible to improve on the regenerative braking. The Tesla model S for instance already comes with a dual motor, all-wheel-drive in all current versions. If Tesla can increase the regenerative braking power to approximately the power for accelerating, disc brakes could become a rarely used thing on the Tesla.

    --
    C - the footgun of programming languages
  78. Re:Does The Paper Account For Regenerative Braking by fgouget · · Score: 1

    The Prius c is literally a Yaris Hybrid (it's marketed as such in some parts of the world). It's the Toyota Yaris -- a compact car -- with the Toyota Hybrid Synergy Drive in it. So, it's a Yaris, *plus* the weight of the HSD.

    This is totally wrong. The Prius is a very different car from the Yaris.. They look very different, one is a 5 seater the over a 7 seater, there's a difference of over 2 feet in length, a 36 hp difference, etc.

  79. You don't need to read this to know it's BS by tomxor · · Score: 1

    Anyone who lives or works in a city knows having diesel exhaust blowing in your face is not comparable to fucking smoking tires... I thought they were going to take the power plant angle but this is nuts.

  80. Re: Does The Paper Account For Regenerative Brakin by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    not so. compare Nissan Leaf to Versa, Mazda 3, etc. Compare Tesla Model S vs BMW 5 or 7 series, Audi A8, etc.
    Most definitely not 25% differences in those groups.

  81. Re:Brakes? Tires? by KozmoStevnNaut · · Score: 1

    I can say from experience sweeping public roads that are temporarily used as a racetrack once a year, that there is definitely such a thing as road dust. As you would expect, it's black, so it's probably mostly tire particles. But they don't get whirled up, because they're much too large and heavy (compared to something like diesel exhaust particulates).

    --
    Eat the rich.
  82. Re:Does The Paper Account For Regenerative Braking by mrt_2394871 · · Score: 1

    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?

    Having RTFP, they do take regenerative braking into account - EV cars are assumed to use regen and have effectively zero brake-wear.

  83. Re:Brakes? Tires? by cdrudge · · Score: 2

    Did you happen to watch last Sunday's Last Week Tonight with John Oliver? He talked about this very type of bullshit reporting of not very meaningful studies.

  84. Re:Does The Paper Account For Regenerative Braking by mrt_2394871 · · Score: 1

    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?

    The paper does take account of this: regenerative braking is assumed for EVs and (conservatively) zero brake-wear is assumed.

  85. And paywalls look to be the present by tepples · · Score: 1

    Not everybody has the money to (lawfully) subscribe to all closed-access journals in which "actual published scientific papers" appear, nor the opportunity to take time off work to visit a subscribing library during regular hours.

    1. Re:And paywalls look to be the present by riverat1 · · Score: 1

      "That's nice because nobody has the time or expertise to do all of that either. If you want a summary of current state of the science read the IPCC reports which are available to for free. Here's a like to the latest, the IPCC AR5 report.

  86. Car Obesity by tinkerton · · Score: 1

    The weight of cars has increased dramatically in the last 30 years. The extra weight has gone partly into making the car safer. It would be fun if the lives saved by safer cars would be cancelled by the increase in bad air. You suppress a bump here and it pops up again in another place. In practice one would expect that the net effect is still positive.
    This reminds me of a related problem with diesel. As diesel engines got optimized they started to emit increasing amounts of NOx. Well, maybe the net effect didn't increase, but in any case the engines ran hotter and this increased NOx production.

  87. Wrong headling by drolli · · Score: 1

    Scientists: Electric Vehicles Produce As Many Toxins As Dirty Diesels

    is *not* what the original article in the scientific Journal says.

    It more like: Brakes and Tires of electric cars produce as much (slightly more) dust as "dirty diesels" brakes an tires.

    Nowhere there is anything about NOx and particles from the exhaust which is probably the main killer in "Dirty Diesels".

  88. This is news? by necro81 · · Score: 1

    This just in: electric cars still have wheels; still use brakes! Film at 11!

  89. Re:Does The Paper Account For Regenerative Braking by mrchaotica · · Score: 1

    Hybrid vehicles (and EVs, probably) have smaller brake pads than similarly sized conventional vehicles (though the actual stopping power of the disc brakes in an emergency is just as good as regular cars).

    No it's not. Stopping power in an emergency depends almost entirely on the tires, not the brakes -- assuming the brakes have the minimum level of capability necessary to lock up / engage the ABS -- and hybrids and EVs almost uniformly have incredibly terrible, skinny, low-rolling-resistance tires.

    (Bigger brakes are only important in reducing fade caused by repeated braking.)

    --

    "[Regarding the 'cloud,'] ownership was what made America different than Russia." -- Woz

  90. Re:Brakes? Tires? by drinkypoo · · Score: 2

    Personally I do not think that this is a big issue for electric cars being the weight of batteries is what causes tire wear. It is the fact that electric cars are so damn quick off the line. If we can only make electric vehicles as sluggish as gas cars the tire problem would go aware.

    Launches don't eat your tires in EVs because they have such good traction control. What eats your tires is going around turns without traction, which causes sideways slip that causes the abrasive particles in the road to remove parts of your tires. What causes a lack of traction in turns is taking the turns too fast. What makes it too fast? The ultra low rolling resistance tires used on hybrids, which decrease cornering traction due to decreasing traction in general. So you can either drive your EV with respect for your tires, or for other drivers, who don't have the same shitty tire compound nor the same tiny contact patches. And incidentally, EVs and hybrids are quite heavy vehicles which put their weight on much less area than others due to their skinny, hard tires. That means they actually do more road damage!

    --
    "You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
  91. Re: Brakes? Tires? by drinkypoo · · Score: 1

    If the article really claims that diesel has lower PM emissions than petrol, I think it's safe to say the entire article is bollocks and can be ignored.

    You are bollocks and can be ignored. Why not educate yourself before "contributing"?

    --
    "You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
  92. Re:Does The Paper Account For Regenerative Braking by mrchaotica · · Score: 2

    This is totally wrong. The Prius is a very different car from the Yaris.

    What part of "Prius c " did you not understand? The Prius and the Prius c are two completely fucking different cars! Wikipedia says:

    "The Prius c is the third member of the Prius family, and combines the features of a Yaris-sized car with a hybrid powertrain."

