EPA says it is examining research showing that electric cars are more toxic than gas-powered vehicles

The US Environmental Protection Agency is investigating whether electric vehicles are actually major polluters, DailyMail.com understands.

A study that resurfaced earlier this week suggested that electric vehicles emit more particulate matter through their tires and brakes than modern gas-powered vehicles, due to the extra weight of their batteries.

Now the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency is conducting similar analyzes to understand how tire and brake emissions vary from electric to standard vehicles.

The EPA is confident that its findings will show that electric vehicles are indeed better for the environment and people’s health, despite the results of the 2022 study.

That study – carried out by an independent watchdog – found that tire and brake emissions emit 1,850 times more particulate matter than modern exhaust pipes fitted with filters that reduce emissions.

It concluded that because electric vehicles are significantly heavier than gas-powered vehicles, they are the biggest polluters.

The 2022 study shows that EV tires and brakes wear out faster because their heavier vehicles than standard vehicles put more pressure on both.

As these wear out, they release more particles, or microplastics, which are so small they can be inhaled or cause serious health problems when released into the air, including heart and lung disease, asthma and cancer.

But the EPA said electric vehicles are built with regenerative braking systems, which act like a generator and return energy to the car’s electrical system to replenish range, and wear out the brakes more slowly.

The EPA referred to a 2022 study which showed that these braking systems slowed the rate at which EV brakes wore out by 68 percent.

However, the researchers compared tire emissions from electric vehicles to exhaust emissions from vehicles with an internally combustible engine (ICE), rather than focusing on a direct comparison of tire and brake wear.

According to the EPA, it is more important to focus on the direct comparison of tires in EV and ICE vehicles to get a better idea of ​​whether EV tire and braking systems have a greater impact on air quality.

Exhaust pipes emit pollutants into the air, such as soot, dust and dirt, which can trigger asthma attacks and damage our lungs, heart and brain. It is also the main cause of global warming.

It is becoming increasingly difficult to determine the full extent of microplastics released from tires, Hesham Rakha, a professor at Virginia Tech, told Dailymail.com.

He said what makes it challenging is that researchers will have to separate the microplastics that come off the tires as they wear out from the existing microplastics in the air.

Microplastics are already so abundant in the air that the average person will eat, drink and breathe between 78,000 and 211,000 microplastics every year.

The Emissions Analytics study reported that because electric vehicles weigh more than gas-powered vehicles due to their lithium-ion batteries, their tires wear out faster.

The average Hyundai EV weighs more than 3,700 pounds, compared to a comparable gas-powered vehicle that weighs 3,000 pounds.

Similarly, Volvo’s EV weighs 4,662 pounds, while its gas vehicle weighs 3,726 pounds, but the Ford F150 EV truck weighs a whopping 6,000 pounds, 2,000 pounds more than the gas option.

But Sergey Paltsev said tire and brake emissions due to a vehicle’s weight are only part of the story.

Paltsev, who is also deputy director of the MIT Joint Program on the Science and Policy of Global Change, added: “It is extremely important to look at all environmental impacts, not just emissions of certain particulate matter (PM) from tire wear. told Dailymail.com.

‘PM emissions affect health; this also applies to greenhouse gas emissions.

‘Therefore, impacts should be assessed by looking at life cycle emissions, i.e. all types of emissions at all stages of the production and use of vehicles and fuels.’

In other words, the impact of EV emissions versus ICE emissions must be assessed throughout their life cycle, from production and production to the time the car is taken off the road.

Paltsev said life cycle emissions, also called “cradle-to-grave emissions,” include the process of extracting and processing materials used to make the body, engine and battery, as well as the emissions from the vehicle production and assembly process.

a 2021 study found that 46 percent of the CO2 emissions produced by an EV come from the manufacturing process, while the production of ICE vehicles accounts for 26 percent of the total emissions.

Particle emissions from tires and brakes differ from greenhouse gas emissions – which are created during the manufacturing process – because they affect air quality rather than global climate conditions.

For this reason, it is important that studies bring the issue of tire and brake emissions to the attention of policymakers so they can assess the vehicles’ overall impact on air quality, Paltsev said.

The EPA is doing just that, although it has no timetable for when it will release its findings or what its investigation will entail.

Rakha said he and his team are also conducting a study to determine whether EVs produce more emissions from tire wear than standard vehicles, using field tests and traffic simulators that mimic an urban environment.

He said it’s unlikely there will be a big difference between the types of vehicles, noting that while electric cars are heavier, meaning the tires release more microplastics into the air, the same could be true for standard sedans versus SUVs.

Although electric vehicle production emits more emissions than ICE vehicles, it would take less than two years of regular driving (or 31,500 kilometers) in the U.S. to make up for the amount of emissions used in production, according to a study. 2023 study by the U.S. Department of Energy Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI).

In this time frame, the car would break even with a comparable gasoline car, such as a sedan EV versus a gasoline sedan.

‘Electric vehicles are better for the environment. Period,” said Austin Brown, director of the OSTI Factcheck.org.

“There’s enormous complexity underneath that, but … by every metric that we use to measure environmental impact, and that we can really quantify, electric vehicles are now better for the environment, and they will continue to improve.”

Last year, researchers from the universities of Cambridge, Exeter and Nijmegen in the Netherlands did this found it that driving an electric car in 95 percent of the world is better for the environment than a gas car.

However, whether an electric car is completely beneficial can also depend on the region or state in which it is driven, due to the type of electricity used to power the vehicle.

For example, driving an electric car in Los Angeles would produce lower emissions than driving the same car in Pittsburgh, where coal and other fossil fuels are used to generate electricity.

“Coal is often the critical factor,” says Jeremy Michalek, professor of engineering at Carnegie Mellon University. The New York Times.

“If you have electric cars in Pittsburgh that plug in at night and cause nearby coal-fired power plants to burn more coal to charge them, then the climate benefits won’t be as great and you could actually get more air pollution. ‘

Meanwhile, California has a proposal to ban all gas-powered vehicles by 2035, claiming that electric vehicles produce zero emissions, making them the better alternative.

The proposal comes at a time when sales of electric cars are declining across the country, with consumers becoming disenchanted with the time it takes to charge the car and because it is not conducive to long-distance travel.

The state’s proposal was submitted by the Air Resources Board and is being examined by the Biden administration, but has been criticized by the public for failing to note that EV tire treads wear out faster than ICE vehicles, and instead states that they wear out at the same time. rate.

The proposal said future EV models would weigh less than current models, which would ‘offset’ the particulate matter released from the tyres.

“All environmental impacts, including specific emissions from tire wear from electric vehicles, are important to consider,” Paltsev said.

‘However, it can be misleading to consider just one specific impact in isolation from other impacts when answering the question of which types of vehicles are less harmful to the environment.

“And so far we don’t have a perfect solution that doesn’t have an impact on the environment.”