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A huge benefit of electric cars is removing pollution from cities; this seems to be forgotten. Surely if the pollution is killing thousands of people a year th
by zeristor 9y ago
A huge benefit of electric cars is removing pollution from cities; this seems to be forgotten.
Surely if the pollution is killing thousands of people a year this is an issue.
- greglindahl 9y agoIt's not forgotten by the authorities! In the SF Bay Area the local air quality council subsidizes electric car chargers. EVs reduce the total pollution and moves what's left out of the prone-to-atmospheric-inversions Bay Area.
- zeristor 9y agoCO2 is an issue, but not the only one, I was just annoyed the article didn't mention it. I would wear a gas mask to work, but they're no use.
- virmundi 9y agoIsn't ozone worse than traditional pollution and the main byproduct of electrical cars? So unless we go into a draconian charge laws, will cause more harm in this regard. http://www.iop.org/news/11/april/page_50606.html http://www.iop.org/news/11/april/page_50606.html
- greglindahl 9y agoI read that article as saying that power plants emit ozone. The ozone isn't emitted where the electric cars are. BTW a large source of ozone in the Bay Area and LA (both of which have big problems with it) is emissions from internal combustion vehicles. So, overall, electric vehicles are a big decrease in ozone in the inhabited areas of the West Coast.
- Reason077 9y agoNOx from diesel vehicles is by far the most significant source of ground-level ozone in most European cities. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tropospheric_ozone#Formation https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tropospheric_ozone#Formation
- zeristor 9y agoI thought that too, I studied the pollution maps of London, and it appears that NOx removes Ozone pollution, I was flummoxed for ages. Perhaps an Atmospheric Chemist can support this?
- pjc50 9y agoThis is misleading - that article refers to ozone emitted from fossil power plants. Not the cars or chargers.
- mcv 9y agoIn Amsterdam, the city creates an electric car parking spot (with charger) near your house if you get an electric car. This is effectively a private parking spot if you're the only electric car owner in the street, and that's incredibly valuable in a city where parking spots are hard to find.
- himlion 9y agoThis will not scale as more and more people make use of this though. I agree it's a very strong incentive though.
- greglindahl 9y agoThe version that scales better is inexpensive pay charging stations.
- ZenoArrow 9y agoUbitricity is an example of such a scheme: http://youtu.be/rKaEhBjt1ls http://youtu.be/rKaEhBjt1ls
- adrianN 9y agoIt doesn't have to. It just needs to help electric cars reach the critical mass needed before companies enter the charging station market.
- mcv 9y agoIt's great for early adopters. Eventually, as everybody switches to electric, the advantage will disappear, but by then, everybody has switched to electric, so that's all good. And by then there will be a market for commercial charging stations, if they are necessary.
- davedx 9y agoAmsterdam is really charging ahead with environmental & climate change issues. I'm still glad I live in GLD and only work there, but it's leading the way in the Netherlands on multiple fronts. Really inspiring.
- hengheng 9y agoGasses yes, but a large part of the particulates is actually emitted by the tires (through abrasion).
- ogrisel 9y agoBreaking with regen makes EV use the physical breaks less often as compared to combustion engine vehicles. Using breaks also emits particulates although I am not sure how it compares to the volumes of particulate emissions by combustion engines and tires abrasion.
- quasse 9y agoMy anecdotal experience having done some work in the automotive sector is that the volume is probably less but brake dust is much nastier and something you do not want to be breathing. At least it doesn't have asbestos in it anymore.
- afarrell 9y agoIf you have a car with regenerative braking, doesn't that also keep brakepad dust out of the air?
- adrianN 9y agoA large part of the mass, but not a large part of the PM2.5 and below. With particulates, smaller is a lot more dangerous.
- stephengillie 9y agoElectric cars do not remove pollution - they are not trees. They merely pollute at a greatly reduced rate.
- BoorishBears 9y ago>removing pollution from cities They move the pollution from a tailpipe feet away from people to a large smoke stack specially optimized to lower the effect on air quality in the immediate area.
- stephengillie 9y agoCombustion is just one type of pollution that cars produce. And while relocating pollution is a tempting way to externalize the problem, it doesn't solve the underlying issue.
- PhasmaFelis 9y agoIt reduces overall emissions by a lot, and saves thousands of lives even beyond that. Dismissing any solution that doesn't 100% fix everything is a great way to never accomplish anything.
- BoorishBears 9y agoI don't know why you're stretching so hard to make it seem like moving pollution away from population centers isn't an excellent benefit and likely to reduce in many fewer deaths from direct exposure to pollution. The comment above was referring to local pollution in cities (which directly kills thousands through diseases related to particulates in that pollution). Relocating that pollution does solve that problem. (PH)EVs also produce much less particulate pollution from brake dust due to the use of regen to brake (which is why they can go several times the normal replacement interval for brake pads). The creation of pollution is a separate problem from the location of that pollution. Yes, EVs don't magically prevent the creation of pollution, but they can severely limit the creation of pollution in population centers, where they have the most immediate effect.
- pasta 9y agoTwo types of polution! Air and sound.
- odiroot 9y agoThere's still pollution from the tire particulates due to friction. Although I guess it's negligible to gas exhaust.
- Theodores 9y agoIt is not just in our cities... As my mother pointed out, going electric is removing money from the pockets of the Saudi so-called 'royal family', thereby reducing their capacity to buy bombs and weapons from Western arms companies. The death toll in Yemen is allegedly 10000 and every motorist with an old fashioned car is currently funding that, albeit by proxy.
- davedx 9y agoYes. There are huge political implications to the energy transition. Less nat gas dependence is going to be the next step after electricity generation is clean, and that's going to hit some petrostates very hard. Places like Qatar and Russia are definitely already making plans.