Half a tonne of battery weight can result in tyre emissions that are almost 400 times greater than real-world tailpipe emissions, everything else being equal.

With the same inevitability of a sunrise and a morning, we seem to be going the way of electric vehicles - but are we aware of what this means?

I’m not suggesting we stop, or even slow electric vehicle uptake, but it appears that we are at risk of being negligent - again. A good driver can take advantage of regenerative braking and achieve lower tyre wear than an internal combustion vehicle driven poorly.

Most particles from tyres will not be primarily airborne and will settle in the soil and in waterways - as compared with emissions from tailpipes. Research has shown that typically cheaper tyres will produce smaller emissions, including particles smaller than 2.5 microns in diameter.

If you remember from bushfire seasons past; PM2.5 (particles with a diameter of 2.5 micrometres or less): these particles are so small they can get deep into the lungs and into the bloodstream. There is sufficient evidence that exposure to PM2.5 over long periods (years) can cause adverse health effects.

Emissions Analytics recently launched a tyre compound profiling and benchmarking database, EQUA Tyre, based on test results and raw data from independently sourced samples from more than 40 manufacturers and hundreds of different models of tyre.

It says EQUA Tyre will bring transparency to an area that has historically been under-researched, and which is now in the spotlight as a result of ever-heavier vehicles and rapidly cleaning tailpipes.

Perhaps now it is time to adopt a similar standard for reporting.