    If you're going to be an asshole and "correct" somebody, you'd better make sure you're not the one who's wrong first!

    --

    "[Regarding the 'cloud,'] ownership was what made America different than Russia." -- Woz

  93. And yet misses the conclusion completely by oh_my_080980980 · · Score: 1

    FTA: "Future policy should consequently focus on setting standards for non-exhaust emissions and encouraging weight reduction of all vehicles to significantly reduce PM emissions from traffic." http://www.sciencedirect.com/s...

    Over time batteries will get smaller, lighter, and more efficient. So weight on an electric car is not fixed versus on a conventional car.

  94. Re:Does The Paper Account For Regenerative Braking by pmontra · · Score: 1

    Not the usual home/work car but the weight of today's hybrid Formula 1 cars is 702 kg, driver included, fuel excluded. They must race with at most 100 kg of fuel. Ten years ago (v8 engines) the minimum weight was 595 kg. It's a 18% increase. Most of it is because of the batteries, electric engines and turbo gradually introduced in the last years. The result is the cars are a little slower than they used to be, with the exception of a couple of tracks where the hybrids broke the old lap record. The first thing you usually do to make a car faster is to make it lighter. They're spending more money per year than they did in the past only to be technologically relevant, not to race better. The last two years were a fight between two Mercedes drivers and this year there could be no fight at all.
    http://www.f1fanatic.co.uk/201...

  95. Re:Brakes? Tires? by drinkypoo · · Score: 1

    Granted I'm getting old and my eyes probably aren't working as well as they used to... when I'm driving at 60-80mph on the interstate... it's often hard to make out much of any 'dust' on the roads other than snow... which has this odd tendency to come down in significant volumes then be blown away.

    Where do you imagine tires and brakes go as they get worn down? They just vanish into the celestial aether?

    --
    "You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
  96. Re:Brakes? Tires? by hAckz0r · · Score: 1

    Likely a paid shill of the oil industry
    http://www.sourcewatch.org/ind...

  97. Re:Brakes? Tires? by bluefoxlucid · · Score: 2

    Put better tires on your car and stop driving dealer tires.

  98. Scientific accuracy is lacking by kimvette · · Score: 1

    They may as well claim blinker fluid and muffler bearing emissions for all the accuracy in the article, and it would become no less accurate.

    Tire and road emissions? Really?

    I am aware that as with most substances, there is some amount of outgassing and perhaps even predictable if not measurable sublimation of many materials in vehicles... but to claim that any of it is statistically significant is beyond ridiculous. As far as the tire and road emissions go, it's just solid dust, not gaseous, and will settle (I'm sure some rubber from the tires is vaporized at times, but it's negligible). The environmental impact of that is negligible (what is not negligible is when some fucktard salvage yard owner "accidentally" burns piles of tires rather than recycle them).

    Brake dust - not so bad as they have moved away from asbestos pads to semi-metallic and ceramic pads. Pad composition iron, cellulose, and glass, or ceramic composites, and it's not like your car is emitting kilograms of this stuff per hour; more like a few grams over thousands of hours, plus a bit of iron from the rotors over that period. It's negligible.

    --
    The Christian Right is Neither (Christian nor right). See: Matthew 23, Matthew 25, Ezekiel 16:48-50
    1. Re:Scientific accuracy is lacking by kimvette · · Score: 1

      > Particulates are neither gaseous

      I believe I stated this. I re-read my post... lo and behold I did state that. Your point?

      --
      The Christian Right is Neither (Christian nor right). See: Matthew 23, Matthew 25, Ezekiel 16:48-50
    2. Re:Scientific accuracy is lacking by kimvette · · Score: 1

      And are they shedding 20lbs per ~20-35 miles? That is what this article is claiming; that EVs are as dirty as ICEs, and they're blaming particulate emissions - which you must agree is nonsense. First of all, the dust will settle, and it will break down. Secondly, it's nowhere near as many emissions as ICE vehicles. Therefore the entire premise of the article is bogus.

      Yes, dust is emitted, and that is indisputable - AS I POINTED OUT IN MY POST YOU RESPONDED TO. However compared to the gaseous emissions the dust/particulate emissions from brake pads, rotors, road surface, and tires is absolutely negligible by comparison.

      --
      The Christian Right is Neither (Christian nor right). See: Matthew 23, Matthew 25, Ezekiel 16:48-50
  99. Re:Once again, hydrogen looks to be the future by bluefoxlucid · · Score: 1

    Hydrogen storage is effectively a combination of a gasoline car with its gas cap off and a Tesla with a slow short in its battery: the hydrogen is impossible to properly contain (and so dissipates slowly, even through an inch of high-density solid steel, just like if you left your gas cap off and your gasoline evaporated) and requires extreme cooling to reasonably store (usually liquid nitrogen, although liquid helium retains the hydrogen in a properly-built tank for *much* longer; and the LN2 cooling system requires active electrical pumps).

    There is no reason to believe storage of hydrogen will ever improve to the point of storing it in a low-energy, low-seepage containment unit. The most advanced hydrogen storage is combining it with carbon to form hydrocarbon--typically methane.

  100. Re:Does The Paper Account For Regenerative Braking by Khyber · · Score: 4, Informative

    Not even close and I've got the freight scales to prove it. The fucking Tesla Model S-60 weighs 1961kg. A comparably-sized car would be the 2016 Taurus, at 1962kg.

    25% my fucking ass, son.

    --
    Still waiting on Serviscope_minor to wake up to fucking reality and realize that Jessica Price isn't going to fuck him.
  101. Re:Once again, hydrogen looks to be the future by Khyber · · Score: 1

    "But hydrogen has terrible energy density"

    You must be smoking crack. If hydrogen had terrible density, we'd not be using it in HIGH-YIELD NUCLEAR WEAPONRY.

    Hydrogen compressed at 700bar has an energy density of 142 MJ/kg.

    Diesel is 48 MJ/kg, literally less than 1/3rd of hydrogen.

    --
    Still waiting on Serviscope_minor to wake up to fucking reality and realize that Jessica Price isn't going to fuck him.
  102. Re: Once again, hydrogen looks to be the future by Khyber · · Score: 1

    Research done. I see plenty of loaded hydrogen bombs, at least 20+ years old, in our stockpiles.

