You may frown at what wheels, or tires in particular, have to do with emission regulations, but the connection is entirely valid. It already played a role in the rolling resistance, because the more sluggish it is, the more fuel is consumed.

It has also already been mentioned that such tires have to be viewed critically with regard to their braking performance. Here and now, however, it is neither about CO₂ nor about NO_X, but about particulate matter.

And this is where a group comes into focus that you would least have expected to appear here, that of the drivers of electric cars. No, it doesn't mean the electric cars, because their sometimes enormous tire wear is by no means inevitable.

As with cars with powerful combustion engines, you have the choice of pressing the power pedal down carefully or quickly. Unfortunately, the latter is obviously very often used not only for one's own enthusiasm, but also for that of co-drivers.

Of course, it is used to promote electromobility, but for the environment and especially for the people, the particles that separate from the tires are a horror, if not a danger. One is now talking about 'causes of death' in connection with air pollution.

So if 'brakes and tires' slowly become the 'main source of particle emissions' in road traffic, then the need for action arises of its own accord. In the case of the brakes, at least one manufacturer has already presented a concept for collecting pad residues, albeit still unnoticed.

But this is about tire abrasion. And this affects electric cars in particular, as their development of an early torque is a problem, especially from zero, as described above. But after all, you could also exclude that by avoiding it.

However, this is not so easy with another phenomenon, namely the high unladen weight of vehicles with a long range. The tires wear out more even when rolling along normally. And that in the single-digit percentage range more than with combustion engines.

If you take the abrasion of sometimes more than a kilogram between new and old tires as a basis, this produces an enormous amount of fine particulate matter. Sorting and regulating them according to size is of little use here, and has already proven to be unsuitable for diesel engines.

Due to such regulations, they became smaller and smaller and therefore more dangerous. Amazing that they can damage the lungs almost as much as smoking cigarettes. It is particularly important in this context that the damage appears to be irreversible.

On the one hand, we are fighting against microplastics in the oceans, while it is mainly produced in our cities every day by tire abrasion. You can guess where this stuff will end up next time it rains. Maybe the sewage treatment plant removes it, but what about the particles that the wind blows away?

Whether an appeal to the drivers of electric cars is of any use to please them to drive in a tire-friendly manner, if the vehicle has a tire-killing weight, if at the same time the advertising glorifies the traction and acceleration of such vehicles?