2y ago

Electric cars 'cause TWICE as much road damage as petrol equivalents': Why Britain's pothole crisis could be worsened by the rise of EVs

www.thisismoney.co.uk /money/electriccars/article-12237529/Britains-pothole-crisis-worse-electric-cars.html

6 comments

There's a lot of obvious big-oil funded propaganda against electric cars being posted on Lemmy....
Utter tosh.
The Telegraph (who funded this study) have a huge list of anti-EV articles, nearly all of which are technically incorrect and often self-contradictory. They clearly have an agenda and it's likely funded by the oil industry.
- It's not entirely untrue. Electric vehicles tend to be heavier than petrol or diesel vehicles, and heavier vehicles cause more wear to road surfaces than lighter ones.
  That isn't to say electric vehicles are bad idea because of that though.
  
  But still fractionally as heavy as lorries, which /do/ cause most of the potholes. But the article is designed to trigger our base feelings of anger about paying for a road surface that's often in poor condition.
  The car park argument is pretty silly too. Older multi-stories have greater problems from cars being wider, longer and taller than what they were designed for. But again, with the news of the multistorey car park collapsing in New York not that long ago, it's triggering fear, uncertainty and doubt amongst the reader.
  Objectively, it's a really good example of how to write a manipulative 'news' story that preys on human emotion. That doesn't make it /true/ though.
Oh no! They'll actually have to build roads to a proper standard now!
- The research was done by the Asphalt Industry Alliance (https://www.asphaltuk.org) who complain that there is a 1.30bn shortfall in the carriageway budget.
  They have a point - potholes are worse than they’ve ever been - but one has to wonder if they would bump up the numbers to try and get more funding 🤔

6 comments