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Comment by ericd | Hacker News Reader

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ericd·

Probably lighter vehicles? Wear is superlinear with weight. Unfortunately, EVs aren't great on this axis.

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A Tesla Model 3 is about 4200lbs.

Most pickup trucks and midsized SUVs weigh more than this.

Eh that’s higher than the low end of an F-150, which isn’t something to be really proud of for a small car. The Model X is >5000 pounds. I think EVs are worth it overall, but something to keep in mind.

A Renault Twingo weighs about 2150 lbs. This is a sensible car which seats two comfortably and four in a pinch. It also gets 40-50 mpg. No, you can't transport your quad with it, and it's not very useful when moving house. It's also not the right car if you're currently raising three kids; most aren't. The average occupancy rate for cars is 1.5.

Car taxation should scale quadratic with weight.

I think the issue with the nonlinear road wear taxation is that any fair system would have trucking paying basically 100% of the tax, and that would result in much higher goods transportation costs (I think it’s actually proportional to the 4th power of axle weight). Which I’m personally fine with, I think it’s bad policy to subsidize trucking over trains, but it’d be a big adjustment.

Let’s not forget brake dust which is a lot worse than microplastics, EVs create a ton of that.

I bet all things considered, ICE Toyota Yaris is less bad for the environment than some Tesla.

Don't EV brake less because of regenerative braking?

Good point!

Nope, most Tesla drivers very rarely use their disc brakes, it’s almost all regen.

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