    I've also done the energy density numbers.

    Perhaps you should be quiet until you're actually working with this stuff.

    --
    Still waiting on Serviscope_minor to wake up to fucking reality and realize that Jessica Price isn't going to fuck him.
  103. Re: Once again, hydrogen looks to be the future by Khyber · · Score: 1

    And you're wrong. Try again when you've actually got an education on the subject outside of Fox News reports.

    --
    Still waiting on Serviscope_minor to wake up to fucking reality and realize that Jessica Price isn't going to fuck him.
  104. Re:Brakes? Tires? by drinkypoo · · Score: 1

    Put better tires on your car and stop driving dealer tires.

    You could do that, yes. In order to get substantially better tires, you would also have to upgrade the wheels. Having upgraded the tires and wheels, you would find that you have substantially increased both wind resistance and rolling resistance, and that you have substantially compromised your mileage and thus your range.

    Or you could just slow down, and drive the vehicle like it's meant to be driven. That, however, would require fucking off to the right side of the highway, and we all know that hybrid drivers like to hang out in the passing lane so you get to go around them... usually spending more fuel to do so in a timely fashion.

    --
    "You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
  105. old beater cars by Khashishi · · Score: 1

    As a cyclist, I find that the vast majority of choking pollution comes from a minority of vehicles: old beater trucks and cars, motorcycles, oversized pickup trucks, and industrial vehicles.

  106. Re:Brakes? Tires? by bluefoxlucid · · Score: 2

    You can get Continental's Extreme Contact DWS 06 model for the Toyota Prius stock, which is a particularly high-performance all-season. It's not as high-performance as the Goodyear Assurance TripleTred, which performs almost as well in wet/dry as high-performance summer tires when loaded onto a non-performance passenger vehicle (don't put TripleTreds on your Pontiac GTO and expect PolePosition performance; don't put PolePositions on your Mazda 3 and expect race car performance and a huge improvement in handling characteristics over TripleTreds).

    Various top-performing Ponteza summer tires are available for the Toyota Prius stock size as well, although I seriously doubt they outperform a high-end UHP All-Season when mounted on something like a Prius.

    Many of these tires hold their form rigid when inflated to rated pressure, rather than bulging. You can run them at a full 50PSI (I've run S04 PolePositions and my TripleTreds at a full 50PSI on a 2,800 pound Mazda 3) at all times in all conditions with all vehicle loads. That gives you a round profile and reduces rolling resistance, while also increasing contact patch pressure and reducing braking distance in wet and dry conditions. For the snow you want real snow tires; UHP all-seasons will drive you around pretty well, but nothing like a real snow tire. I just compensate by driving slower and more cautiously in snow.

  107. Re:Brakes? Tires? by EvilSS · · Score: 1

    Who knew that stuff was so deadly toxic? Really?

    First off, electric cars use their brake pads less, not more. Regenerative brakes do most of the work, and the brakes last 2-3x longer than a regular gasoline car. Tire do last a little less long, but most of those are big particles, and I have never heard of tire dust being considered a major health risk.

    Sounds like a hatchet job...

    Paper takes this into account, their calculations are based on 0 mg/vkm brake wear for EVs.

    --
    I browse on +1 so AC's need not respond, I won't see it.
  108. Re:Does The Paper Account For Regenerative Braking by EvilSS · · Score: 1

    Yes, it does. 0 mg/vkm brake wear for EVs. Directly from the paper.

    --
    I browse on +1 so AC's need not respond, I won't see it.
  109. Re:Does The Paper Account For Regenerative Braking by BostonPilot · · Score: 1

    Slowing with regenerative braking is not as efficient as just modulating your speed to avoid having to brake. Some figures I've seen say regen braking is 80% efficient. That's always seemed high to me, but I've seen the figure more than once.

    In any case, best is to control your speed (within reason, so you don't impede other vehicles), use regen when you have to slow down, and only use the friction brakes when a sudden stop is required.

    BTW, different vehicles have differing amounts of regenerative braking, so just because it's very gentle on one vehicle and you may use the friction brakes a lot, doesn't mean that other vehicles don't have aggressive regen braking. It's pretty seldom that I have to tap the brake pedal on my Honda Fit EV...

  110. Re: Brakes? Tires? by mrchaotica · · Score: 1

    Gasoline engines do in fact put out a lot of particulates, and always have. It just doesn't seem that way because the size distribution is weighted more towards the smaller end of the spectrum than it is for Diesels, so the soot is less visible. Of course, since smaller particles are worse for people's health than larger ones, it could be argued that gasoline engines are actually worse than Diesels and that the regulations targeting Diesel emissions are actually based on bad science.

    --

    "[Regarding the 'cloud,'] ownership was what made America different than Russia." -- Woz

  111. Re:Once again, hydrogen looks to be the future by mrchaotica · · Score: 1

    Hydrogen is difficult and dangerous to store (both because of its flammability and the high pressure needed to store enough of it in a reasonably-small space). However, there is a solution: simply add a little bit of carbon to it and you end up with an energy-dense liquid fuel that's much easier to handle -- so easy, in fact, that we've already built the infrastructure to do it!

    --

    "[Regarding the 'cloud,'] ownership was what made America different than Russia." -- Woz

  112. Re:Does The Paper Account For Regenerative Braking by codealot · · Score: 1

    That may be true of the eGolf but some hybrids charge differently. The Volt for example does not charge beyond 80% when plugged in, leaving a 20% cushion for regenerative braking.

  113. Re:Does The Paper Account For Regenerative Braking by samwichse · · Score: 2

    My Insight has ~180k on it, factory brake pads are at ~40%.

  114. Re: Brakes? Tires? by BostonPilot · · Score: 1

    Resuspension is caused by the wake of a vehicle, which in turn is determined by the size, weight and aerodynamics of the vehicle.

    At first I didn't understand what they meant by "resuspension". I was confused because they lump this in and still call it an "emission". It doesn't seem to me to be accurate to call this an emission. That makes it seem like that PM is coming from the car in question. Is this important to understand in terms of measuring air quality near a road? Sure. Is it misleading to call it an emission? I think so...

