Quote Originally Posted by Tito Fuente View Post
I can't pretend that I know much about this subject at all so you'll have to help me out.

Is "extra environment impact of increased tyre wear ( ignoring brake pads etc ) and the increased mileage ( and indirect charging costs ) detouring to charging areas when motorway driving " more or less of an environmental impact than burning fossil fuels at source when using a petrol diesel vehicle?
Worth noting that ev brakes a) regenerate energy and b) need replacing less regularly. Tyres: yeah I suspect they do wear more quickly than ICE due to the extra weight so that is probably fair. EVs do have specific tyres (or at least mine does) which might be designed to mitigate this (dunno) but I suspect that yes they wear out a bit more quickly than tyres on an ICE. but as you say: how does it stack against the other environmental factors?

This level of environmental concern might be genuine of course, but if it is it is then it's hard to reconcile worrying about EV break pads with any form of car ownership, and certainly with using a car to travel the long distances at which recharging on motorways would require.

But to put his mind at ease on some other points:

EV batteries are recycled and reused in things like domestic storage batteries. They are bloody expensive, I think they look to squeeze every minute of useful life out of them.

EV chargers are located at motorway service stations so the extra fraction of a mile to detour when on the motorway is a non issue

Yes EV chargers at service stations are expensive, just as petrol is. You use it if you have to, which - given modern EV ranges - wouldnt be that often for many people. Overall assuming you can charge at home, the price per mile for EV should be a lot lower than ICE. I have a large, heavy, inefficient EV. My average price per mile is a little under 4p which is more than the 2.5p when I first got it and electricity prices were lower, but still way cheaper than any ICE I've ever had.

Obviously you have extreme cases of people driving from Cardiff to Newcastle and back on a daily basis or whatever but EV isnt really viable for them yet and even if it was, anyone worried about the environmental damage of extra mileage to the on-route charger wouldnt be driving that journey anyway and would be taking public transport.

There are genuine barriers to mass adoption of EVs, the main one being that unless you have access to a home or office charger on a frequent basis, it's not going to be viable. And a lot of people will fall into that category. But his environmental concerns are a bit... odd.