Electric vehicle tires produce up to 20 percent more pollution than their gas-powered equivalents, experts have revealed, meaning EVs could be coming at a higher environmental price than many owners are aware of.
For decades, the impact of tailpipe emissions from gas-powered cars has been the primary draw of battery-powered vehicles.
But experts are warning that tires, which are often overlooked as a source of pollution, are releasing chemicals and microplastics into the environment. While switching to an electric car no doubt helps lower how much carbon you generate, it actually exacerbates the problem of tire emissions.
EVs typically weigh much more and accelerate faster than their gas-burning counterparts, so tiny particles are shed into the air as the tire wears down.
According to road tests by research company Emissions Analytics, under normal driving conditions a gas car sheds around 73 milligrams per kilometer from four new tires. A comparable electric vehicle, however, sheds an additional 15 milligrams per kilometer – some 20 percent more.
‘It’s a combination of the weight and the torque – which is essentially how aggressively the car can accelerate,’ Nick Molden, founder and CEO of Emissions Analytics told DailyMail.com.
‘The thing about electric motors is they have the ability to accelerate very fast. If you put together that and how heavy the vehicle is, that is what creates the additional wear on the tire.’
The typical electric car weighs around 1000 pounds more than gas models, according to Molden.
In a study conducted by Emissions Analytics in March this year comparing the Tesla Model Y – the most popular EV in the US – and the similarly sized hybrid Kia Niro, the firm found the Tesla produced 26 percent more tire emissions.
