The EV thread

[Macca37]

Do you realise that the stats per 100 ICE vehicles include cars that have been stolen or used in some criminal activity and subsequently torched?

Also, the stats do not show how quickly the majority of ICE car fires can be extinguished because the fire is usually electrical and does not involve the source of energy, namely, the petrol tank.

I saw figures a day or so ago where 80,000 litres of water were used to contain a recent EV fire, with the risk that it could flare up again at a later stage. That water , highly contaminated, just went off into the nearest drains.

Also, the stats make no reference to the ferocity of fires with EVs caused by thermal runaway.

Finally, I read today that Greek ferries will not transport EVs unless their batteries are at less than 40 per cent charge.

[LP]

I believe there is a slight risk with the lithium ion, majority of ev use a different chemistry.

All EV vehicles use lithium ion batteries, it's the only energy density to weight chemistry that is viable for transport.

Hybrids can use lithium typically a LiPo or also a NiMH, the choice is really an engineering issue, how they will be used to store charge and the discharge profile.

[LP]

I saw figures a day or so ago where 80,000 litres of water were used to contain a recent EV fire.

Language is a trap.

We describe it as a fire but most batteries failed by short circuit causing an arc, what we describe as a fire is closer to arc welding. Some combustible / volatile components might flare but the arc itself in the core components cannot be easily extinguished, you can only cool them until they discharge or break the battery down into smaller constituent components, that is why the fire brigade stand guard to basically leave them to self-extinguish dousing the surrounding materials.

You can get some very nasty stuff coming out of the battery during "the fire", the arc temperatures are typically much higher than a typical fire and you can end up with a cloud of toxic metal vapours similar to welding hazardous metals.

We can assume all the other surrounding body and interior materials for EV or ICE are basically the same, so we only have to concern ourselves with the differences.

[tonyo]

I've been driving a Kia Sportage Hybrid for the past 5 weeks.

5.2L/100km (35% less than equivalent non-hybrid) and a full tank range of 860km.

I think I have the best of both worlds.......

[LP]

I've been driving a Kia Sportage Hybrid for the past 5 weeks.

5.2L/100km (35% less than equivalent non-hybrid) and a full tank range of 860km.

I think I have the best of both worlds.......

I think you are correct, and for me the real push should have been hybrids a long time ago, whether they were battery hybrids or fuel cell type hybrids. We could have all been driving them by now and not wasting fossil fuel stuck in city traffic jams, and traffic emissions would be halved or lower already.

In relation to the wider subject matter, I wouldn't be at all surprised to find the real world risk of fire events is also the lowest in hybrids because a percentage of hybrids are on safer battery technologies.

Most of the hard line push for one technology or the other is about profit, not about emissions reduction.

I read the other day that if we'd combined SolarPV / Battery or Solar Thermal with exiting coal fired power station infrastructure we could have dramatically slashed emissions but it's not so profitable for big business and political will is weak. The trick it seems is that when you have a diversity of solutions you get the ability to make the best flexible use of every technology without compromise. The various apparatchiks for each technology want their preferred option to be the sole solution at any price.

[Thryleon]

Buy the car you like and you'll love it whether it's EV or not.  I've never been happier with a car purchase since I picked up my vw arteon.  It looks and feels great to drive.

[ElwoodBlues1]

I've been driving a Kia Sportage Hybrid for the past 5 weeks.

5.2L/100km (35% less than equivalent non-hybrid) and a full tank range of 860km.

I think I have the best of both worlds.......

I liked the look of the Turbo Diesel Sportage, think I read it did 5.4km on the hwy. Thought for less money than the Hybrid  it was the value pick in the Sportage range  being AWD and having a bit more grunt than the hybrid.

[DJC]

Ms DJC has had a Toyota C-HR for almost seven years.  It’s an AWD and handles our dirt roads very well and, as a bonus, gets around 5l/100km. 

A hybrid model was released a few years ago but its fuel consumption isn’t that much better than the IC model.

My 79 series is coming for its 7th birthday too.  Its 4.5l V8 is a bit thirstier than the C-HR but 11-12l/100km isn’t bad for the work it does.  Apparently it’s worth considerably more than what I paid for it, but I’ll believe that if it happens.

[tonyo]

I liked the look of the Turbo Diesel Sportage, think I read it did 5.4km on the hwy. Thought for less money than the Hybrid  it was the value pick in the Sportage range  being AWD and having a bit more grunt than the hybrid.

My previous was an AWD Turbo diesel sportage.  Great car, but in reality, 8L/100km for city driving.  The 5.2 I am getting in the hybrid is around town - that's the most surprising thing about hybrids, they actually give better mileage in the city than on the open road.

This new one has as much if not more poke than the Diesel (since it can use electric and turbo petrol motors in combination).  The idea behind FWD only was to improve fuel economy.  Haven't really noticed any deficit in handling due to FWD vs AWD, since Kia's AWD is not full-time, it is on demand.

Don't get me wrong, the turbo diesel Sportage is a fantastic car, but the hybrid is something else.....

[DJC]

I was listening to the wireless the other day when the motoring program came on.  The usual expert (Toby Hagon I think) was talking about the influx of cheaper Chinese EVs and the impact they’re starting to have on car sales.

A talkback caller asked about the Chinese EVs being used for surveillance and intelligence gathering.  To my surprise, Toby agreed with the caller and proceeded to itemise the ways that modern vehicles could be used to collect information about their drivers and what gets caught on dash cams.  AI means that it’s now possible to process all of that data in the hope of gleaning something useful.

I’m sure that bad actors and other nefarious characters will be licking their lips in anticipation of finding out what I’m up to.  Good thing the 79 Series has bugger all in the way of electronics ?