Electric cars.

They were showing, on the news, how just small batteries that people put in the general recycling explode and catch fire.
So the bigger ones must be really dangerous if they get damaged or short out.

 

Going by the state of their property caused by an e-scooter exploding, I would not like to see what a larger battery can do. A gofundme page has been set up for the family, their home and belongings have all gone up in smoke, they are trying to find a passer-by who helped evacuate them from the fire.

 

I think there was a big fire in Bristol last month were 1 man died
https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct...c-bike-78357&usg=AOvVaw3eJVMXB23cat_VGfNBK4ai

 

Probably best to not park near any EVs of any kind.

 

A lot of those electric bikes and especially scooters are actually sold in this country illegally. They do not meet UK electrical safety standards. There will be more bought this Christmas despite Trading Standards efforts.
People think that because they are electric they are safe but there is a large amount of energy stored in their batteries. You would think twice about taking a motorcycle, with a tank of petrol, into your house.

 

Lithium battery fires are nearly impossible to extinguish. Lithium goes against all we were taught about fire. A fire needs 3 components. Heat, fuel and oxygen. Not lithium. Lithium burns whether there's oxygen present or not. It's not exactly fire, just a chemical reaction that generates extreme heat and keeps reacting til it's spent. If there was only lithium, the fire would be contained but of course that extreme heat comes into contact with other materials, which of course burn in a more conventional manner. Because the reaction generates its own heat and doesn't need oxygen, pumping water onto it doesn't stop it. The best a firefighter can do is keep dowsing it to try to prevent surrounding materials igniting until the lithium has run its course.

That's the bad news. The good news is that every time there's a major problem, the boffins study it and refine their design to make it safer. And apart from lithium, other battery technologies are in research and development. Apart from batteries, there is the concept of a super capacitor. Basically an energy storage solution that features no reactive materials. They won't hold as much as a battery but in EVs, the potential is there to use much smaller batteries, and capture all of the stored energy of deceleration, so that the battery only needs to be enough to get up to speed and overcome friction and air resistance. Slowing down will recharge the capacitor so the energy is there to speed up again. All this is still early in the research and development cycle but it will be a game changer when it becomes commercially viable.

 

Hi,

I dislike anything battery powered although many things these days can't be avoided. How times have changed over the last 70 years; here electric cars are being discussed; I was about five years old before my parents cottage had electricity installed.

The government changed its mind regarding Diesel years ago having got drivers into diesel cars; will the government change its mind about electric cars. Electric cars are to be road taxed and how long before the cost of electricity goes up for these cars; a YouTube video shows a ten year old Nissan Leaf electric car when now fully charged manages 18 miles; long term thinking is brilliant; when the batteries of these electric cars need changing most likely they will end up like white goods being scrapped. Just my opinion and why my wife and I are hanging on to our wonderful Skoda Yeti SE L 2.0L diesel; bought from new in 2016 now with 31K on its clock it's a keeper. Shame on Skoda for discontinuing Yeti production otherwise we'd now be on our third new Yeti. The only thing I've ever disliked about our Yeti is the stop/start function which I turn off for every journey however shot the journey is

YouTube is full of videos regarding those who like and those who dislike electric cars; one guy with a very expensive Porsche liked his car but he appeared to spend his life worrying about charging it. 5 minutes at our local BP sorts our Yeti out; for the last 6 years our Yeti being the adblue model has attracted £30 per year road tax because it's pretty clean for the environment. The only thing I dislike about our Yeti is the stop/start function; I turn this off for every journey.

Our Yeti has "street presence" unlike most modern cars just being clones of each other and it's sure to become a classic. I joined Briskoda the Skoda forum.

Kind regards, Colin.

 

Increasingly, the old batteries, no longer fit for use in an EV, are repurposed as storage for domestic solar panels and people on smart tariffs that get very cheap electricity overnight.

