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Comment by semi-extrinsic | Hacker News Reader

FWIW, particulate matter comes not just from exhaust, but also from road wear etc. that EVs will actually be worse at (since they're heavier).

I don't recall the split off-hand, but here's a paper that should have some numbers:

http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1352231013...

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[0] Estimate about half of the particulate emissions comes from non-combustion sources (brake wear, tire/road wear, dust re-suspension). Interestingly 16-55% of these particle emissions in city-areas comes from brake wear, which should be significantly lower for EV's since they mostly slow down by regenerating. This might offset the weight-related increase for EV's.

[0] http://publications.jrc.ec.europa.eu/repository/bitstream/JR...

I'm not sure if it has been looked into yet, but once EVs are abundant it would make sense to look into ways of reducing pollution from road wear. Right now it's not worth it as much, since pollution from the cars themselves dominate. But once road wear is the dominant source it'll make sense to look into it.

Automated cleaning trucks which sweep the road for dust every day maybe? New materials for roads and tyres?

New materials might be tricky. Roads are very abundant, and in some places of the world they're a convenient way of disposing of the leftovers of incinerated waste.

The article cited combustion-derived particulates, not concrete/tar. They specifically point to strongly magnetic nanoparticles containing Fe. EVs will certainly not release these, though the power plant used to charge them might.

It seems they could be pretty easy to filter since they're strongly magnetic.

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