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this post was submitted on 10 Sep 2023
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I now wonder what impact cycling has. Obviously, the tires are much smaller and supporting far less weight, but I’m sure I’m still spewing rubber when I brake.
How often do you change tires on your bike vs your car? 200lbs vs 2000lbs to stop is a pretty significant amount.
And the relationship between weight and tire/road wear is non-linear. I.e. 2000 lbs is not 10x worse, but worse to the fourth power!
This is why electric cars are not just a straightforward win. They are so much heavier that they will cause significantly more tire pollution and road damage, not to mention pedestrian deaths.
I really wish there was a small electric car, I'm thinking two seats, that had modern features and could fit taller people like me. Closest I've seen is something like the i3, but it's supposed to be cramped inside. Also it didn't do well at all at least in the North American market unfortunately, making it seemingly unlikely that they will really try again.
One reason they don’t do well is because we subsidize larger cars and penalize smaller ones. It’s not a free market. Regulatory capture by industry explains so many of our problems. If anything, smaller cars (and micro mobility) should receive subsidies, because they cost taxpayers less public money.
The light truck loophole needs to be closed urgently
Aptera has a car coming out eventually. I've seen the claim that its suppose to be be enough for tall people. Aptera is long for its size, but still significantly lighter than something like a Corolla even if you get the 1000 mile range.
I drive the electric Mini, and it’s pretty much just that. It’s just the guts of an i3 stuffed into a Mini Cooper. I got tired of driving around a big honking piece of metal when 75% of my miles are just me, and the rest are just me and my wife and dog. I think it’s one of the top selling Mini models in the US now.
Look up E85 fuel plug in hybrids. They're a compromise between ICE and EVs. Ultimately REDUCE is the first part of reduce, reuse, and recycle for a reason.
We really need the new battery technology that we've been promised for the past 2 decades. Electricity doesn't have weight. It's how we store it, and there's got to be a lighter and less toxic way.
Honestly, I don’t think it will help. People already massively overbuy battery range for their EV “just in case”. Why get 200 miles of range when you can get 400 miles? It’s just like how people buy huge trucks just in case they need to buy lumber twice a year. Bigger car? Heavier car? Who cares!
if we were willing to make and drive slower, lighter cars, and adapt our cities to them, we'd already be there. but so long as electric vehicles need to have equivalent speed, range, and size as big gas vehicles, they're gonna need a lot of heavy batteries. the lithium batteries we've got nowadays are crazy efficient in terms of energy stored per kilogram, but the cars demand so much energy. i'd love to be able to replace my car with an NEV, but alas, i legally would not be allowed to even go to the nearest grocery store with it, let alone my job.
The vapor that is the future of battires. We keep getting better stuff and then some problems happen with production or the science is just wrong after deeper research. IT SUCKS!
Also electricity does have weight
Batteries have gotten 6 to 10 times better in the last 30 years. Just like every other field of research, not every idea is (currently) commercially viable, but advances still regularly occur.
Yea this is a good point. I’ve had my road bike for four years and haven’t changed the tires yet, but I’ve had to replace my tires two or three times on my car (long work commute on sketchy mountain roads, and a pair of flats).