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There's 250 million cars in the US. If every single one of them was replaced with an electric car, that would mean at least 1 billion new tires. How much oil i

There's 250 million cars in the US. If every single one of them was replaced with an electric car, that would mean at least 1 billion new tires. How much oil is needed to manufacture 1 billion tires? Christmas decorations are the least of our problems.

makomk 10y ago
Probably not very much compared to the amount of oil used to drive those cars - tires are quire thin. I wouldn't be surprised if the oil used in transporting them dominated the equation. Also, 1 billion tires is about the number manufactured annually and it's unlikely everyone would replace their car with an electric one within a year, or eve a few years. Tires are really the least of our problems.
- SuddsMcDuff 10y ago
  Manufacturing a car tire requires 7 gallons of oil. 5 are raw materials to produce the synthetic rubber, while 2 gallons supply the energy required. Lets assume the energy is produced by alternative means, that leaves us with 5 gallons of oil per car tire. That's 5 billion gallons of oil for 1 billion tires. There's around 35 gallons of oil per barrel. That's 142,857,143 barrels of oil. The US produces roughly 9.5 million barrels of crude per day. It would take around 15 days to make 1 billion new tires if 100% of US oil was dedicated to the cause. Now that I've done the maths, it doesn't seem like such a huge problem. So I concede to your point.
adwn 10y ago
> There's 250 million cars in the US. If every single one of them was replaced with an electric car, that would mean at least 1 billion new tires. Huh. I didn't know that gasoline-car-tires are incompatible with electric-car-tires. That's too bad, because if they weren't, you could continue using the tires from your previous car on your new car.
- douche 10y ago
  Good luck getting the same tires to fit on two different vehicles. Even within the same model line, rim diameters and widths change year to year. Long gone are the days when most vehicles on the road had 15" rims.
- deleted 10y ago
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makomk 10y ago

Probably not very much compared to the amount of oil used to drive those cars - tires are quire thin. I wouldn't be surprised if the oil used in transporting them dominated the equation. Also, 1 billion tires is about the number manufactured annually and it's unlikely everyone would replace their car with an electric one within a year, or eve a few years. Tires are really the least of our problems.

SuddsMcDuff 10y ago
Manufacturing a car tire requires 7 gallons of oil. 5 are raw materials to produce the synthetic rubber, while 2 gallons supply the energy required. Lets assume the energy is produced by alternative means, that leaves us with 5 gallons of oil per car tire. That's 5 billion gallons of oil for 1 billion tires. There's around 35 gallons of oil per barrel. That's 142,857,143 barrels of oil. The US produces roughly 9.5 million barrels of crude per day. It would take around 15 days to make 1 billion new tires if 100% of US oil was dedicated to the cause. Now that I've done the maths, it doesn't seem like such a huge problem. So I concede to your point.

adwn 10y ago

> There's 250 million cars in the US. If every single one of them was replaced with an electric car, that would mean at least 1 billion new tires. Huh. I didn't know that gasoline-car-tires are incompatible with electric-car-tires. That's too bad, because if they weren't, you could continue using the tires from your previous car on your new car.

douche 10y ago
Good luck getting the same tires to fit on two different vehicles. Even within the same model line, rim diameters and widths change year to year. Long gone are the days when most vehicles on the road had 15" rims.
deleted 10y ago
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