this post was submitted on 10 Nov 2023
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They also reduce noise pollution
And reduce the propping of petrostates
And can be fueled, in theory, almost anywhere there are buildings (including your own home/work)
And that fuel can also, in theory, come from fully sustainable sources
They also help normalise the usage of renewable energy (this is a factor that shouldn't be overlooked, imo)
They also do all those things much worse than transitioning away from car dependence.
And they give people an excuse to not move away from cars.
And they are so much heavier and deadlier than ICE cars at the same speed that they may actually actively discourage other modes, like walking or cycling.
edit: Look, I think every car should be an EV. And I also think there shouldn't be many cars because cars still suck. Both can be true.
whether a car has an ICE or a battery is the last thing on my mind when avoiding them
It doesn't matter what your thinking about when a vehicle hits you...
This should go without saying but what’s on your mind about a car doesn’t change how deadly it is when it hits you.
And also pedestrian desth rates undoubtedly effect how safe people consider car free transportation options.
Since much of the noise pollution from cars comes from tire noise, I doubt EVs will reduce noise pollution that signifcantly.
It's not tire noise I'm hearing in bed at 1am while some yahoo is treating residential roads like a racetrack.
That is because many cities/politicians refuse to enforce reasonable noise limits on automobiles. It should have never been legal/normalized to have exhausts loud enough to need hearing protection while outside of the vehicle.
That shit ain’t legal, it’s just not enforced.
Legal where I live, and in many states too.
those ppl will create noise at whatever cost lmao, I bet they'll start attaching external speakers at some point to compensate for the lack of engine noise
Near motorways where they go high speed the reduction will be negligible, but is material around lower speed streets.
Something not mentioned is the significantly reduced brake dust as most EV braking is regenerative.
I see this argument a lot about EV's being heavier. And while it is true (for now) the actual weight difference is fairly nominal when comparing two popular closely spec vehicles.
Curb Weight Toyota Camry 3310 lb. Tesla Model 3 3582 lb. +272 lb.
The report goes on to note that pm10 is still reduced in heavier EVs with a smaller tradeoff for increased pm2.5. There are nuances sure, but I still interpret this as a net positive on particulate matter and a step in the right direction. That is something we should not discourage in a world that is still struggling to stop pumping carbon into the atmosphere. Fuck cars, but let's try to make incremental improvements where we can.
Abstract: Assuming lightweight EVs (i.e. with battery packs enabling a driving range of about 100 miles), the report finds that EVs emit an estimated 11-13% less non-exhaust PM2.5 and 18-19% less PM10 than ICEVs. Assuming that EV models are heavier (with battery packs enabling a driving range of 300 miles or higher), however, the report finds that they reduce PM10 by only 4-7% and increase PM2.5 by 3-8% relative to conventional vehicles.
Is this really substantial? With a skilled manual driver or a clever automatic gearbox, the majority of braking should be engine braking. It seems to me that regenerative braking is typically replacing what would be engine braking, the unplanned stops still use friction brakes.
Regen braking can be significantly stronger than engine braking. Unless your battery is at 100%, it can essentially replace all friction braking outside of emergency stops.
Noise pollution is a function of speed.
At low speeds, it's mostly engine noise. At highway speeds, it's mostly tire noise.
Many city streets have near highway speed limits or designs that easily allow cars to reach near highway speeds.
Also Pedestrian crash avoidance mitigation (PCAM) systems are great, and will be required on all new vehicles soon.
You could also potentially use them as a solution for more efficiently allocating energy, less by pumping energy back into the grid, and more by running home power from the car battery during peak hours, rather than having to produce too much energy during off hours, having to shut down the power during peak hours or provide limited access, or having to provide power for less people. You can make the power go further, and especially for renewables which have potentially less consistent energy production (the nice part being that peak demand roughly lines up with peak production for solar power, at least, in the summer). But none of that's really an attractive proposition to the american car buyer who wants to travel as far as possible at the drop of a hat, and you have to make car batteries larger and the cars themselves less efficient to compensate for this power draw and power storage that may or may not be happening at any given moment, so it's sort of self-defeating with the american car market.
Obviously, it isn't really a more equitable or more efficient solution broadly than doing something like pumping water uphill. Or trying to limit demand in the first place by decreasing surface area of homes, by moving towards multiple units in one building, increasing r-values by using better building materials you could shell out for with a larger amount of occupants, yadda yadda urban design garbage. Stuff that generally is antithetical to car-centric infrastructure and thus electric cars. You also potentially run into problems where the as the grid as a whole becomes less relied upon, they make less money, and then the grid starts to fail further in a positive feedback loop. Poor people can't afford rooftop solar and electric cars, because most of them can barely afford rent and aren't really the ones making those decisions anyways.
Only at low speeds. At high speeds for a modern car the tyre noise is louder that the engine noise, and since electric cars are heavier they would be noisier.
Replace mining oil with mining rare metals. Not a big improvement.
Why? Electric cars are causing a huge load on the grid and will continue to do so. In countries that haven't managed the load and invested heavily in renewable capacity, those EVs are powered by fossil fuels.