Posted on 05/15/2016 10:45:38 AM PDT by ImJustAnotherOkie
Daily Caller News Foundation Electric Vehicles Emit More Pollutants Than Fossil Fuel-Burning Cars, Says Study
A study from the University of Edinburgh shows that electric and hybrid vehicles emit as many, if not more, atmospheric toxins than fossil fuel-burning vehicles.
The study, conducted by Victor Timmers and Peter Achten at the University of Edinburgh, and published by the journal Atmospheric Environment, found that heavier electric vehicles produce as many pollutants as their lighter weight conventional vehicles.
Electric vehicles tend to produce more pollutants from tire and brake wear, due in large part to their batteries, as well as the other parts needed to propel them, making them heavier.
These pollutants are emitted when electric vehicle tires and brakes deteriorate as they accelerate or slow down while driving. Timmers and Achten’s research suggests exhaust from traditional vehicles is only about one-third of the total emissions.
Further, the particulate matters are worse than fuel emissions, because they cause more health problems.
“We found that non-exhaust emissions, from brakes, tires and the road, are far larger than exhaust emissions in all modern cars,” Achten wrote in the study.
He continued: “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 does not include the production of energy needed for each vehicle, from coal or other fossil fuel sources. It only calculates the driving of the car. The increase in pollutants are generated from factors like tire wear dust and brake pad dust, and tend to increase as the electric vehicles and hybrids get heavier — due in part because of the added weight of the cars’ lithium batteries.
Adversely, the study shows the popularity of electric vehicles are unlikely to have much of an effect on the level of pollutants. In fact, electric vehicles actually emit 90 percent of particulate emissions, while traditional vehicles push out 85 percent of particulate emissions in traffic. These proportions will only increase as electric vehicles become more popular. The study’s authors concluded that future policies should focus more on the weight of electric and hybrid vehicles.
The Edinburgh study comes on the heels of research conducted in March by the investment firm Devonshire Research Group, a company that specializes in valuing and devaluing tech firms, showing that Tesla electric vehicles are “not as sustainable as they may seem.”
The study also shows that Tesla’s CEO, techno-wonder Elon Musk, could expose the company to “serious brand risk and an unknown legal exposure.” In fact, according to the research, everything about the Tesla — from its headlights, to its chassis, to the way it is produced — contributes to environmental degradation.
I agree. This article makes no sense. A Tesla model S weighs 4600 pounds, about the same as other cars that size, and if it uses regenerative breaks it should use less break pads as well.
And my point is: Regardless of the vehicle type, brake dust is not really pollution.
Since state of the art batteries can’t actually absorb most of the “regenerated” energy as a charge, it’s a false economy factor in their concept.
Every Monday-Friday is ‘Cut Off a Prius’ day.
I too found that piece of reasoning (The “brake particle” emissions) far fetched and not well argued.
The whole article is hokey. I almost wonder if it was written to sucker people into citing it.
Hybrids use the wasted energy that would have otherwise been dissipated in heat in the brake pads and drums to recharge the batteries thereby improving the efficiency. The hybrid is all petroleum powered. Just more efficient.
An all electric, on the other hand.
Hybrids don’t use brakes to slow down, unless you stomp on them. The motor-generator recharges the battery instead, applying reverse torque.
There is the extra weight, but you have to subtract the weight of a tank of gas.
The answer is yes recharging the batteries make the car a lot more efficient.
Unintended consequences have ended more Liberal ideas than we can count.
It just isn’t fair!
They looked so good on paper!!
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But the energy would have been dissipated in the brakes and heat is used to charge the batteries.
Maybe it was just hatred for smug leaf drivers.
The study claims that the "pollutants" are particulates from tire wear (rubber) and brake wear (asbestos, among other things).
Yes, you are correct: the energy dissipated by the brakes is instead used to recharge the batteries. So, the particulates from brakes should actually be REDUCED.
The total energy expenditure is what counts. So what if you can breathe or drink the exhaust when the pollution is at the power plant.
And brakes should last longer. ;)
If you add up all the particulate matter produced by operating a car, some of it comes out of the tailpipe and some of it comes from the brake pads abrading, some of it comes from the tires abrading, some of it comes from the road abrading.
Because an electric car weighs more that a conventional car, the electric car will produce more particulate from the brake pads, tires, and road(90%) than a conventional car(85%).
The particulate from brake pads, tire and the road are course and we worry more about the very fine particulates coming out of the tailpipe because it can get way down into your lungs. It can also get dispersed into the atmosphere and reflect sunlight; which can cause global cooling. The fine particulates can also be transported to the poles and fall on the ice, making the ice absorb more sunlight, causing the ice to melt faster, and flood out all the rich people in Miami Beach.
The particulate from brake pads, tires and the road mix with the crankcase oil on the road and when it showers, its like driving on oily ball bearings, until it rains enough to wash it off the road into the bar ditch, creek, river, and ocean, and the filter feeders like oysters and shrimp eat it.
Color me skeptical on this bit of research. ICE type cars have breaks and tires that are similar. In fact, if you use regenerative braking to recover some voltage I would think it would make the brake pad dust thing less in EVs.
The giant elephant in the room is the battery. It’s filthy - from its manufacture to its death.
Again, leaving out the bit about how the electricity is produced.
I have no idea what your point is.
I know that some straight electric locomotives can be effective "re-generators," but diesel-electric locomotives will put current from the traction motors into "dynamic brakes" (kind of like giant electric toasters located somewhere near the top of the unit). On a hybrid car, does coasting downhill charge the battery as much as it can take and then dissipate the balance as heat somewhere?
Mr. niteowl77
I believe the brake pads are always activated when you press the pedal - when the car is in regenerative braking mode part of the force is used to spin a generator, while the rest stops the car. It’s possible that the brakes are applied more and earlier with these systems.
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