    I'm also not sure it's accurate to measure resuspension by weight. While it is true that a larger car will resuspend more particles than a smaller one, it seems to me that aerodynamic drag (and speed) is the important factor to consider here, and EVs tend to be pretty clean aerodynamically (in order to get the range up). So, to assume that a smaller, aerodynamically clean (but heavier) EV will stir up more PM sitting around on the road surface than a vehicle of greater size that weighs the same just seems wrong.

    On the highway this will likely be even more true. Electric vehicles take a big hit from drag if they are driven fast. On the shorter range EVs (like my Honda Fit EV) I tend to drive much slower on the highway than when I'm in my ICE vehicle. This almost certainly means I'm stirring up a lot more PM in my ICE car on the highway than my EV. (but, Tesla drivers probably drive faster than I do because their bigger battery gives them the luxury of doing that...)

    By using the data from Simons (2013) on the effect of weight on emissions and the average exhaust and non-exhaust emission from the various emission inventories, we can compare the total PM emissions from EVs with those from gasoline and diesel cars. When we do this, we find that EVs emit the same amount of PM10 as modern gasoline and diesel cars. See Table 5 for the comparisons.

    See, this just seems misleading to be comparing ICE vs EV emissions and have resuspension as part of that equation. And the resuspension number is really large. When you eliminate that, the EV looks very good compared to the ICE vehicles.

  115. Re: Once again, hydrogen looks to be the future by BostonPilot · · Score: 1

    Ok, but I've been wondering for a while why Toyota and Honda were pushing Hydrogen so hard, and saying EV wasn't the way to go.

    The cynic in me believed this was their way to make it look like they were working on non-polluting vehicles without having to actually produce any (because the production and fueling infrastructure would delay the deployment for several decades).

    I've seen some things lately that Honda might be finally be changing their minds about producing EVs (and I really enjoy the Honda Fit EV I lease from them).

    Anyone know any other reasons why Toyota and Honda are/were so gung ho for H2 instead of EV?

  116. So, err...uhhh... by b1tbkt · · Score: 1

    They don't take into account particulate emissions from the 'dirty' diesels here and, so, this seems awfully deceptive. If you add together particulate emissions from diesel engines *plus* emissions from their brakes, tires, etc., you're still going to wind up with more than electric cars which have zero emissions from their engines. This, even if non-engine particulate emissions are elevated due to the weight of electrics.

  117. Re:Does The Paper Account For Regenerative Braking by cbeaudry · · Score: 3, Informative

    Lies to prove your point, or just ignorance?

    Taurus is a much bigger car than the Tesla for starters. And the S-60 has very low autonomy, but lets go with it.

    Taurus specs: http://www.edmunds.com/ford/ta...
    Tesla specs: http://www.edmunds.com/tesla/m...

    The Tesla is 700lbs heavier than one of the heaviest sedans you could find for your comparison AND its a smaller car.

    If you want to call bullshit, makes sure you smell your reply first.

  118. Re: Brakes? Tires? by shilly · · Score: 1

    Which is marvellous, except for the fact that the filters aren't fully effective till hot, so they don't work well on short journeys (read: most urban traffic) or in cold days. And they are fairly frequently removed on the after-market to improve performance. And lots of the diesel fleet is old and therefore does not have modern filters, and in many cases has no fIlter at all. So in real world conditions, diesel cars emit much more PM than petrol cars.

  119. Re: Brakes? Tires? by shilly · · Score: 1

    That article says not a single word about the relative emissions of petrol and diesel cars. It's sweet that you think it's relevant, but then, you also think that a phrase like "you are bollocks" is meaningful English, so I guess it's not terribly surprising.

  120. Re:Does The Paper Account For Regenerative Braking by fgouget · · Score: 1

    What part of "Prius c " did you not understand?

    The part where the 'c' was not a typo. Never heard of the 'Prius c' before despite looking at hybrid cars recently. So I stand corrected.

    If you're going to be an asshole and "correct" somebody, you'd better make sure you're not the one who's wrong first!

    And if you feel the urge to insult people it means you should cool off a bit before posting...

  121. So, so wrong... by SuperKendall · · Score: 1

    If you really thought about how much work it is to wire EVERY parking space with electrical wiring capable enough to charge an electric car, you would realize just how breathtakingly wrong your statement is.

    FAR easier to build 100 hydrogen stations across a city than wire a million parking spaces.

    Not to mention MAINTAINING a few million miles of wiring and complex charging stations compared to a relative handful of stations.

    --
    "There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
    1. Re:So, so wrong... by MattskEE · · Score: 1

      Why does every parking lot need every space equipped with a charger? I think that the market will provide ample incentive for build-out of charging infrastructure in proportion to demand. Smart grid technology for load balancing and to set charging speed or start time based on how quickly you need your car charged (not fast at all if we're talking overnight) will add value by saving EV owners on their electricity bill, so consumers, building owners, or utility companies will pay money for such technology.

      A restaurant next to a highway might fill their parking lot with subsidized chargers to bring in more business. Businesses offering valet parking might add in a battery top-off (granted the average consumer doesn't use valet parking that often).

      Chargers won't all be subsidized by a business though, so in many cases if you park in a charging spot you'll have to pay, either through a transponder in your car (like a highway toll transponder), NFC from your phone, or a credit card. The latter two payment options for charging stations already exist. This will naturally lead people to park in charging spots when they want to top off, and park in noncharging spots when they don't need it, thus obviating the need for every space to have a charger.

      Apartment building owners will be have a monetary incentive to provide some kind of charging capability to renters, even if they bill the tenants for it... yes they'll have to run wiring but wiring isn't hard to run and it lasts for a really long time. They may do something like fuse the charging outlets to a lower current (and require renters to set the charge rate to match) so that the feed from the utility isn't excessive. There will be a strong value added by smart grid technology here to provide load balancing (you might pay a small premium for an immediate charge) so the electrical feed from the power line wouldn't be excessive because most people will select the slow charge option when they get home.

  122. Re:Once again, hydrogen looks to be the future by T.E.D. · · Score: 1

    That supercharger map does look like pretty impressive coverage.

    However, I don't really find that 100% helpful. If I'm just driving around town, I won't use 200 miles in a day, and can easily charge at home. If I'm driving long distances, the dang thing takes too long to charge even with the Supercharger.

