As electric vehicles reduce car exhaust as a source of particulate emissions, people are increasingly focusing on other vehicular sources of pollution that won’t go away with electrification. Tires are one of them, particularly as we grapple with overweight EVs with tire-shredding torque. And brakes are another—even an EV with regenerative braking will occasionally need to use its friction brakes, after all.
Over in Europe, the people responsible for writing regulations have taken this into consideration with the upcoming Euro 7 standard, which sets new limits on 10- and 2.5-micron particulate emissions on all new vehicles—including EVs—starting next year. And to help OEMs achieve that target, Brembo has developed a new brake and pad set called Greentell that it says cuts brake dust emissions by 90 percent, improving durability in the process.
“We started 10 years ago to investigate a different solution. The main topic that we had in mind was to develop a disk that is greener than the current production of cast iron,” said Fabiano Carminati, VP of disc technical development at Brembo.
The solution had to be feasible for mass-market applications, not just as a specialty product. “For the first time, we apply this technology in a huge volume, not like just a niche, but in a high-volume product,” he told me.
“Greentell is the best compromise from a green point of view and [for] performance because the direct pleasure of the end user is a must for us,” he said. “So the goal is to find a coupling that mix[es] the best driving pleasure with the best green product. Green means low emission and green process. It was a really, really difficult challenge for us. We invested a lot of time; we invested a lot of money.”
