First up - where I agree. Yes, obviously the more we can lighten our cars, the better

And this applies to all cars, not just EVs - petrol cars have been ballooning in weight for years now

EVs aren't as heavy as some think they are, and regardless of weight, they have a profoundly positive environmental impact vs vehicles with internal combustion engines.

Myth Busting – EV weight

We explored the common misconceptions about electric vehicles (EVs) being heavier and causing more environmental damage than internal combustion engine vehicles (ICEs). Contrary to popular belief, most EVs are not significantly heavier than their ICE counterparts, especially dedicated EVs. Additionally, EVs produce fewer particulate emissions from brakes and have comparable tyre wear to traditional vehicles.

03/04/2024

Tagged with:climate-change, Electric Vehicles, electric-cars, Emissions, EV, evs, Myths, Sustainability, Weight

Lies, damn lies and entrenched interests.

Introduction

There are many myths, misconceptions, out of date information and outright lies around the move to sustainable societies and NetZero that we come across every day, especially when it comes to electric vehicles.

You will have heard many of them; you may even have been persuaded that some are true. Most are not, or are a gross oversimplification, distortion or suffer from serious flaws of reasoning. The following attempts to provide perspective.

Are EVs really as heavy as some people claim?

Claim:EVs (Electric Vehicles) are heavier than ICEs (Internal Combustion Engine vehicles) and produce more tyre and brake particulates as well as damage roads, car parks etc.

Here’s some data on a variety of cars, by weight.

	Car Model	Fuel Type	KerbWeight (kg)* inc 70kg passenger
1	Dacia Spring	Electric	970
2	Ford Puma 1.0l	Petrol	1280
3	Renault 5	Electric	1350
4	Volvo V40 TD2	Diesel	1561
5	Tesla Model 3 Standard Range Plus	Electric	1655
6	Volvo V40 T3	Petrol	1655
7	Ford Mondeo 2.0l	Petrol	1664
8	MG ZS EV Standard Range	Electric	1685
9	MG ZS EV Long Range	Electric	1692
10	BMW 3 Series (320i)	Petrol	1660
11	Ford S-Max 2.0l	Diesel	1734
12	Kia Nero	Petrol	1739
13	BMW 3 Series (320d)	Diesel	1740
14	BMW 520i	Petrol	1800
15	Kia e-Nero	Electric	1812
16	Ioniq 5	Electric	1830
17	Audi Q5	Petrol	1890
18	Tesla Model 3 Long Range	Electric	1928
19	BMW 330e	Hybrid	1970
20	Polestar 2	Electric	1996
21	BMW i5 eDrive40	Electric	2205
22	BMW X5 40d	Diesel Hybrid	2385
23	Audi e-tron	Electric	2445
24	Range Rover	Petrol	2495
25	Ford Transit Panel Van (laden)	Diesel	3400
26	Single decker bus, 50% full	Diesel	19,000
27	Heavy Goods Vehicle (articulated lorry)	Diesel	up to 44,000
28

*Kerb weight of modern cars (which includes a 70kg occupant). Where technical spec did not specify Kerb weight, 70kg has been added.

The first thing to notice is that the EVs are not obviously heavier. Claims of them being 300-400kg more than petrol cars aren’t apparent. Absolutely, there are some heavy (over 2 tonne) EVs; these are mid-sized or large SUVs, but the petrol equivalents are also over 2 tonnes.

The second thing of interest is that cars that were designed to only be EVs tend to be much lighter than those which were intended to be petrol/diesel and then ‘modified’ to also be EVs. This is especially true of German manufacturers it seems.

Thirdly, until recently the vast majority of EVs were larger, high priced, high-end cars (the effect of market forces). A lot of claims of EVs being heavy were because journalists etc. took the average weight across all common ICEs and compared them with all EVs. Since ICEs include all the lightweight compact family cars and city run-arounds, which are under-represented in EVs, the averages are skewed to suggest EVs are much heavier than they are.

A compounding issue is that bigger EVs, in common with traditional cars, tend to have poor aerodynamics, requiring even bigger batteries to maintain acceptable range. As a comparison, the Tesla Model 3 standard range (263 mile range) has a 55.4 kWh battery weighing 478 kg. The new, massive Polestar 3 has to have a 111 kWh battery to achieve 392 miles. It goes 50% further, but needs double the battery to do it. It’s a law of diminishing returns.

Comparing like-with-like, most EVs are not really more than the weight of a teenager more than their ICE equivalent. Typically 5-8% more for equivalent vehicles. As technology improves they are getting lighter; such as theDacia Springwhich will be just 970kg.

Finally, let’s look at a list of theheaviest carsavailable in the UK today. I’ve highlighted all the EVs.

1. Mercedes EQS SUV – 2,810kg
2. Mercedes-Maybach GLS – 2,785kg
3. Range Rover PHEV LWB – 2,770kg
4. Rolls-Royce Phantom – 2,745kg
5. Volvo EX90 Performance Ultra – 2,743kg
6. BMW XM Red label – 2,710kg
7. Mercedes-AMG EQS 53 – 2,700kg
8. Rolls-Royce Cullinan Black Badge – 2,660kg
9. Audi SQ8 e-tron Sportback – 2,650kg
10. BMW X7 xDrive M60i – 2,600kg
11. Mercedes G 63 – 2,560kg
12. Bentley Flying Spur LWB – 2,525kg

Because they are so heavy they wear out their tyres much faster than an ICE and go through brakes much quicker.

Brake pad wear is much lower on EVs since slowing down is mostly done use using regenerative braking instead of using hte brakes. Test have shown particulate emissions from EV brake pad wear is reduced by anywhere from 25% to 95%.

EVs also are designed to use specific, efficient and heard wearing tyres. These do not wear out faster than on any other car.

Overall particulate emission, including tyres, is lower than from ICEs

Conclusion

Some EVs are heavy, especially the bigger ones. This is equally true of petrol and diesel cars.

Dedicated EVs tend to be only a little heavier than their equivalent ICEs, just 20kg or so.

If the concern is that heavy cars are dangerous and damaging then the focus needs to be on the marketing of SUVs or all types since these are far heavier than most EVs.

Regardless of their weight, EVs produce far fewer particulate emissions from brakes and no more tyre wear than traditional vehicles.

Sources

EV Database:https://ev-database.org/uk/

BMW:https://www.bmw.co.uk/en/all-models/

Ultimate specs:https://www.ultimatespecs.com/car-specs/