    For example, I'm noticing from one of those maps that there are about 4 stations proposed between Tulsa and St. Louis (the old hallowed RT66 route), roughly 160 miles apart. The car's advertised range is about 200 miles. I could charge to 80% in about half an hour, but that would be cutting it really close, with no room for error (or air-conditioning). So I'll want to spend at least an entire hour, if not the full 90 minutes, charging at each stop. This turns what is about a 6-hour trip in a gasoline car (counting fuel stops) into a 9+ hour trip. Effectively, you spend more than A THIRD of your trip sitting around waiting for a charge.

    OTOH, if I were running one of those traditional roadside "tourist trap"s, I'd be all over getting myself on this charging network. Might as well go look over the World's Largest Ball of Twine while you are charging.

  123. Re:Brakes? Tires? by Optic7 · · Score: 1

    TL;DR: "Daily Fail" reporting fails again.

    FTFY

  124. Re:Does The Paper Account For Regenerative Braking by dan42 · · Score: 1
    The tire wear numbers look good to me

    assume 2000 g of tread mass per tire (~20%)

    assume 4 tires

    6.1mg / 4 tires = 1.525 mg tire wear "emissions" per vehicle km per tire

    assume total tire wear is 10x higher than "emissions": 15.25 mg total tire tread wear per vehicle km per tire

    allows for ~131,000 km of tire life.

    I am not so sure about the rational of classifying "re-suspension" as an "emission" however.

  125. Re:Does The Paper Account For Regenerative Braking by NitroWolf · · Score: 2

    My Tesla stops just fine with only regenerative braking. I apply the brakes to keep from moving on hills until it's time to move again.

  126. Re:Does The Paper Account For Regenerative Braking by Khyber · · Score: 1

    Uhh, did you bother doing a simple google search on curb weight?

    If so, you'd see the EXACT NUMBERS LISTED for the EXACT MODELS LISTED.

    Here's a screencap for your lazy ass.

    Try again when your bullshit cannot be defeated by simple direct screencaptures.

    --
    Still waiting on Serviscope_minor to wake up to fucking reality and realize that Jessica Price isn't going to fuck him.
  127. Re:Does The Paper Account For Regenerative Braking by Khyber · · Score: 1

    And then, to further compound the error of your ways, here's a screencap of the dimensions of both vehicles.

    The difference in size is essentially fucking NEGLIGIBLE.

    --
    Still waiting on Serviscope_minor to wake up to fucking reality and realize that Jessica Price isn't going to fuck him.
  128. Re:Don’t forget the batteries by MattskEE · · Score: 1

    I think that Lithium is not, strictly speaking, toxic, so it's not really a pollution concern. But it is a pretty dangerous material that is highly reactive and can catch fire, and it is corrosive so you can't handle it directly or breath in its dust.

  129. Scientists: EVs produce as much pollution diesels? by khz6955 · · Score: 1

    Most polution is produced in towns with cars idling and not on the motorway and don't most electric cars use regenerative braking. It would be interesting to know who funded this report and is there a link to it.

  130. Re:Does The Paper Account For Regenerative Braking by cbeaudry · · Score: 1

    So your screen cap shows the Tesla is a smaller car.

    What is your point again?

    7" isn't negligible on a vehicle.

  131. Re:Does The Paper Account For Regenerative Braking by cbeaudry · · Score: 1

    I posted the links to the specs, which contained the right Curb Weights for comparison.

    Taurus : 3969 lbs (SE, smallest version for 2016)
    Tesla : 4647 lbs (s-70, smallest version for 2016)

    Now, if you want to cheat and use the curb weight of a Taurus SHO AWD V6 Twin Turbo. Then by all means, you win, I guess....

    p.s. Also, There is no S-60 model for Tesla in 2016...

  132. Re:Once again, hydrogen looks to be the future by legRoom · · Score: 1

    If you paid attention to actual time scales in actual published scientific papers instead of sexed up headlines you wouldn't be saying that.

    The predicted high rate of warming from the early work of NASA and the IPCC has already been falsified. This is why more recent IPCC reports forecast much lower rates of warming (while still predicting catastrophe).

    For instance observed sea level rise has always been faster than predicted in any of the IPCC reports.

    The sea level is hardly rising at all right now; it is plain to see from the actual data that a massive acceleration in the rise would be required to fulfil the predictions of flooded cities and so forth. Moreover, those dramatic predictions come from sensational numbers like 7 meters, but these days the IPCC is predicting a rise of less than 1 meter over the next century, which would be more than usual, but still not terribly exciting in the grand scheme of things.

  133. Re: daily mail reporting and liberal bias by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    Of course the heaviest vehicles would cause the most of this type of pollution. Essentially this is BEST viewed as yet another reason to disparage heavy, wasteful, vehicles like SUVs. Vehicles that are typically accelerated maximally, and braked in the same fashion. Of course, since I drive a Prius, and never had a brake job done in ~70K miles I had my first one, I sincerely question the hypothesis that hybrids create more particulates than non-hybrid vehicles of the same weight/class (my Neon needed new brakes @30K).

    Yeah, vehicles pollute. But saying that the heaviest EV cause more damage than other vehicles of the same weight is silly.

  134. Re:Once again, hydrogen looks to be the future by AaronW · · Score: 1

    They usually do try and place the superchargers at places where there are things to do nearby. Many of them are located within easy walking distance of malls and restaurants. Tesla has also said that they plan to double the number of charging places in the next year. My guess is that they'll have multiple battery options, just like they do for the Model S. It really would not surprise me if they come out with a version with an EPA rated range of 300 miles.

    --
    This post is encrypted twice with ROT-13. Documenting or attempting to crack this encryption is illegal.
  135. Re:Does The Paper Account For Regenerative Braking by Khyber · · Score: 1

    It is when the overall cubic-inch usage is not even 0.5% (actual, not calculated by simple lxwxh) off from each other.

    And even if you calculated JUST on lxwxh, the size difference is ~8%.

    Do you fail at numbers?

    --
    Still waiting on Serviscope_minor to wake up to fucking reality and realize that Jessica Price isn't going to fuck him.
  136. Re:Does The Paper Account For Regenerative Braking by Khyber · · Score: 1

    Year of manufacture means jack shit. The comparison still works as they're both in the same fucking actual car class despite what they may call it.

