Electric vehicles (EVs) generally emit less non-exhaust particulate matter through tyre wear and braking compared with combustion engine vehicles.
While most vehicles’ environmental impact is due to exhaust emissions, fine particles are also generated by tyre and brake wear. Airborne particulate matter, from visible pieces of tyre rubber to nanoparticles, can have negative health impacts on humans.
Every year, billions of vehicles worldwide shed an estimated six million tonnes of tyre-wear particles. In London alone, 2.6 million vehicles emit around nine thousand tonnes of tyre-wear particles.
EVs may solve the problem of localised fuel emissions, but they still create pollution in the form of tyre and brake wear.
The degree to which they do so and how that compares to internal combustion engine vehicles has largely been unknown.
A team from Virginia Tech Transportation Institute in the US decided to investigate. Their findings indicate that EVs generally produce fewer non-exhaust emissions...