3 ms·

How much worse will the roads become with electric vehicles that are traditionally quite a bit heavier than their ICE counterparts? Will it require more repair

How much worse will the roads become with electric vehicles that are traditionally quite a bit heavier than their ICE counterparts? Will it require more repairs/taxes?

foota 3y ago
Probably not, road damage is mostly from heavy duty vehicles (think semi trucks) or weather. See: https://www.insidescience.org/news/how-much-damage-do-heavy-trucks-do-our-roads https://www.insidescience.org/news/how-much-damage-do-heavy-.... A few x heavier car will damage them more, but probably still trivially compared to heavy duty vehicles.
t_tsonev 3y ago
Not much? EVs have better weight distribution and axle loads are similar to the front axle of an ICE car. The road wear goes up to the third power of weight so you really should be looking at semis for road wear.
rokkitmensch 3y ago
Road wear is proportional to the fourth of vehicle weight (modulo contact patch size, but let's not complicate things), so let's tax in the same proportion! Tangentially, I got a look at a Rivian's front tires today, wanting to spot-check the rumor that model shreds front mitts and they looked worse than the rears on the Mustang some friends welded the rear differential on. Rivians are rumored to squat at highway speed and dump all their power (800 hp, is it?) through the front wheels. The suspension supposedly toes the fronts in for stability at high speed, which results in scrubbing, shredding the fronts. These mitts, I swear, had wear flaps, where the tire was peeling up. The rears showed none of this. Mind you these were the stock Pirellis that are supposedly extra warrantied for the Rivians design. Like a true moron I was too excited to go biking to get a picture, and walked off satisfied in validating the internet rumor with my own eyes and those of a couple buddies. One of whom is an insurance agent and just rolled his eyes, saying, "oh yeah we're having an awful time getting coverage for those".

How much worse will the roads become with electric vehicles that are traditionally quite a bit heavier than their ICE counterparts? Will it require more repairs/taxes?

foota 3y ago

Probably not, road damage is mostly from heavy duty vehicles (think semi trucks) or weather. See: https://www.insidescience.org/news/how-much-damage-do-heavy-trucks-do-our-roads https://www.insidescience.org/news/how-much-damage-do-heavy-.... A few x heavier car will damage them more, but probably still trivially compared to heavy duty vehicles.

t_tsonev 3y ago

Not much? EVs have better weight distribution and axle loads are similar to the front axle of an ICE car. The road wear goes up to the third power of weight so you really should be looking at semis for road wear.

rokkitmensch 3y ago

Road wear is proportional to the fourth of vehicle weight (modulo contact patch size, but let's not complicate things), so let's tax in the same proportion! Tangentially, I got a look at a Rivian's front tires today, wanting to spot-check the rumor that model shreds front mitts and they looked worse than the rears on the Mustang some friends welded the rear differential on. Rivians are rumored to squat at highway speed and dump all their power (800 hp, is it?) through the front wheels. The suspension supposedly toes the fronts in for stability at high speed, which results in scrubbing, shredding the fronts. These mitts, I swear, had wear flaps, where the tire was peeling up. The rears showed none of this. Mind you these were the stock Pirellis that are supposedly extra warrantied for the Rivians design. Like a true moron I was too excited to go biking to get a picture, and walked off satisfied in validating the internet rumor with my own eyes and those of a couple buddies. One of whom is an insurance agent and just rolled his eyes, saying, "oh yeah we're having an awful time getting coverage for those".