    Car dealerships, I've worked at 'em.

    --
    Still waiting on Serviscope_minor to wake up to fucking reality and realize that Jessica Price isn't going to fuck him.
  137. Re:Brakes? Tires? by Macman408 · · Score: 1

    I did, about a day after posting my comment. Well worth watching. Clearly, I'm just retroactively prescient.

  138. Re:Brakes? Tires? by Macman408 · · Score: 1

    Coming up in next month's newsletter:
    Eating bacon can extend your life by several years!
    In a controlled study, one group of people ate only bacon for all meals, and lived several years longer than the control group! The control group consumed the exact same diet, but without the bacon. While the control group mostly died within a month or two, the bacon-eaters survived several years before succumbing to normal diseases like heart attack, arteriosclerosis, and uncontrollable joy from eating bacon.

  139. Their "testing" by TomGreenhaw · · Score: 1

    They need to disclose a lot more of their methodology for this to be taken seriously. Regenerative braking that is used very heavily in electric cars cause a lot less brake pad use - not more. Teslas have normal tire wear for the type of tire they use. I don't have experience with other electric cars, but they are all small vehicles. It raises an important point I hadn't considered but certainly not to the detriment of electric cars.

    --
    Greed is the root of all evil.
    1. Re:Their "testing" by rch7 · · Score: 1

      Most Model S owners complain about extremely fast tire wear, especially those with bigger rims option.
      Face it, there is nothing environmentally friendly about electron guzzlers, the same as with gas guzzlers. Both are dirty polluting hogs, even if one hog has "green" advertising sticker on it.

    2. Re:Their "testing" by TomGreenhaw · · Score: 1

      I do have the smaller rims. Tesla sells the car with what seems to be a performance summer style tire and that I'm sure is a big factor on tire wear. I've got almost 30k miles on the set I have now, but they are getting close to where they need to be replaced. I could probably get 40k on the set I have now, but I want to try a different tire that is better suited to Chicago winters. The Model S is very heavy and stopping in snowy conditions is an issue.

      I don't have an appetite for debating the environmental benefits of electric cars. But I'll make a few points that shape my decisions and leave it at that.

      I pay extra on my electric bill so that my power generation comes from wind and solar. Its only about $6 a month extra and I'm surprised more people don't do it.

      I'm sick of hearing about the environmental impact of oil production. The gulf of Mexico spill, pipeline spills in the Yellowstone River, Exxon Valdez tanker spills, the impact of fracking not to mention the likely link of climate change to increased CO2 emissions by humans.

      I'm also weary of the geopolitical problems caused by the concentration of wealth into the oil sector.

      Its time we as a people look forward to an alternative to gasoline for personal transportation. There is no question that mining for lithium and rare earth minerals and other things that will be used in abundance has a severe environmental impact. As flawed as TFA is, it raises a good point about the environmental impact of roads and tires as well as the fact that the weight of electric cars is an important area of improvement. We need to go in with eyes open to solve the problems of electric automobiles.

      I can envision an ideal electric car can be made that dramatically reduces environmental impact. Cars powered by fossil fuels can never be improved to the same degree as electric powered vehicles.

      --
      Greed is the root of all evil.
    3. Re:Their "testing" by stoatwblr · · Score: 1

      "Most Model S owners complain about extremely fast tire wear"

      I don't have a model S, but as a former biker I'm willing to bet that the tires use a soft formulation to ensure traction. Soft tires wear _very_ quickly - it could be as much as 3 times faster than harder ones even on a small bike with only 16hp at the wheel.

    4. Re:Their "testing" by stoatwblr · · Score: 1

      "There is no question that mining for lithium and rare earth minerals and other things that will be used in abundance has a severe environmental impact."

      The main impact is due to the "nuisance" byproduct of rare earth mining - thorium.

      That would be solved if thorium -based nuke plants were a "thing" (LFTRs) and those rare earth mines would probably become thorium mines producing rare earths as a byproduct.

  140. How about "clean" diesel? by rch7 · · Score: 1

    It may be true for "dirty diesel" operating with emission controls on, but not for "clean diesel" (TM) that has emission controls legally (or not) disabled because outside temperature is lower than 18 C or just because some CEO pushed to meet unrealistic targets.

  141. Re: Brakes on EV's last LONGER than on ICE vehicle by rhubarb42 · · Score: 1

    Sure. but what does that have to do with this thread? The point isn't about safety. The point is EV's may be heavier than a comparable ICE today but they will drop in weight. Thus if heavier == more polluting, then EV"s will evolve to pollute less. And btw, the crash data shows that more people get hurt/die in heavier vehicles than the lighter ones, especially top heavy SUV's. Light cars being dangerous is a fearmongered myth.

  142. Re:Does The Paper Account For Regenerative Braking by Khyber · · Score: 1

    "Taurus
    EPA INTERIOR VOLUME 122.3 cu.ft
    Tesla
    EPA INTERIOR VOLUME 120.0 cu.ft."

    That's not 25% heavier, or larger, by any means.

    Try again when your karma hasn't tanked enough that you can post using your account.

    --
    Still waiting on Serviscope_minor to wake up to fucking reality and realize that Jessica Price isn't going to fuck him.
  143. Re:Does The Paper Account For Regenerative Braking by Khyber · · Score: 1

    " the claim of 25% heavier is true."

    You're trying to use OTHER NUMBERS versus my posted numbers.

    You are being 100% disingenuous and you fucking know it. That's why you had to post as AC this time, your karma bombed like a fucking tank from every other person on this planet proving your sorry ass wrong.

    --
    Still waiting on Serviscope_minor to wake up to fucking reality and realize that Jessica Price isn't going to fuck him.
  144. Re:Does The Paper Account For Regenerative Braking by Khyber · · Score: 1

    I may be a dropout but I kept learning and now possess three degrees. Whatcha got, anonymous furry trash? Not a goddamned thing but your shitty lulz.net website.

    --
    Still waiting on Serviscope_minor to wake up to fucking reality and realize that Jessica Price isn't going to fuck him.
  145. Re:Does The Paper Account For Regenerative Braking by samwichse · · Score: 1

    But I guess you had mod points and that's why you were posting anonymously.

