Thought for the day …
TL;DR – EV’s are destroying our roads!
Electric Vehicles (EV’s) weigh around 30-50% more than there Internal Combustion Engine (ICE) counterparts. Sure they have no exhaust so don’t pay road tax as that system is based on emissions.
More weight means more damage to our roads
However heavier cars means more wear and tear on our roads. The UK roads are already getting in a worse state of repair every year. So more money is going to have be spent to maintain and upgrade roads for the amount of heavier cars being “forced” onto them. The extra weight of these vehicles could mean say and extra 40% wear on our roads as ICE cars are replaced with much heavier EV’s. Generally an EV vehicle weights around 500kg more than it’s equivalent ICE vehicle. That’s the same weight and an old mini cooper!
On the extra weight, this could mean potentially higher servicing costs as the cars get older. EV’s still have mechanical, driveshaft, suspension components, brakes & tyres, just like a normal ICE. But the added weight means these components needs to support he extra weight. Therefore the likes of brakes and tyres will either wear out quicker (with possible offset against regenerative braking from EV). Tyres will be wearing out quicker due to the added loads put on them.
More weight means more wear and tear on parts
Servicing costs wont necessarily be much cheaper going forward, sure there’s no oil or spark plug change required but here are other maintenance on the electrics required and potentially more expensive components. ICE’s don’t tend to cause issues in cars, engines are generally bullet proof these days. It’s the brakes, tyres and electrics which cause most problems in cars these days. All of which, EV’s still make sure of, and even more so.
Road tax (VED)
On to the topic of Vehicle Excise Duty (VED) for 2022. There’s sadly going to be an increase and probably always will be until the system is updated.. EV owners don’t pay VED because it is based on factory spec vehicle emissions.
So although EV’s are heavier and will likely be wearing our roads out more and they won’t be contributing to the potential upkeep of our roads. Additionally the lighter ICE vehicles will be paying more to subsidise EV’s! EV’s have been around for a few years now with not much sign of their prices being affordable for most households they are still significantly more expensive that ICE’s even on 2nd hand market! And yet those that cant afford them have to pay more for VED and fuel, which is still cheaper than purchasing an EV of several years of ownership!
EV’s to cost the UK Governmant Billions of £’s in annual revinue
As of 2019 the government raised around £6.5 Billion just through VED. That’s quite a big deficit to government funding my moving to EV’s Not to mention the government also takes a cut of the petrol/diesel you currently fill up you car with. In 2019 that amount was an additional £27 Billion. So to add that up with eh big push to EV’s the government is going to potentially lost over £30 Billion a year. With more wear and tear on our roads due to heavier vehicles. They are going to have to find a way to get that money from somewhere!
With ICE’s I’ve always been an advocate for scrapping VED and applying the additional “Vehicle Tax” on the cost of fuel. Which I believe would have been fair. The more you drive, the more fuel you use, the more tax you pay. Which, we all hope but doesn’t happen, goes back into the maintenance and upgrade of our roads.
Are modern petrol & diesel vehicles really that dirty?
Just to go back to the point on emissions and “nasty” stuff form exhausts.. My 2014 big diesel 4×4 with 70,000 miles on it, which weighs at least 100kg less than the modern EV city cars. Still on its original exhaust. Doesn’t get any of the classic plumes of smoke from it’s exhaust like you used to get with much older diesel vehicles. In fact I’ve just gone outside and scrubbed my finger on the inside of the exhaust tip and my fingers are clean!. No black carbon or soot build up at all. So just how harmful are modern ICE vehicles? Well the wee sporty 200bhp Subaru BRZ I have qualifies for the Ultra Low Emission Zones (ULEZ) in London! So are modern ICE’s really that bad?
Clean carbon-neutral fuels are here today
On a final note, Check out Zero Petroleum – https://zeropetroleum.com/ research and testing already completed successfully to create synthetic fuel from the carbon dioxide from the environment with the help of Renewable electricity and Green Hydrogen (using the electricity produced by solar, wind & wave. This process is similar to what plants and trees do naturally for our planet by cleaning up the air we breathe by applying a process called Petrosynthesis. A Carbon Neutral way to produce a petrol which you can put into your car, van, bus, aeroplane without any modifications to the vehicle. Compare that to a time in 2021 when it was reported that around 50% of the electricity production in the UK was supplied by burning natural gas! So just how “clean” are we being by moving to EV’s
Forcing everyone to switch solely to Battery Electric Vehicles (BEV’s) right now, is not the answer…
…In my opinion…