Electric Vehicles Will Make River Pollution Worse, Says Environment Agency Chairman
Electric vehicles pollute rivers more than other cars because of their weight, according to the Chairman of the Environment Agency. The Mail has the story.
Road run-off from tyres contains pollution, including microplastics, that contaminates the waterways in the U.K.
Nearly 20% of the pollution problem in England’s rivers is caused by the run-off from towns, cities and transport, according to a report from the Environmental Audit Committee.
But the heavier a car is, then the greater the amount of particles that are released through tyre wear.
The average weight of a petrol or diesel car is also 150kg (23 stone) lighter than an electric vehicle, an Autotrader study found.
Speaking to the Telegraph, Chairman of the Environment Agency Alan Lovell said: “People are worried about tyres now, and electric vehicles, ironically, are worse for that because of their weight.
“There’s a lot of work to be done on that and we need to take appropriate action there.”
Worth reading in full.
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A bit silly. Even with 100% EVs in future, what is the ratio of yearly EV tyre miles c/f the equivalent of heavier commercial vehicles?
Ratio doesn’t matter – the total amount does.
But here’s the thing. Commercial vehicles will also be 100% battery in the future fantasy World inside some people.s heads, and much much heavier, so the pollutants from commercial vehicle tyres will also be much greater, ratios notwithstanding.
No, the 100% battery commercial vehicles will be the same weight but their load will be very small – maybe a box in the cab. That could lead to a proliferation of vehicles but that seems unlikely.
Not sure if you are joking but…
“The Department has already taken steps to support uptake of electric HGVs by increasing their maximum gross weight limit to reduce any payload loss compared to a diesel equivalent.”
https://questions-statements.parliament.uk/written-questions/detail/2023-11-20/2576
What I meant to suggest JXB Is that the problem already exists and that the impact of hgvs now must be greater than EVs in future. Still, I suppose there’s money in anything that can be claimed to be about climate change.
Clarified. Also factor in EVil HGVs that are being promoted, so the weight increase would be proportionate across the range of vehicles.
A Guv Bill, not published openly to my knowledge, for a 2 tonne increase in weight limit for such leviathans. That suggests their batteries weigh [up to] 2 tonnes.
https://www.bvrla.co.uk/resource/new-weight-limits-for-electric-and-alternatively-fuelled-hgvs.html
Good runoff business for pothole-fillers too.
Once they start using lighter batteries they will only use more batteries to get the range up to be competitive with a full tank of petrol or diesel.
The best battery can store only one fourteenth the energy contained within the same weight of petrol/diesel.
And the battery only stores that energy – energy which comes from elsewhere. Batteries are basically buckets – really heavy buckets.
The whole Electric Vehicle thing is utter nonsense, no matter how it’s cut.
Good analogy.
Too many people just can’t get it through their heads that how much a bucket holds depends on its size, not the material from which it is made.
And when it comes to the ‘buckets’ in EVs, every time they are emptied and refilled, they get a bit smaller.
Lighter batteries: on the list with nuclear fusion, ‘green’ hydrogen, batteries capable of storing enough wind and solar to keep the UK running for weeks on end in case the wind stops, cheap ‘renewables’ electricity, and carbon capture.
Coming soon!
And pigs that deliver themselves to the slaughter house….
And then suicide so nobody has to kill anything.
Why do you suppose EV batteries will get lighter. There is no imminent technological development to increase storage density.
Still leaving the recharge time versus a quick tank fill.
‘Sleeping policemen’ / speed bumps are also a cause of pollution, with the associated acceleration / braking they cause.
Two-tier policemen too… littering our streets.
Have two tier policemen and PMs got anything upstairs.
There are now innumerable articles setting out the practical problems and issues with electric cars (EVs). But the practical issues with EVs do not matter, Evs are a smoke and mirrors trick, a scam and an illusion. It seems to me that the plan is to do away with freedom of the open road, private motoring for the mass of the hoi polloi. EVs will only ever be for an elite group of society, for most motorists they are an illusory eldorado and by the time most people have woken up to that situation it will be too late.
The benefit of the private motor car is freedom.
Freedom in all its aspects is under attack right now.
” The average weight of a petrol or diesel car is also 150kg (23 stone) lighter than an electric vehicle, an Autotrader study found.”
Hmm. The Tesla Model S battery with 85kWh capacity weighs 540kg.
Yes, my understanding is that car batteries, depending on the vehicle, are around 500kg.
And that uses more energy to heft around than an ICE vehicle, which since the electricity used in the batteries is generated one way or another nearly all by fossil fuels, increases carbon emissions overall.
And if those rivers be where the minerals for the batteries are mined, pollution is considerably worse.
Environmentalists can’t do joined-up thinking or as Bastiat said: Ce qu’on voit et ce qu’on ne voit pas. That which is seen and that which is not seen.
BEVs include, or will, lorries. An artic will need a 3 tonne battery, so either current weight limits will need to be increased or lighter loads carried. This latter would mean more lorries on the roads to make up for the reduced loads.
Hauliers will also need larger fleets to maintain continuous service since at any one time, some will be off road recharging.
Put together this will mean significant increase in freight costs and up goes the prices to the consumer.
The unseen strikes again.
“…current weight limits will need to be increased…”
Precisely what the Guv has done – see my post reply to Gerry England above for a link.
And then there are all the early scrap jobs: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M-EkMK4awX4 The sequence of the events in that YT is open to question, but the point was well made that cars like that are perhaps more like other commodities with no second hand market, except the scrap dealers.
Thanks, video should be compulsive viewing in all EVil Car Showrooms. “Fully informed decision”, and all that.
$15,000 (£11,250) for a new Tesla S battery!
I can’t find one thing in favour of EV’s. Batteries can’t be recycled and are full of deadly chemicals. The cars will barely break net zero in their lifetime. They are extremely expensive to run, maintain and insure and how long will free tax last? October?
This is what happens when you do things for the wrong reason. You have a whole jumble of unintended consequences. When you try to insist that everything you do is to save the planet, without paying attention to these consequences out of pure ideological pig headedness then you cause a multitude of other problems often worse than the ones you say you are trying to solve. —–In other words the climate change solutions are actually worse than the alleged climate change you claim you are fighting.