    Everything about that is still ridiculous, BTW.

  146. ANOTHER study suggests?! by martinfb · · Score: 1

    C'mon! Let's get into context here. What about the CO2 and NO emissions?! You CANNOT expect me to believe a gas-powered vehicle is no dirtier than an electric vehicle! How about my horse? It farts methane regularly! Talk about "pollution"! So, come on now, and get all context accurate and divulged here.

    --


    Self-importance and self-indulgence is the root of ALL evil.
  147. False analogy by WillAffleckUW · · Score: 1

    Depends on the source of electricity. In the 12 advanced US states and 4 advanced Canadian provinces with green energy for 50-100 percent of their electricity mix, this is a false analogy.

    Only if you live in a deadender state or province that still uses coal to make electricity is this true.

    If you live in the West, this is definitely NOT THE CASE.

    --
    -- Tigger warning: This post may contain tiggers! --
  148. Re: daily mail reporting and liberal bias by 400_guru · · Score: 1

    Of the 5 Prii that I have owned the average 'first brake job' is well pas t150,000. Contrast that to the Dodge vehicles we drove before that where attaining 40,000 on a set of brakes was extraordinary! Our Toyota dealer echoes this explaining that the average Prius goes 'about double' the miles of a Corolla before needing brakes.

    --
    There are two rules to success in life: 1) Don't tell everyone all that you know.
  149. Re:Does The Paper Account For Regenerative Braking by Khyber · · Score: 1

    " I already showed that the weight is 17% larger,"

    No, you didn't. You cherry-picked a number after I had already set a specific baseline, your proof isn't shit.

    Try admitting you're right and your karma might come back to normal.

    "As for 4 degrees, I sincerely doubt it. "

    Considering I said absolutely nothing about 4 degrees anywhere, I can only assume you're on fucking drugs, which explains your argumentativeness and inability to process information properly.

    --
    Still waiting on Serviscope_minor to wake up to fucking reality and realize that Jessica Price isn't going to fuck him.
  150. Re: daily mail reporting and liberal bias by steveg · · Score: 1

    Hybrids and electric vehicles barely have any brake wear. It's not zero, but damned close. When you brake any vehicle capable of regenerative braking (electrics or hybrids) you simply use the motor as a generator and turn your forward motion to battery charge. The brake pads only make contact as you come to a stop at the very end, or if you are braking harder than the battery can accept charge.

    So I call bullshit on the methodology of whoever did the study.

    --
    Ignorance killed the cat. Curiosity was framed.
  151. Re:Does The Paper Account For Regenerative Braking by Ol+Olsoc · · Score: 1

    If you want to call bullshit, makes sure you smell your reply first.

    Tell me though - are you concerned by this? does this make you believe that EV's are dirty?

    It then follows, do you take the lightest EV out there and declare every vehicle that weighs more than it as unacceptable?

    Personally, if I was teh type of person who liked his Escalade or Lexus LX570, I would be telling the Daily Mail to shut the hell up. Because my Lexus at 6000 pounds curb weight is not only throwing off more of these particulates, but has it's IC pollution as well. If it's bad for say a Tesla, it's much worse for a cehicle that has alomst two normal cars of weight. Glass houses, meet their brick.

    --
    The shepherds did so well protecting the flock that the sheep no longer believed that wolves existed.
  152. Re:Does The Paper Account For Regenerative Braking by cbeaudry · · Score: 1

    Did I say any of those things? Or do you just like to make up stories in your head and pretend others believe in them?

    I called someone out on vehicle specs, full stop.

  153. Re:Does The Paper Account For Regenerative Braking by cbeaudry · · Score: 1

    This is hilarious. I'll just sit back and have some popcorn!

  154. Re:Does The Paper Account For Regenerative Braking by cbeaudry · · Score: 1

    Your baseline was wrong, as was demonstrated to you.

    Why would he use your baseline then?

  155. Re:Does The Paper Account For Regenerative Braking by Ol+Olsoc · · Score: 1

    Did I say any of those things? Or do you just like to make up stories in your head and pretend others believe in them?

    I called someone out on vehicle specs, full stop.

    No - I like to ask questions. Answer or do not answer - It is your option. And if you do not answer - or if you demand I don't ask the questions, that is also an answer.

    Thank you, you have answered very well.

    --
    The shepherds did so well protecting the flock that the sheep no longer believed that wolves existed.
  156. Re:Once again, hydrogen looks to be the future by riverat1 · · Score: 1

    The predicted high rate of warming from the early work of NASA [wattsupwiththat.com] and the IPCC [wattsupwiththat.com] has already been falsified. This is why more recent IPCC reports forecast much lower rates of warming (while still predicting catastrophe).

    Your first cite is about James Hansen's 1988 model. Hansen used 3 scenarios for future emissions of greenhouse gases, Scenario 1 was continued acceleration, B was slowing to a constant growth rate and C was rapid decline after 2000. Watts' headline is based on comparing Scenario A to observations but in reality Scenario B is closest to reality but slightly higher than observations. Hansen's model also had too high a value for climate sensitivity (around 4.2 IIRC) while subsequent research came up with a value around 3.2. If you fixed those two thing Hansen's 1988 model would probably come pretty close to observed temperatures. It was still a remarkable piece of work nearly 30 years ago.

    The sea level is hardly rising at all right now; it is plain to see from the actual data [epa.gov] that a massive acceleration in the rise would be required to fulfil the predictions of flooded cities and so forth. Moreover, those dramatic predictions come from sensational numbers like 7 meters [theguardian.com], but these days the IPCC is predicting a rise of less than 1 meter over the next century, which would be more than usual, but still not terribly exciting in the grand scheme of things.

    There are already cities like Miami and Norfolk, VA that are flooding in areas when the king tides occur. It's only going to get worse as the slow steady rise of sea level continues. If you look closely that EPA graph does show some acceleration.

    In the Guardian article I think you misread "several meters" as "7 meters". Several meters of sea level rise this century is impossible to rule out. We don't know much about the dynamics of ice sheet breakup. There could be a catastrophic failure of an ice sheet causing a foot or more of sea level rise in a decade. Even if that doesn't happen do you think a SLR of around 3 feet by 2100 wouldn't cause massive problems for low lying cities?

