Do EVs wear their tyres more than ICE vehicles?

How do you tell if someone is irrationally against electric vehicles and doesn’t understand cars?

They argue electric vehicles are environmentally unfriendly because they wear their tyres and brakes more than ICE cars.

There is actually a tiny amount of truth to this argument for tyres. The following three facts are true:

1. The greater weight of the EV vs ICE equivalent means greater tyre wear
2. Potential use of quick EV acceleration means increased tyre wear
3. EV tyres are often low rolling resistance which will compromise other factors, possibly including tyre life. For example, tread depth may be reduced so the tyre wears to the minimum quicker.

However. While each of the three factors is true, they’re all really quite microscopic and anyone that advances any of these arguments is showing their colours as anti-EV looking for reasons to support their existing position. So, ignore. It’s like saying if you drive around with your fuel tank 1/4 full you’ll use less fuel than if the car was filled up…yes, but it’s so tiny a difference you’d never notice.

Also ignore the one about increased brake wear…anyone that brings that up really is dumb because as we know, regen is a thing so EVs actually wear the brakes less. Much less.

However, EV people are also prone to claim tiny differences as important. The difference in brake wear as an environmental damage as like the tyre thing, it’s a tiny tiny factor. And, they also cannot claim EVs are smoother to operate therefore significantly less tyre wear…any such differences are tiny. Tyre pressures, driving style, road type and more make much bigger differences.

There are real pros and cons to EVs and ICE, but let’s focus on the ones that matter, and the relative environmental effect of brake wear and tyre wear between ICE and EV simply isn’t anything to worry about.