this post was submitted on 24 Mar 2025
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Electric Vehicles
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This comment is not useful unless backed up with data on how much relative emissions this would contribute.
Unless provided, please refrain
Not OP, but tire dust is a real problem. It's one of those things we haven't studied until very recently. It's just gone under the radar because it's easy to point at tailpipe emissions.
https://www.thedrive.com/news/tire-dust-makes-up-the-majority-of-ocean-microplastics-study-finds
https://www.forbes.com/sites/lauriewinkless/2024/12/18/tires-shed-millions-of-tonnes-of-microplastics-into-the-environment/
Now are EVs worse? If we compare the same class of vehicle, EVs are going to be about 20% heavier, so yes, they're going to create more tire dust. Is that worse than the tailpipe emissions from a gas vehicle? Probably not. But it's deceptive to not include tire dust when comparing emissions between the two vehicle types.
I very much agree that tyre dust is a problem, and that weight is a large issue.
However, these kinds of caveats are routinely used to downplay the level of harm reduction that transitioning ICE cars to EVs would bring. Note how right-wing media basically uses this technique - mostly with the emissions associated with making EV batteries - to justify the continued use of ICE cars.
The antidote is to require numbers for this type of claim.
Fwiw, I don't own any kind of car, I bike and take transit everywhere, and I'm broadly against cars on account of their outsized negative impact on society. I still believe EVs represent a necessary amount of harm reduction.