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Warning for EV drivers as electric cars cause twice as much damage as petrol vehicles
The Sun ^ | 6/27/2023 | Jorge Hinojosa Mena

Posted on 06/27/2023 4:36:51 PM PDT by Right Wing Vegan

DRIVERS have been warned that electric cars could damage roads TWICE as much as petrol vehicles.

Smaller roads - such as the ones outside most British homes - will crumble under the weight of heavier electric vehicles.

Analysis has shown that the average electric car more than doubles the wear on road surfaces, which could lead to an increase in potholes.

Currently, the UK is suffering a pothole crisis - with half as many repaired last year compared to a decade ago.

And the AIA'S annual Alarm survey found out that it would now cost £12.6billion to fix all the potholes in England's local roads.

This comes after numerous experts have raised concerns about the capacity of the current road infrastructure to handle the increase in EVs.

Battery-powered vehicles can weigh up to a third more than petrol and diesel cars - and the number of electric cars on British roads has tripled to 900,00 since 2019.

According to the Government's most optimistic forecast, electric vehicles will account for four out of every five miles travelled by 2035.

An average electric car puts 2.24 times more stress on roads than its petrol equivalent - and 1.95 more than diesel, The Telegraph reports.

And larger electric cars weighing over 2,000kg cause the most damage, with 2.32 times more wear applied to the roads.

Rick Green, chair of the AIA, told the Telegraph: "Principal roads are already designed to deal with the axle weights for HGVs, so we do not anticipate that heavier electrical cars will impact on road surfaces or structures.

"However, on unclassified roads – the sort of roads most of us live on and which make up the majority of the local road network in mileage terms – there could be more of an impact.

“Unclassified roads would not have been designed to accommodate HGV axle weights, so heavier electric cars could exacerbate existing weaknesses, thereby accelerating decline.”

The Government has also anticipated that switching to electric cars will result in higher traffic levels on the roads because EVs are less expensive to maintain than petrol and diesel vehicles.

Also, EVs are more expensive to run than petrol cars, as recharging them at major public points has soared to nearly £50.

Meanwhile, the price of petrol has dropped to around 144p a litre, meaning it costs about £72 to fill up a typical motor.

According to research, electric cars could cost drivers 50% more to insure than a petrol equivalent.

The most sought-after electric vehicles could cost drivers around £650 a year on insurance costs compared to £435 for a petrol motor.

This comes after electric vehicle drivers were warned that they could soon be hit by a pricey "pothole tax".

Plus, Britain's biggest pothole, which is deep enough to swallow a child, was revealed.


TOPICS: Business/Economy; Foreign Affairs; News/Current Events; United Kingdom
KEYWORDS: automotive; damage; electric; ev; roadways
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1 posted on 06/27/2023 4:36:51 PM PDT by Right Wing Vegan
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To: Right Wing Vegan

Is this before or after it sets the house on fire?


2 posted on 06/27/2023 4:38:06 PM PDT by Libloather (Why do climate change hoax deniers live in mansions on the beach?)
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“could lead to an increase in potholes.”

They’ll have to count them all.


3 posted on 06/27/2023 4:38:51 PM PDT by proust (All posts made under this handle are, for the intents and purposes of the author, considered satire.)
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To: Right Wing Vegan

This is just yet another reason not to buy an ev.


4 posted on 06/27/2023 4:38:58 PM PDT by No name given (Anonymous is who you’ll know me as)
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To: Right Wing Vegan

Roads full of potholes caused by EV’s not yet on the road ...


5 posted on 06/27/2023 4:40:26 PM PDT by TexasGator
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To: Right Wing Vegan
One of the dumbest ideas on the planet.

6 posted on 06/27/2023 4:43:50 PM PDT by Tommy Revolts
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To: Right Wing Vegan

When vehicle government authorities decide vehicle weight is damaging to roads, they invariably require more axles and wheels for heavy vehicles. This is to spread the heavy weight over more road surface area.

Will future Tesla’s be built with three or four axles and six or eight wheels?


7 posted on 06/27/2023 4:50:23 PM PDT by Gnome1949
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To: Right Wing Vegan
Rick Green, chair of the AIA, told the Telegraph:
"Principal roads are already designed to deal with the axle
weights for HGVs, so we do not anticipate that heavier
electrical cars will impact on road surfaces or
structures.

"However, on unclassified roads – the sort of roads most of
us live on and which make up the majority of the local road
network in mileage terms – there could be more of an impact.

And then again, maybe not.

What a waste of my time, reading this slop.

