A recent study by Transport & Mobility Leuven, a spin-off from KU Leuven, shows that electric cars produce as much particulate matter as cars equipped with a conventional combustion engine. The study makes a comparison between cars with a modern Euro 5 diesel or gasoline engine and cars with an electric motor. The study estimates that the majority of the emissions don’t come from the engine or exhaust, but from the wheels, brakes and the road. They estimate that each of these represents just a little less than one third of the total emissions.
Since electric vehicles unarguably weigh more, there will be more friction between tires and road, so there will be more wear and therefore emissions. Furthermore brakes also wear out more quickly when a vehicle weighs more, because more energy needs to be dissipated through friction between brakes and brake pads.
However before you cancel your down payment on your Tesla, there are a few side notes to be made. It is a bold statement to say that electric vehicles are not as environmental as conventional ones just because they supposedly produce more particulate matter. The paper only looks at the figures and makes assumptions, but doesn’t take the effort to actually measure the particulate matter emission. The paper also doesn’t discuss other types of emission such as CO2 or NOx. Furthermore to conclude if one type of vehicle is more environmentally friendly than the other, production, life time span, recyclability, maintenance, etc. have to be taken into account as well.
The study does get one thing right though, an electric bike is one of the most environmentally friendly vehicles, apart from a regular bike of course, but that doesn’t get you around so quickly.
What do you think of the study? Is this just an attempt to discredit the electric car or do they have some kind of point?
http://www.tmleuven.be/project/fijnstof/belang_niet-uitlaat_fijn_stof_emissies.pdf
When we are simulating our crimped seal with a finite element analysis software packet it is interesting to look at how and when this FEA method was developed and how it evolved in the mainstream simulation method it is now. We all know FEA as a method to simulate stresses and deformations in a structure, but it is also used to simulate thermal and fluid flow problems. The FEA method originally originated in 1960s and is based on the finite difference method that was already used in the 1950s.
sealingadeal 