Niamh Harris – A UK study has found that electric vehicles EVs pollute at a far higher rate than their gasoline or diesel-based counterparts.
The 2022 study by Emissions Analytics, an independent global emissions testing and research group, found that during a 1,000 mile journey, EVs release 1,850 times more pollutants into the surrounding environment than gas-powered vehicles, due to the heavier weight which eats through tires.
This revelation comes as more local and national governments around the world are moving towards banning or severely limiting the sale of new gasoline-powered cars in the coming decade.
Infowars reports: When discussing emissions, most would only consider the smoke and other pollutants belched by cars from their exhaust. But tire wear also plays a significant role in emitting pollutants. The synthetic rubber used to create tires includes certain chemicals that get released into the air, and EVs are significantly heavier than conventional cars due to their massive lithium batteries.
Overall, EVs weigh about 30 percent more than gas-powered vehicles, and cost thousands more to make and buy. These issues are in addition to the fact that they are not suitable for colder climates such as Canada and the northern United States. They also offer poor range and long charging times, especially in cold weather, and have batteries that take tremendous resources to make and are difficult to recycle.
This revelation comes as more and more local and national governments across the world are moving to ban or severely limit the sale of new gasoline-powered cars in the coming decade despite the very clear technological deficiencies of electric cars.
Canada is already planning to mandate that all new cars and trucks sold in the country be electric by 2035. California is working on a similarly thorough ban on the sale of all new gas vehicles in the state by 2035.
Heavier cars emit more microplastics into environment
Hesham Rakha, a professor at Virginia Tech, noted that the tires of EVs, due to their added weight, will also emit more microplastics into the air. But this is also true of heavier fossil-fuel cars like SUVs.
This aligns with an earlier report from Emissions Analytics from 2022 that warned consumers that bigger and heavier cars, fossil fuel and electric alike, are bigger contributors “to microplastic marine pollution, as well as air pollution from finer particles.”
Rakha and a team of researchers at Virginia Tech are in the process of confirming the results of Emissions Analytics’ study. He expects to find that EVs emit around 20 percent more microplastics into the air than gas-powered vehicles.
Although Rakha did note that it is very challenging to determine the difference between the amount of microplastics emitted from EV tire treads and gas-powered vehicles because of the need to separate the microplastics that are already in the air from other sources with what’s coming off the tires.
Rakha further noted that people considering buying an EV need to remember that “it also generates a lot of carbon dioxide when charging your vehicle.”
EV batteries weigh about 1,000 pounds, and can result in tire emissions that are nearly 400 times more than tailpipe emissions.
Particle pollution from EVs can also increase the risk of health problems, including heart disease, asthma, lung disease and, in extreme cases, can even lead to hospitalization, cancer and premature death.
SF Source The People’s Voice Mar 2024