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Presumably most EVs have regenerative brakes. I almost never use brakes on my Tesla (only for urgent stops). > The big sources of pollution that your average i
by throwaway894345 4y ago
Presumably most EVs have regenerative brakes. I almost never use brakes on my Tesla (only for urgent stops).
> The big sources of pollution that your average ice car emits now are from the tires and to a lesser extent the brakes.
I'm not sure in what sense these are the "big" sources, but it's not by mass. An ICE car emits like 30kg of carbon per 100 miles while an entire car tire weighs only 12kg.
> At the end of the day the pattern of everyone taking a 5000lb vehicle that you replace every couple years to go anywhere at all is the thing that isn't sustainable, not as much the particular energy source for that vehicle.
Of course, most people don't replace their vehicle every couple of years, which suggests that we can decouple the "replace every couple of years" from the "vehicle" bit. In other words, driving (even when citing the weight of the vehicle, as though it has any bearing on the sustainability) is plenty sustainable, but what isn't sustainable is the same thing that plagues every aspect of American (and to a lesser degree, "western") life: consumerism, throw-away culture, importing cheap plastic garbage from China/etc, etc. Nothing special about driving in this regard.
- jeromegv 4y agoParent is not referring to the actual weight of the tire, but to the particles emitted by the tires as you drive your electric car. Electric cars are heavier than ICE cars (due to the battery) so they tend to apply more weight on those tires as well, which increases those particles https://www.greencarreports.com/news/1135856_bigger-batteries-evs-boost-particulate-emissions-from-tires-study https://www.greencarreports.com/news/1135856_bigger-batterie... Not trying to make a case against electric cars, but just wanted to explain that it's not just the 12kg of your tires that are the issue.
- Gibbon1 4y agoOne thing that's happening is the weight penalty for EV's is dropping. Possible it'll invert with EV's being lighter.
- throwaway894345 4y agoThe parent was pretty explicitly arguing that the pollution from tires and brakes are a greater source of pollution than exhaust. Here's his quote again, for your convenience: > The big sources of pollution that your average ice car emits now are from the tires and to a lesser extent the brakes. I find it totally plausible that EVs emit more tire particles than ICE (although less for brakes, since most EVs have regenerative brakes to my knowledge, and I wouldn't expect those to emit much).
- kube-system 4y ago> I'm not sure in what sense these are the "big" sources, but it's not by mass. An ICE car emits like 30kg of carbon per 100 miles while an entire car tire weighs only 12kg. Big in impact. Carbon in the form of carbon dioxide is naturally occurring within human's lungs and is well tolerated in relatively large amounts. You emit a kilogram of your own carbon dioxide through your lungs this way every day. A kilogram of tire material in your lungs would be a much larger impact on your health. Carbon dioxide is likewise, by weight, not a very bad pollutant compared to some of the other gasses that were released by cars before catalysts. CO2 is not great to emit, for sure, but it's quite mild compared to NOx, CO, raw hydrocarbons, etc.
- ses1984 4y ago30kg carbon per 100 miles seems off... An entier 18 gallon gas tank weighs ~113 pounds and it can take you ~500 miles.
- throwaway894345 4y agoIt might be; I was mathing fast
- GoldenRacer 4y agoCO2 gets 73% of its mass from the oxygen it uses for combustion and not from the carbon in the gas (which is something like 85% of the weight of gas). So take that 133lbs multiply by 0.85 and divide by 0.27 and you get 356lbs or 71lbs per 100 miles as a rough back of the envelope calculation. Pretty close to the 30kg (66lbs) listed by the parent.
- ses1984 4y agoWhile I didn't consider that CO2 gets mass from oxygen used in combustion, and it's important, the parent post says: >30kg of carbon per 100 miles Also, note that there is 113 pounds of fuel per 500 miles of travel. So take 113 * 0.2 * 0.85 / 0.27 and you get 71 lbs of CO2 per 100mi of travel.
- throwaway894345 4y agoI don't understand what point you're making. It seems like you're redoing GoldenRacer's math and coming to the same conclusion (100 miles = ~30kg co2) but framing it as a rebuttal?
- ses1984 4y agoYeah, oops, brain fart.