8 posted on 06/27/2023 4:51:02 PM PDT by DoughtyOne (I pledge allegiance to the flag of the USofA & to the Constitutional REPUBLIC for which it stands.)
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To: Right Wing Vegan

Hydrogen fuel cells are MUCH lighter than a lithium-ion battery array.

Build the infrastructure for delivery of hydrogen fuel cells, and EVs make sense. Batteries are a cumbersome, and relatively inefficient, means of converting electricity for powering vehicles not on a direct power distribution connection, like an overhead network of charged power lines above the roadway (inherently not practical). The expense of the battery array and relatively low reliability over a couple of decades of use indicates they were always a dead end, suitable only for certain niche applications.


9 posted on 06/27/2023 4:52:40 PM PDT by alloysteel (Take back the rainbow. Its use by LGBTQ is cultural misappropriation.)
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To: Right Wing Vegan

Pay more for the vehicle.
Pay more to insurance it.
Pay more to power it.
Pay to ruin local roads.
Pay to become stranded with a dead battery.
Pay to drive with no heat or AC to save on battery.
Pay to drive & house a spontaneous fire hazard.

Gov’t: You’ll drive EVs and like it.


10 posted on 06/27/2023 4:53:04 PM PDT by citizen (Put all LBQTwhatever programming on a new subscription service: PERV-TV)
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To: alloysteel
Build the infrastructure for delivery of hydrogen fuel cells...
Gee, that will be easy & cheap...NOT. Oh yeah, gotta convert or build new, 1.5 billion autos worldwide.

Common sense has deserted FR.

11 posted on 06/27/2023 4:58:27 PM PDT by citizen (Put all LBQTwhatever programming on a new subscription service: PERV-TV)
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To: citizen

You forgot to add that EV resale value is crap.


12 posted on 06/27/2023 5:04:21 PM PDT by wjcsux (On 3/14/1883 Karl Marx gave humanity his best gift, he died. )
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To: wjcsux

Thank you!
Pay up front for no resale value.


13 posted on 06/27/2023 5:05:31 PM PDT by citizen (Put all LBQTwhatever programming on a new subscription service: PERV-TV)
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To: proust

Maybe just the ones in Blackburn Lancashire.


14 posted on 06/27/2023 5:05:39 PM PDT by neverevergiveup
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To: Right Wing Vegan

Raise taxes to beef up the roads so they can handle these electric appliance vehicles.


15 posted on 06/27/2023 5:07:40 PM PDT by dragnet2 (Diversion and evasion are tools of deceit)
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To: Right Wing Vegan

This is a prelude for lowering the tax and tracking boom on previously subsidized electric card.


16 posted on 06/27/2023 5:16:24 PM PDT by glorgau
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To: Right Wing Vegan

FAKE NEWS: Nobody actually DRIVES Electric Cars. Rather they get them all nice and polished up, and then park them in their garage to virtue signal when needed (in certain social situations).


17 posted on 06/27/2023 5:28:52 PM PDT by BobL (Trump has all the right Enemies; DeSantis has all the wrong Friends)
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To: citizen

Well, that was kind of critical.

First of all, we need a HUGE commitment to providing safe, abundant, reliable and ultimately much cheaper electrical power for the mass of humanity, and to do this, a network of construction of and initiating operation of literally thousands of small modular nuclear reactors to drive electrical power generation even in very isolated localities, WITHOUT depending on a huge nationwide power grid, or silly idle dreams of “free” electrical power from windmills or solar panels, both notoriously expensive to set up, and highly unreliable in terms of longevity or or steady power production.

This supply of electrical energy is then used to hydrolyze water into its component parts, hydrogen and oxygen. The hydrogen is then distributed to retail points where it is used to charge up the hydrogen storage tanks on board of an EV, much as gasoline is sold for use in internal-combustion vehicles. With this power storage medium on board, the EV may then perform as it was meant to, far more efficiently than the IC vehicle.

This is not deserting common sense. This is looking ahead ten, or twenty years in the future. Look at how fast the computer industry grew, and the leaps and strides it continues to make. The same may be done with electrical infrastructure.


18 posted on 06/27/2023 5:28:53 PM PDT by alloysteel (Take back the rainbow. Its use by LGBTQ is cultural misappropriation.)
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To: Libloather
"Is this before or after it sets the house on fire?"

.... Yup .... The insurance companies have not yet adapted to complications and liabilities involved with owning an EV!

.

19 posted on 06/27/2023 5:33:30 PM PDT by R_Kangel ("A nation of sheep will beget a nation ruled by wolves")
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To: Right Wing Vegan

EV’s need special tires, so just put a $5,000 tax on every EV tire sale.


20 posted on 06/27/2023 5:41:05 PM PDT by smokingfrog ( sleep with one eye open (<o> --- )
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