UK testing firm: Tire wear can be 1,000 times worse polluter than car exhaust

UK testing firm: Tire wear can be 1,000 times worse polluter than car exhaust

MANILA: UK-based Emissions Analytics, the leading independent global testing and data specialist for the scientific measurement of real-world emissions and fuel efficiency for passenger and commercial vehicles and non-road mobile machinery, said that “pollution from tire wear can be 1,000 times worse than what comes out of a car’s exhaust.”

 

The company reported that harmful particle matter from tires – and also brakes – should be regarded as a very serious and growing environmental problem. It is made worse by the “increasing popularity of large, heavy vehicles such as SUVs, and growing demand for electric vehicles, which are heavier than standard cars because of their batteries.”

Emissions Analytics further observed that vehicle tire wear pollution is completely unregulated, unlike exhaust emissions which have been rapidly reduced by car makers due to the pressure placed on them by emissions standards around the world.

Tire wear

The firm is thus looking at non-exhaust emissions (NEE) – particles released into the air from brake wear, tire wear, road surface wear and resuspension of road dust during on-road vehicle usage. The company noted that no legislation is in place to limit or reduce NEEs, but they cause a great deal of concern for air quality.

NEEs are currently believed to constitute the majority of primary particulate matter from road transport, 60% of PM2.5 and 73% of PM10 – and in its 2019 report “Non-Exhaust Emissions from Road Traffic” by the UK Government’s Air Quality Expert Group (AQEG), it recommended that NEE should immediately be recognized as a source of ambient concentrations of airborne particulate matter, even for vehicles with zero exhaust emissions of particles such as EVs.

Emissions Analytics did some initial tire-wear testing. Using a popular family hatchback running on brand-new, correctly inflated tires, the company discovered that the car emitted 5.8 grams of particles per kilometer.

Compared with regulated exhaust emission limits of 4.5 milligrams per kilometer, the completely unregulated tire wear emission proved higher by a factor of over 1,000. Emissions Analytics notes that this could be even higher if the vehicle had tires which were underinflated, or the road surfaces used for the test were rougher, or the tires used were from a budget range – all very recognizable scenarios in real-world motoring.

Senior researcher at Emissions Analytics Richard Lofthouse said, “It’s time to consider not just what comes out of a car’s exhaust pipe but particle pollution from tire and brake wear. Our initial tests reveal that there can be a shocking amount of particle pollution from tires – 1,000 times worse than emissions from a car’s exhaust.”

twin chrome exhaust finishers

Joined company CEO Nick Molden: “The challenge to the industry and regulators is an almost complete black hole of consumer information, undone by frankly out of date regulations still preoccupied with exhaust emissions. In the short term, fitting higher-quality tires is one way to reduce these NEEs and to always have tires inflated to the correct level.

“Ultimately, though, the car industry may have to find ways to reduce vehicle weight too. What is without doubt on the horizon is much-needed regulation to combat this problem. Whether that leads to specific types of low emission, harder wearing tires is not for us to say – but change has to come.”

Kap Maceda Aguila

Kap Maceda Aguila

Kap Maceda Aguila has been a writer for nationally circulated publications since 1992 after earning a communication degree, majoring in journalism, from the University of the Philippines-Diliman. Over the course of his career, Kap has covered various beats from lifestyle, business, technology, entertainment, and motoring.  He was a segment host, writer, and producer of The Philippine Star’s Wheels which first aired in 2015, and was appointed head writer in 2018. In 2019, The Star opened motoring and transportation website Wheels.ph and made Kap its first online editor – a position he held before leaving to become motoring editor of Business World in February of 2020. Today, he continues to pen articles for The Star and other publications, and co-hosts a radio show, Gear Box on Radyo Pilipinas 1 738 AM. Kap is also editor in chief of Zigwheels Philippines and Carmudi Philippines.

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