Weight gain of battery and hydrogen Zero Emission Vehicles over internal combustion vehicles: consequential increases in road wear.

Abstract In order to meet global climate targets, it will be essential to decarbonise transport along with emissions sources. For road transport, the two currently available technologies are battery electric vehicles and hydrogen fuel cell electric vehicles. Battery vehicles are more established than hydrogen, although both are capable of delivering the emissions reduction required.However, battery electric vehicles are usually considerably heavier than the equivalent hydrogen fuel cell electric vehicles, which are in turn slightly heavier than existing internal combustion engine (ICE) vehicles; a heavier vehicle will have a bigger impact on road wear, and associated maintenance and particulate emissions.Here we examine for the first time one impact and hidden cost, associated with the increased weight of zero emissions vehicles, not commonly addressed in energy research – the additional wear and tear on roads, associated with road maintenance cost and particulate emissions. We examine these in three different future scenarios of all battery vehicles, all hydrogen vehicles, and a combination, in comparison with the current ICE situation.We find that there is 30-40% additional road wear associated with battery vehicles compared to ICE vehicles; there is a 6% increase from ICE vehicles with hydrogen. This is overwhelmingly caused by the largest vehicles - buses and heavy goods vehicles. The contribution from cars, vans and motorcycles is negligible with any fuel type. Governmental bodies will become liable for increased road maintenance costs and may wish to set weight limits on roads, or require additional axles on heavier vehicles, to decrease road wear.