EVs Will Eat Tires Faster Than ICE Cars

A new study has revealed that EVs (electric vehicles) will consume tires faster than ICE (internal combustion engine) cars while producing non-exhaust emissions, something that also needs to be seriously addressed.

London-based startup called The Tyre Collective has created a yet unnamed device (which they call the Box, for now), that is attached behind the wheel of a car, truck, or bus. The Box is designed to capture emissions from an often-overlooked source– the tires.

Actually every vehicle sheds tiny bits of its tires as it rolls, but “where the rubber meets the road” is a bit of a misnomer: The tires on most passenger vehicles contain little natural rubber. Instead, they are made from a stew of petrochemicals, particles of which ultimately wind up in soil, air, waterways and oceans.

The International Union for Conservation of Nature pegs tires as the second leading source of microplastic pollution in oceans, and one 2017 study found a global per capita average of 0.81 kilograms in tire emissions per year, ranging from 0.23 kg per year in India to 4.7 kg in the U.S. Although microplastics are tiny by definition, but an insidious source of toxins that researchers are only beginning to understand.