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Comment by hulitu | Hacker News Reader

> a truck that weighs more than 7,000 lbs

That's why.

Relevant: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fourth_power_law

Imagine the tonnes of plastic pollution generated yearly by these high levels of tire wear. If they don't pollute the air, they pollute the soil.

…and the rivers!

https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2022/mar/21/chemical...

They should probably start progressively tax the weight of an EV in a few years to encourage manufacturers to build lighter vehicles.

Why EVs specifically, and not simply all vehicles? We have an EV that weighs 1200kg, and a normal ICE car that weighs 2200kg - if anything the latter should be paying more tax due to its weight.

That's nuts, that's almost 50% heavier than a 7-seater van!

“Your mama's so fat see needs a 7000 pounds truck to carry her” but for real…

If that was the only see you'd see a lot of work trucks changing tyres as often as they change oil, which does not happen.

The typical F-150 is about 2000 lbs lighter. After a quick glance, it looks like the standard tires for the Rivian aren't as heavy duty as most truck tires. (I suspect Rivian wants a more comfortable ride vis-a-vis a standard work truck)

Modern Dodge Ram with the Cummins is 7000 lbs. But a one ton truck is also going to have a much higher payload rating. Therefore, it's going to have tires with a higher load rating, not to mention more sidewall that will cushion road imperfections.

Cars are just getting worse and worse. What a fucking nightmare.

And can tow 11,000 lbs.

And has over 1,231 N⋅m of torque.

Spoiler alert next time, please..

More like /r/savedyouaclick

Except

> But there’s more going on here than the fact that the R1T is heavy.

> As it turns out, this excessive front tire wear can likely be tied back to Rivian’s “Conserve” drive mode.

But the conclusion of the article is pretty unambiguous nonetheless:

> Rotating tires regularly can also help. But ultimately, there’s no getting around the fact that you’re driving something that weighs as much as three Miatas.

I know you didn’t write this but what an idiotic take. How many Miatas exist? It’s a very uncommon car. At best it carries two people. Who cares about the weight difference between a Camry and a Diablo? Micro weight isn’t the problem macro environmental externalities are.

I don't even know what a Miatas is, but in fairness this monster weights as much as three Dacia Sandero which is the most common car in Europe and is a five-seater your can go on vacations with, so very much not a micro car.

In fact I'm in the street in France right now, in vacation, and now that I checked at least half of the cars of the other tourists around me are around three times lighter than the “car” we're talking about…

In Europe it's called an MX5.

Over a million Miatas have been sold throughout its lifetime. It's definitely the most popular two-seat sports car and probably the most popular convertible in history.

It’s still a niche vehicle. A million units over 34 years isn’t much by automotive standards.

A million over 34 years means 30k a year, which is approximately the number Rivian RT1 being sold right now[1], so the comparison is in fact very apt.

[1]:16,452 units have been sold over the first two quarters of this year https://www.tesla-mag.com/tesla-model-y-leads-us-ev-market-i...

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