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Leftists fume over study that claims EVs emit MORE toxic emissions and worse for the environment

March 5, 2024 | | Print Article

A resurfaced study contends that hefty electric vehicles wear out tires much faster and emit more pollution than their gas-powered counterparts.

The claim elicited howls from environment-obsessed leftists who were quick to cite other studies and the Environmental Protection Agency.

The study first came out in 2022 and was done by Emissions Analytics. Following the op-ed, it started circulating again. It specifically refers to the tire wear by heavy EVs versus tailpipe emissions of new gas-powered vehicles. The study was referred to in an op-ed in the Wall Street Journal that basically accused California of hiding its findings. It finds that EV brakes and tires release 1,850 times more particulate matter in comparison to modern tailpipes.

“The Biden administration is reviewing California’s plan to ban the sale of new gasoline-powered cars by 2035. To get federal approval, California claims it ‘needs’ this ban to prevent harm to public health from particulate matter—airborne particles like dust, dirt, and soot. But banning gasoline cars would do little to reduce particulate emissions, and it could even increase them,” the WSJ reported.

“That’s because new gasoline cars are very clean. According to the Environmental Protection Agency, cars emit only about 1% of all direct fine particulate matter in California, and most of those emissions come from older models. The newer gasoline cars that California wants to ban will often have particulate filters that reduce emissions to below one 1/1,000th of a gram per mile driven,” the media outlet added.

“California calls electric cars ‘zero emissions vehicles’ because they don’t have tailpipes. That is deceptive. Generating the electricity that powers those cars creates particulate pollution, and of course, electric cars still use tires, which are made from petroleum, the WSJ noted.

EVs were found to be 30 percent heavier on average than gas-powered cars. That amounts to wear and tear on streets that have to be repaired more frequently. It also means that tires wear out much quicker than those on regular vehicles. The wear on the tires also reportedly emits toxic particles into the atmosphere.

The Daily Mail pointed out that the study concluded that “the majority of particulate emissions released from the tire go directly into the soil and water, while exhaust negatively affects the air quality.”

Leftists lined up to refute the reported facts from the study and claimed to give a more “fair” view concerning the issue while hedging their bets.

“Hesham Rakha, a professor at Virginia Tech told Dailymail.com that the study is only ‘partially correct’ because even though EVs are heavier, their tires will emit more microplastics into the air, but this could also be true for sedans versus SUVs,” the Daily Mail reported.

“Rakha said it is very challenging to determine the difference between the amount of microplastics emitted from EV tire treads and gas-powered vehicles because you have to separate the microplastics that are already in the air from other sources with what’s coming off the tires,” the professor said trying to equivocate between EVs and gas-powered vehicles.

Predictably, Rakha, who is a dedicated leftist, and his team are now conducting their own tests to prove the study wrong. He claims there is little difference between EVs and gas-powered vehicles. According to the Daily Mail, he expects the difference to be about 20 percent.

“This doesn’t mean that people should gravitate away from electric cars because they ‘are more efficient depending zero emission,’ Rakha hedged, but added the caveat that ‘it also generates a lot of CO2 when charging your vehicle.'”

The battery of an EV weighs approximately 1,000 pounds. Heavy EVs can allegedly result in tire emissions almost 400 times greater than tailpipe emissions.

“The average Hyundai electric vehicle weighs more than 3,700 pounds compared to the gas-powered alternative which weighs 3,000 pounds,” the Daily Mail wrote.

“Meanwhile, Volvo’s EV weighs 4,662 pounds while its gas-powered vehicle weighs 3,726, but the Ford F150 EV truck comes in at a whopping 6,000 pounds, 2,000 pounds more than the gas option,” the outlet reported.

The Left’s war against coal is also problematic according to experts when it comes to EVs.

“Coal tends to be the critical factor,” Jeremy Michalek, a professor of engineering at Carnegie Mellon University, told the New York Times in an interview. “If you’ve got electric cars in Pittsburgh that are being plugged in at night and leading nearby coal plants to burn more coal to charge them, then the climate benefits won’t be as great, and you can even get more air pollution.”

“Additionally, lithium-ion batteries which power EVs are made of materials including cobalt and lithium, which have been linked to environmental concerns. Mining cobalt emits toxic chemicals and gases that leak into the environment and extracting metals from the ore emits sulfur oxide and pollutes the air,” the Daily Mail also explained.

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