  157. New low for Slash "clickbait" dot by DorbL · · Score: 1

    There is merit in reporting about particulates. They are real. They are bad to breath. Most come from burning coal. Particulates produced by cars & trucks & trains etc. should be monitored and reduced over time too. Who's brilliant idea was it to make it a face off between gas and electric cars?! CO2 is the planet killer. Don't derail the conversation for a few cheap clicks.

  158. now look here by gzuckier · · Score: 1

    this was not an exhaustive study.

    --
    Star Trek transporters are just 3d printers.
  159. Re:Once again, hydrogen looks to be the future by gzuckier · · Score: 1

    hydrogen is miserable to handle. it's corrosive to metal, it doesn't liquefy nicely (volume for volume, there is more hydrogen in gasoline than in liquid hydrogen), and when it burns the flame is hard to see in daylight. the only advantage of hydrogen is that it could bridge the gap; used as fuel for heat engine vehicles, or in fuel cells for electric vehicles.

    --
    Star Trek transporters are just 3d printers.
  160. Re:Once again, hydrogen looks to be the future by gzuckier · · Score: 1

    and can refuel in a reasonable time.

    What's a reasonable time? It takes only a few seconds after arriving home to plug in an electric car. Is a few seconds reasonable?

    For longer journeys, there are fast DC chargers which will charge Teslas or other brands to 80% charge in about 30 minutes. Unfortunately, there are 3 incompatible standards for the DC chargers.

    come to think of it, there are three grades of gas at the gas station too, not to mention diesel.

    --
    Star Trek transporters are just 3d printers.
  161. Re:Once again, hydrogen looks to be the future by gzuckier · · Score: 1

    True - it is a non-falsifiable hypothesis, since every time another "point of no return" prediction fails, they reschedule it another 5-20 years out.

    well, if you think about, whenever we reach a point of no return, we never do return.

    --
    Star Trek transporters are just 3d printers.
  162. Re:Brakes? Tires? by gzuckier · · Score: 1

    And...... I presume the average driver changes the oil in the internal combustion engine once in a while. The used crankcase oil isn't exactly suitable for frying chicken in. AFAIK you don't have to do that to an electric motor. One more score for the electric. Not sure what goes on re transmission lube, needs replacing or what.

    --
    Star Trek transporters are just 3d printers.
  163. particle size is key by stoatwblr · · Score: 1

    Diesels are problematic due to the number of PM10s and smaller they produce, which can be directly inhaled.

    The important part (and which is omitted) is what the size of these extra particles are. Larger ones fall out of the air very quickly.

  164. Re:Once again, hydrogen looks to be the future by legRoom · · Score: 1

    Watts' headline is based on comparing Scenario A to observations but in reality Scenario B is closest to reality but slightly higher than observations.

    Hansen's scenario A has mankind's CO2 output rising exponentially at 1.5% per year (see the second paragraph on page 5 of the original paper) since 1988, but the actual rate of increase has been substantially higher - about 2% per year based on this graph from the Union of Concerned Scientists.

    Hansen's scenario A has the average global surface temperature rising over 1 C between 1988 and 2014 (see figure 3 on page 7 of Hansen's paper). The actual temperature rise during that period was somewhere between 0.2 C and 0.4 C depending on which of the many data sets you believe.

    Since Hansen's basic hypothesis was "more CO2 emissions = faster warming", scenario B certainly was not "closest to reality"; in fact none of his scenarios is at all realistic, since (empirically) he completely failed to accurately predict the relationship between CO2 and temperature - which was the entire point of his paper.

    Hansen's model also had too high a value for climate sensitivity (around 4.2 IIRC) while subsequent research came up with a value around 3.2.

    [1 C] * [3.2/4.2] = [0.76 C], which is still about double the observed temperature rise.

    There is a reason that so much effort has been invested by alarmists into trying to make excuses for the lower-than-predicted temperatures - it's because temperatures have been lower than they predicted! That's still true, even if you use more recent models with less dramatic sensitivity to CO2.

    There are already cities like Miami and Norfolk, VA that are flooding in areas when the king tides occur.

    Don't be ridiculous - Miami (1.8 m) and Miami Beach (1.2 m) were both built practically at sea level to begin with; they have always been highly vulnerable to flooding since their founding. The sea level has only risen perhaps 0.25 m since that time, whereas the natural range of tides + waves + storm surges is 5+ m (especially in hurricane country!).

    Norfolk, Virginia is likewise built at such a low elevation (2.1 m) that flooding problems are inevitable, although in their case the founding was long enough ago (1682) that the danger may be due to subsidence and pre-AGW sea level rise, rather than it originally being an obviously bad location.

    If you look closely that EPA graph does show some acceleration.

    Hardly, unless you want to count the little bump at the end which is too short to be statistically significant given how chaotic the climate system is.

    In the Guardian article I think you misread "several meters" as "7 meters".

    No, the original paper contains numerous statements along these lines: "Sea level reached 6–9 m in the Eemian, a time that we have concluded was probably no more than a few tenths of a degree warmer than today."

    The introduction also makes reference to an earlier paper: "This uncertainty is illustrated by Pollard et al. (2015), who found that addition of hydro-fracturing and cliff failure into their ice sheet model increased simulated sea level rise from 2 to 17 m, in response to only 2 C ocean warming and accelerated the time for substantial change from several centuries to several decades."

    Several meters of sea level rise this century is impossible to rule out. We don't know much about the dynamics of ice

  165. Re:Does The Paper Account For Regenerative Braking by Khyber · · Score: 1

    "Your baseline was wrong, as was demonstrated to you."

    No, it was not wrong. He re-cherry-picked data.

    The vehicles are IN THE SAME GODDAMNED CLASS.

    Thus, using them as baseline comparisons is RIGHT.

    Had I tried to compare the Model S-60 with say a fucking Ford F-150, then yes, my baseline would be wrong.

    Try again when you've sold cars and understand what the actual differences in vehicle classes are.

    --
    Still waiting on Serviscope_minor to wake up to fucking reality and realize that Jessica Price isn't going to fuck him.
  166. Which means... by DriveDog · · Score: 1

    ...that trucks and SUVs are, as usual, contributing way more pollution than passenger cars, regardless of the drivetrain.