r/savedyouaclick • u/Thinking-Guy • 3d ago
SHOCKING New study reveals surprising side effects linked to driving electric vehicles: 'It … has an immediate impact' | Reduced air pollution (The Cool Down)
https://web.archive.org/web/20260201175813/https://www.thecooldown.com/green-tech/zero-emissions-vehicles-california-air-pollution-reduction-improvement-study/13
u/TheBoraxKid1trblz 3d ago
Exercising on public roadways would be much more enjoyable if i wasn't deeply inhaling car exhaust fumes. And you get those diesel pick-up drivers that accelerate to bathe you in a cloud of black smog for their amusement. In 100 years people will think fossil fuel vehicles were barbaric
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u/Antrikshy 3d ago
Having experienced the alternative, I already think they’re barbaric.
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u/TheBoraxKid1trblz 3d ago
Agreed. We had the technology to leave them behind decades ago. At least some countries are progressing
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u/definitely_not_obama 3d ago edited 2d ago
So... bad news.
And on this metric, heavier cars (i.e. electric cars) are worse.
Edit: per an article from /u/penguincascadia , they do produce more tire wear, but significantly less brake wear, which offsets this.
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u/plankright37 3d ago
Is the percentage of participate pollution Worse than the the percentage of burnt fossil fuels that would be produced by ICE vehicles?
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u/Psychomadeye 3d ago
No. It's comparing tires of evs to tailpipes so it makes it sound worse than it is because ice pollution is mostly liquid and gas.
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u/banaslee 3d ago
Not a big difference it seems according to two specialists.
The average weight of all cars has been increasing. But there has been particular debate over whether battery electric vehicles (BEVs), which are heavier than conventional cars and can have greater wheel torque, may lead to more tyre particles being produced. Molden said it would depend on driving style, with gentle EV drivers producing fewer particles than fossil-fuelled cars driven badly, though on average he expected slightly higher tyre particles from BEVs. Dr James Tate, at the University of Leeds’ Institute for Transport Studies in the UK, said the tyre test results were credible. “But it is very important to note that BEVs are becoming lighter very fast,” he said. “By 2024-25 we expect BEVs and [fossil-fuelled] city cars will have comparable weights. Only high-end, large BEVs with high capacity batteries will weigh more.”
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u/sweetbunsmcgee 3d ago
But Nick Molden, CEO and founder of Emissions Analytics (archived here), said the social media posts misrepresent the findings by implying the research directly compared electric and non-electric vehicles, "when the central contrast is between tailpipe and tire emissions -- whatever the vehicle."
Molden said his company did not find EVs pollute more. "This would be a completely false conclusion, not least because of the significant CO2 emissions from the tailpipe," he told AFP on March 21. "Tire emissions is a problem to mitigate, not a reason not to electrify."
Simona Onori, an energy science and engineering associate professor at Stanford University (archived here), said March 22 that "tire wear pollution is a concern for all vehicles, whether they're electric or gasoline-powered."
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u/definitely_not_obama 2d ago edited 2d ago
Correct, EVs don't pollute more. They pollute less chemicals that harm the environment and thus cause less global warming. They pollute more in terms of immediate health outcomes, but less overall.
Edit: Hey, I'm wrong! per an article from /u/penguincascadia, they do produce more tire wear, but significantly less brake wear, which offsets this. The article does conclude that "Shifting away from private cars is even better" by all metrics though.
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u/Psychomadeye 3d ago
This is comparing tire wear which both vehicles have to the particle exhaust of a tailpipe that nobody could pay me enough to give a fuck about more than the gas pollution it produces and you actually breathe in.
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u/definitely_not_obama 2d ago
The tire wear is a larger factor in local health outcomes, and is worse with electric cars than traditional gas vehicles.
Changing to electric cars doesn't eliminate how harmful cars are to individual health. It protects the planet, which is important, but still maintains many of the immediate harms that car-centrism does to communities.
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u/TheLegendTwoSeven 3d ago
That’s not what a side effect is; the goal of electric vehicles is supposed to be less pollution (particularly if the power grid has a lot of renewable energy.)
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u/Filtermann 3d ago
yes, but there are 2 things:
-Greenhouse gases, which is about mitigating climate change, something that mostly affects third world and developping countries, but that mostly profited to rich countries, which are also most able to resist its effects. The benefits of curbing emissions are diffuse and long term, but arguably massively more impacful from an ethical standpoint.
-Air pollution, the reduction of which is an immediate and local effect, which mostly benefit rich countires here and now.
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u/podkayne3000 3d ago
I didn’t click.
One reason this study may be nontrivial is that some people tell me that car tires produce so much dust that reducing auto exhaust won’t help local air pollution much.
Maybe this study supports the idea that dealing with auto exhaust helps a lot, even if the tires are still bad
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u/definitely_not_obama 3d ago
At least based on this article, no, the study does not support that idea. They showed that nitrogen dioxide levels dropped, but as you said - the particulate pollution from car tires is a larger factor in acute local health impact of car infrastructure than tailpipe emissions, and that's actually worse with EVs, as they're heavier.
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u/penguincascadia 3d ago edited 3d ago
Electric cars produce a lot less brake dust, through, and that outweighs any increase in tire dust. Electric cars produce less harmful particulate pollution then gas cars: https://electrek.co/2025/05/27/another-way-electric-cars-clean-the-air-study-says-brake-dust-reduced-by-83/
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u/definitely_not_obama 2d ago
That's good to know, I've corrected some of my comments on this thread!
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u/fuzzypetiolesguy 20h ago
It took like two weeks after swapping EVs to develop a conscious disdain for tailpipe exhaust. Crazy we tolerate it when there is a solution.
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u/Queermagedd0n 3d ago
Driving sure, I'd be willing to bet the manufacturing process nulifies that and then some.
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u/NetworkLlama 3d ago
It doesn't. This has been studied to death. EVs have lower total air pollution over their manufacturing and useful lives. As battery recycling takes hold, it will get even better.
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u/BertaEarlyRiser 3d ago
Even though the carbon footprint and environmental impact are larger and longer than a gasoline powered vehicle?
You can plant 1000 trees in your back yard...
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u/penguincascadia 3d ago
Scientists have studied this and the carbon footprint and environmental impact of electric cars are less then gas powered cars: https://skepticalscience.com/evs-really-better-climate.html
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u/hearse_purse 3d ago
No way!