Electric vehicles are one of the biggest weapons to escape the clutches of environmental pollution. They are considered “eco-friendly” as they emit relatively less pollutants. In general, electric vehicles were known to be more environmentally friendly than petrol or diesel powered vehicles. But now if I say what I said so far is all wrong! Unbeknownst to many of us, all the electric vehicles we are using to be eco-friendly are actually adding more dust to the air than five more traditional fossil fuel powered vehicles.
Electric vehicles have higher particle pollution than petrol/diesel vehicles
Recently, such a sensational claim has been made by a company called Emission Analytics. Their newly published journal directly challenges long-held beliefs about EV pollution. The team looked at particulate matter emitted from the brakes and tires of electric and petrol-diesel vehicles.
According to them, this type of dust is produced in much higher quantities in an electric vehicle than in a fossil fuel vehicle. The main reason for this is excess weight. As a result, more floating dust is emitted from its brakes and tires than any other battery-powered vehicle. The paper claims that electric cars produce 1850 times more of this dust than gas or petrol-diesel cars that use proper exhaust filters.
Most of the research focused on battery-powered vehicle tires. In general, EVs tend to wear tires faster due to their slightly heavier weight. As a result, the harmful chemicals in the tires easily mix with the air. Incidentally, synthetic rubber extracted from crude oil is used in tire production.
It has been claimed that the electric vehicle’s battery is responsible for its enormous weight. The battery used in any petrol or diesel car is small. Much larger and heavier batteries are used in EVs. This extra weight goes directly to putting extra pressure on the tires and brakes. As a result, the tires and brakes of such vehicles are damaged in less time.
