Electric cars 'cause TWICE as much road damage as petrol equivalents': Why Britain's pothole crisis could be worsened by the rise of EVs
Electric cars 'cause TWICE as much road damage as petrol equivalents': Why Britain's pothole crisis could be worsened by the rise of EVs
Utter tosh.
The Telegraph (who funded this study) have a huge list of anti-EV articles, nearly all of which are technically incorrect and often self-contradictory. They clearly have an agenda and it's likely funded by the oil industry.
It's not entirely untrue. Electric vehicles tend to be heavier than petrol or diesel vehicles, and heavier vehicles cause more wear to road surfaces than lighter ones.
That isn't to say electric vehicles are bad idea because of that though.
But still fractionally as heavy as lorries, which /do/ cause most of the potholes. But the article is designed to trigger our base feelings of anger about paying for a road surface that's often in poor condition.
The car park argument is pretty silly too. Older multi-stories have greater problems from cars being wider, longer and taller than what they were designed for. But again, with the news of the multistorey car park collapsing in New York not that long ago, it's triggering fear, uncertainty and doubt amongst the reader.
Objectively, it's a really good example of how to write a manipulative 'news' story that preys on human emotion. That doesn't make it /true/ though.
Damage to road surfaces increases by 24 with weight. Link
A 2 tonne vehicle will do 16x as much damage as a 1 tonne.
EVs tend to be heavier, but for example, a Nissan Leaf weighs 1580KG, a Ford Puma weighs 1280KG and a a chelsea tractor weighs 2770KG.
So a Leaf vs the best selling car in the UK (Puma) is close to 2x the damage.
But a Range Rover vs the Puma is getting on for 20x the damage.This article does seem to be anti-EV. And I hope that the new regulations that come in are based on weight, not just being a BEV.
Can't recall the figures off the top of my head, but even the BMW 3-Series (G20) is about as heavy as equivalent Tesla's. Of course you'll find lighter Japanese vehicles with smaller engines, but the article does seem to ignore how heavy ICE vehicles can get and how light BEV's can be...
EVs don't fix congestion, don't fix particulates from tyres, don't fix tyre noise (which dominates above 30mph), don't fix crash deaths, don't fix road damage, don't fix energy usage and don't fix cars contributing to sedentary lifestyles.
Perhaps we should also be looking at some other solutions while we transition to from ICE vehicles EVs.
Electric cars, which are roughly twice as heavy as standard models, could also cause serious damage to car park floors with especially older, unloved structures most at risk of buckling, experts have said.
If you're curious, this is why
Which electric car is "roughly twice as heavy" as a comparable internal combustion car?
Oh no! They'll actually have to build roads to a proper standard now!
The research was done by the Asphalt Industry Alliance (https://www.asphaltuk.org) who complain that there is a 1.30bn shortfall in the carriageway budget.
They have a point - potholes are worse than they’ve ever been - but one has to wonder if they would bump up the numbers to try and get more funding 🤔
There's a lot of obvious big-oil funded propaganda against electric cars being posted on Lemmy....
This is not a problem even if it's true.