Tire Dust Makes Up the Majority of Ocean Microplastics

Re:Tire Dust Makes Up the Majority of Ocean Microplastics by djaychela on Sunday October 01, 2023 @12:53PM (#37727894)

True, but you should be comparing like with like here. A similar sized ICE vehicle will have similar sized tyres to the Tesla.

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Re:Tire Dust Makes Up the Majority of Ocean Microplastics by goalieca on Sunday October 01, 2023 @01:21PM (#37728168)

A similar sized ICE vehicle by weight will be much larger in volume. I compare a Tesla sedan with an actual ICE sedan and not a 3 row minivan.

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Re:Tire Dust Makes Up the Majority of Ocean Microplastics by Kirby64 on Sunday October 01, 2023 @06:42PM (#37731700)

Comparing a Tesla sedan to common ICE sedans...

Tesla Model 3 uses 235/45R18 tires. The tires that come with the car have a treadwear of 500, so ~50k miles of use. Quite middle of the road in terms of treadwear, and you can get much stickier (and much lower life) tires such as the Pilot Sport 4S.

4 competitors for the sedan in the luxury class:

BMW 330i uses 225/45R18

Audi A3 uses 225/40R18

Lexus ES250 uses 235/45R18

Mercedes C300 uses 225/45R18

Tire size seems all nearly identical to me. Some small variance, but broadly extremely close.

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Re:Tire Dust Makes Up the Majority of Ocean Microplastics by goalieca on Monday October 02, 2023 @09:32AM (#37737847)

The tire is actually quite large and it appears the s3 (lowest end tesla) still weighs approx 500 more pounds than the Audi a3 (trims vary a lot it seems). This is probably why the smallest Tesla (the model 3) is using 235 and not 225 like the A3. All things considered, wear is going to increase with load.

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