Comedian Joe Rogan was admittedly surprised to learn that electric vehicles can be a greater detriment to the environment than gas-powered ones.
Rogan, who noted that he actually drove to his recording session in an electric car, said on episode 2119 of “The Joe Rogan Experience” that he had just read that the environmental impact of electric cars “is actually worse overall than the environmental impact of a traditional combustion engine.”
“Is that true? Because that sounds crazy,” he added.
The podcaster referenced a resurfaced study reported by the Wall Street Journal that was published by Emission Analytics in 2022.
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“Electric vehicles release more toxic particles into the atmosphere and are worse for the environment than their gas powered counterparts,” Rogan read from the New York Post. “Today most vehicle-related pollution comes from tire wear — whoa — heavy cars drive on light duty tires most often made with synthetic rubber made from crude oil and other fillers and additives. They deteriorate and release harmful chemicals into the air,” Rogan continued.
As Rogan discovered in real time, the study concluded that tailpipe emissions are not the main driver behind pollution. Instead, tire wear emissions are actually the main cause of car pollution to the tune of 1,850 times greater than exhaust emissions.
“Tailpipe particulate emissions are much lower on new cars,” the study explained, noting that vehicle mass and aggressive driving increase the particulate emissions a car produces. Electric vehicles are 30% heavier than gas-powered cars, causing tires and breaks to erode faster. Coupled with increased torque, this can spell trouble for an EV’s pollution rates.
Even the weight of a battery alone can result in 400 times more emissions than tailpipe exhaust, the study noted, citing a half-ton battery for an EV.
Rogan later noted that there had been “brake dust everywhere” when cleaning his own car. He also recalled learning in years prior that brake dust was a significant polluter in congested cities.
However, a “gentle” electric car driver, with the benefit of regenerative braking, can “more than cancel out the tire wear emissions from the additional weight of their vehicle” and achieve lower tire wear than a poorly driven gas-powered car, the study added.
Guest James Lindsay pointed to another significant environmental detriment from the EV market. The mathematician posited that there is a rather significant gap between sales of new and used electric vehicles.
“Besides getting the materials to make the batteries is that they’re not reusable. There’s no used EV market, nobody wants to buy a used one. And then replacing the batteries if they wear out is a disaster.”
A report from early 2024 seemingly confirmed Lindsay’s hypothesis, at least in the European Union.
In Germany, which has the most electric vehicles in Europe, used EVs only make up 1.58% of new ownership registrations as of November 2023. This was an increase over 1.23% in 2022.
Groups from Italian and Spanish markets reportedly place their used EV registration rates at less than 1%.
Factors contributing to the poor sales of secondhand EVs reportedly included the higher purchase price, a perceived lack of charging stations, and the fact that the consumer worries about the driving range of plug-in cars.