 Particulate matter
You may frown at what wheels or, more specifically, tires have to do with emissions regulations, but the connection is rightly there. It already plays a role in rolling resistance, because the more sluggish the vehicle, the more
fuel is consumed.
It has also already been mentioned that such tires must be viewed critically with regard to their braking performance. Here and now it's neither about CO2 nor about NOX, but about fine particulate
matter.
And the focus is on a clientele that you would probably least have expected to show up here: the drivers of electric cars. No, we're not talking about electric cars, because their sometimes enormous tire wear is by no means
inevitable.
As with combustion engines with powerful 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 passengers.
Of course, this is used to promote electromobility, but for the environment and especially the people in it, the particles that separate from the tire 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' are slowly threatening to become the 'main source of particle emissions' in road traffic, then the need for action arises automatically. When it comes to brakes, at least one manufacturer has already
presented a concept for collecting pad residue, even if it has not yet been taken into account.
But this is about tire wear. And this particularly affects electric cars, as their development of early torque is a problem, especially from zero, as described above. But after all, you could get around that by avoiding it.
However, this is not so easy due to another phenomenon, namely the high curb weight of vehicles with a long range. The tires wear more even when rolling along normally. And this is in the single-digit percentage range
more than with the same powerful combustion engine.
If you take the abrasion of more than a kilogram between new and old condition as a basis, an enormous amount of particulate matter is created. Sorting and regulating them according to size is particularly of little use here
and has already proven to be unsuitable with diesel engines.
As a result of such regulations, the particles became smaller and smaller and therefore even more dangerous for the lungs. It's amazing that they can cause almost as much damage as smoking cigarettes. What is
important in this context is that this damage appears to be irreversible.
On the one hand, we are fighting against microplastics in the oceans, while they are created every day in our cities, mainly through tire wear. You can guess where this stuff will end up the next time it rains. Maybe the
sewage treatment plant will fish it out, but what about the particles that the wind blows away?
Whether an appeal to the drivers of electric cars to please drive very tire-friendly, if the vehicle already has a somewhat tire-killing weight, if at the same time the advertising glorifies the traction and acceleration of such
vehicles?
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