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jcdammeyer said:
For the system to work the medical appointment location will also have charging facilities. So now you are looking at a two hour drive in one direction.
The fear of Lithium systems is because they don't work well below zero. It's handled by heating the batteries. But not well addressed, IMHO, is what to do with a car that had fully charged batteries but now the temperature is at -40C.

You normally cannot take significant current out of a battery until it's above -20C and even there it's only a small amount. The way we did it below -20C is start a generator or apply external power to heat the pack up to -20C so that then the system could run. The heaters continued on up until 0C at which point then the batteries were allowed to be charged.
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Except that half the time I can't find a parking space and am left circling or running a few errands. How much charge could a person expect out of a 1/2 hr appointment if one was lucky enough to park at an unoccupied charging station? Having been stuck on the wrong side of accidents etc for up to 8hrs at a time, trying to stay warm with enough battery to get home scares the crap out of me.
Probably, mostly, my biggest fear is change, I don't like change much......:(
 
Susquatch said:
Yup, lithium is high fire risk even outside.

I'll have to send a note to a few old colleagues to see what the stats are today. I'm guessing the entire industry is pulling their hair out. Back in my day 3 of every 5 vehicle fires were remote start related. 1 out of 5 was some after market accessory.

Bottom line is that unattended high current is a higher risk than I'd accept. It's kind of like going to bed right after doing some welding. Not a good plan.
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Actually the problem is not so much that EVs catch on fire more often - the problem is you cannot put the fire out... With gasoline car putting fire is easy.... with EV... it can by HOURS of pouring water on it. Heck - it can still go on fire the next day (!!)

I had some small 18650 batteries go nuts ... lets just say its like a mini missile going off! Lots of stored energy.

You can watch some videos of poor fire fighters having to deal with EV fire. Its a really big problem.
 
Tom Kitta said:
Actually the problem is not so much that EVs catch on fire more often - the problem is you cannot put the fire out...
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Yes, I corrected my post after contacting a current industry expert. EV fires are actually fewer. I don't really understand why that should be, but apparently they are. The problem is that the fires are much worse to deal with.
 
jcdammeyer said:
Why are you skeptical?
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Winter, and heat

I don’t see an EV doing well at -30 for any length of time

And there aren’t enough places to get fuel in Canada, now. I can’t see how there will magically be charging stations when we already don’t have infrastructure in place to support diesel powered vehicles. There’s plenty of places in Canada where 400 miles of no fuel is common

It’s hilarious seeing EV charging stations in northern Ontario small towns that never get used, someone somewhere decided to invest in them without actually doing any research
 
Tom Kitta said:
Actually the problem is not so much that EVs catch on fire more often - the problem is you cannot put the fire out... With gasoline car putting fire is easy.... with EV... it can by HOURS of pouring water on it. Heck - it can still go on fire the next day (!!)

I had some small 18650 batteries go nuts ... lets just say its like a mini missile going off! Lots of stored energy.

You can watch some videos of poor fire fighters having to deal with EV fire. Its a really big problem.
Click to expand...
I've had a broken Laptop battery ignited in my hand (I didn't snap it in half but someone who I know did, long story not to be told) as I was trying to put it in a fire safe location. The small piece (about 2" x 2" x 1/4" ) that burned up went up so fast that by the time it hit the concrete the flames where 3-4ft high. Nothing left but ash and a couple of melt blobs.

Batteries store a lot of energy and when released, release a lot of energy.

Lucky I got it onto concrete.
 
Chicken lights said:
Winter, and heat

I don’t see an EV doing well at -30 for any length of time

And there aren’t enough places to get fuel in Canada, now. I can’t see how there will magically be charging stations when we already don’t have infrastructure in place to support diesel powered vehicles. There’s plenty of places in Canada where 400 miles of no fuel is common

It’s hilarious seeing EV charging stations in northern Ontario small towns that never get used, someone somewhere decided to invest in them without actually doing any research
Click to expand...

Yeah, battery chemistry is not good for very cold - at -40C batteries are dead and at -15C or so you cannot charge them anymore - need to heat them up first. Electricity is also not easy to move around or store - not as easy as gasoline anyways.

On the other hand, inside of cities such as Calgary most problems can be handled but with use of energy. So EV would be stored in a garage or constantly connected so its battery is kept warm when temps dip. Global warming ensures temps do not go too low for too long. Certainly some trips would be very difficult to do - say winter excursion to the ice fields with a weekend fun of skiing - not exactly EV friendly thing to do.

EVs also are not good off road - I know manufacturers add a plate to the bottom but any harder off roading means there is a good chance of puncturing the plate and the battery - lets say you better have truck ejection seats installed or you will cook. Puncture friendly batteries exist but need more lab work.

EVs or similar tech is definitely the future but we are not quite there for all of Earth's climates - especially challenging ones like Canada. Same with self driving ability that is decades away from being implemented on more global aspect.
 
Tom Kitta said:
Actually you can do this with F-150EV and it provides a lot of power. Many other EVs as well but F-150 is a lot - 30 amp 240v.
Supposedly other gas powered F-150s also have 240v.
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Brilliant idea by Ford. Makes for a great backup generator, it's there when you need it home or away and you don't have to worry about old gas in the tank or running out of gas (small tank)
 
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