Comparative analysis of non-exhaust airborne particles from electric and internal combustion engine vehicles

This paper evaluates the effect of the electrification of the small, medium, and large internal combustion engine (ICE) passenger cars on the levels of total particulate matter (PM). The total mean PM10 and PM2.5 emission factors (EFs) on urban, rural, and motorway roads are in the range of 26.13 - 39.57 mg km(-1) veh(-1) and 13.39 - 18.44 mg km(-1) veh(-1), respectively, from small to large ICE passenger cars. Correspondingly, the total mean PM10 and PM2.5 non-exhaust EFs on urban, rural, and motorway roads range from 27.76 to 43.43 mg km(-1) veh(-1) and 13.17 -19.24 mg km(-1) veh(-1) from equivalent small to large electric vehicles (EVs) without regenerative braking. These results show that the total non-exhaust PM from the equivalent EVs may exceed all PM from ICE passenger cars, including exhaust particle emissions, which are dependent mainly on the extent of regenerative braking, followed by passenger car type and road type. PM10 EFs for equivalent EVs without regenerative braking on urban, rural, and motorway roads are all higher than those from ICE cars. As for PM2.5, most of the equivalent EVs require different extents of regenerative braking to reduce brake emissions to be in line with all particle emissions from relative ICE cars.

Automated summary

The study found that equivalent electric vehicles may produce more non-exhaust particle emissions than all internal combustion engine passenger cars, depending mainly on the extent of regenerative braking, followed by passenger car type and road type.