On the EV point, I see them as nothing more than a proof of concept, a prototype. I won't be buying one any time soon. I love the idea, but they're not ready in my opinion.

If some car company offered me one for free, on the condition that I share real life data with them so they could monitor performance in realistic conditions, with the goal of refining the technology, then I'd be up for that as a participant in research, but I wouldn't part with my own money on one. Maybe in 10 years they might be ready, but right now, they're just toys for rich people.

 

Currently over 13% of new cars sold in China are EVs. In the US, home of big trucks it is over 6%. Here in the UK, it is 14%.
I am ready to go electric. My MOT is tomorrow so it could be as soon as next week. A 10-year-old Nissan Leaf with 18 miles of range would even meet my needs ( the car mentioned is not indicative of the range achieved by most 10-year-old Leafs. The battery has obviously been destroyed by flattening and possibly overcharging plus there is no indication of how many miles it has done).
Regarding batteries. It was announced this week that a local company has been given a huge government grant to further develop their line of "Flow" batteries.

 

I won't be going electric simply because of the cost, probably an EV would work ok for me as I don't do many miles now, but the cost of buying one is just too much.

I'd be very wary of buying second hand unless it had been completely reconditioned never really thought of conventional cars in that way, but somehow EV seem to fit the "appliance " category for me, a bit like buying a second hand fridge or washing machine or worse still a second hand cordless drill.
Just don't trust the lifetime of the batteries, and all electrical stuff seems to have a built in lifetime.

 

I'm not opposed to them, but I maintain that they're still proof of concept.

Just because lots of people are buying them doesn't prove anything in terms of the current technology. I bet loads of people bought HD DVD players, betamax VCRs, ISDN phone lines, and took up CompuServe numbers before modern email protocols developed.

I'm glad they did. Those people funded previous proofs of concept. Other organizations watched and learned, then went on to develop better versions. It will be the same with EVs.

 

If I had the money to spend on an EV, I'd not get fully electric, I'd get a hybrid. Much more reliable for the Canadian climate.

 

I am still not 100% convinced with the EV and battery revolution. If it was, why are companies like Britishvolt struggling to find independent funding. Like most of these projects, without government funding most wouldn't venture off the drawing table.

Britishvolt advisors given weeks to find buyer for Blyth plant, reports claim

 

In certain places its a great idea. Like when you pier over the balcony in New York, and see row after row of only yellow cabs. But out in the country, and farming equipment not a good idea.

 

Hi,

My wife and I don't travel far at all mostly limited to around 30 miles each way as today when we popped over to Rotherham. Absolutely no worries about battery charging and driving our diesel Yeti always brings a huge smile to my face; here's the difference;



If the old EV batteries can be used for solar panels it still begs the question as to what is going back in the car and at what cost.

Lots of old well maintained cars travel over one million miles and are still running; I doubt the Nissan Leaf I quoted will have covered such a mileage and the Nissan is about ready for the scrapyard at only ten years old. I was going to post the Volvo video but YouTube has died on me.

I replaced the battery in our Yeti a while ago; it's a special battery that needs coding to the car due to the stop/start function; our local Skoda main dealer only works on our car and it cost over £280; taking this as an example what will a huge EV battery cost to replace assuming a suitable battery is available in ten years time.

Our next door neighbours have just had solar panels installed on their bungalow roof; the rep of course was quickly round at ours and I politely told him the only thing we want on our bungalow roof is the chimney. Anyone still remember endowment mortgages; we avoided these too insisting on normal repayment mortgage; about four years ago I bought paving flags from a guy who with his wife signed up for a 25 year mortgage for their council house; they had just reached retirement age and wanted to move to the east coast; what a shock they had when they were faced with a massive bill; they had signed up for an interest only mortgage so still owed the £70,000 they initially borrowed. My opinion is people are like sheep.

Are you aware Porsche recommend not dropping charge below 20% and not charging over 80%; rather limits the range a bit?

Kind regards, Colin.