EV Battery Fires Do not Bode Nicely For Forecast Gross sales – Watts Up With That?

Germany could set a trend by not allowing electric cars to park underground

from Ronald Stein

Ambassador for Energy and Infrastructure, Irvine, California

The recent news of EV battery fires bodes ill for California Governor Newsom’s order to ban gas-powered vehicle sales by 2035.

The Bolt, the only electric vehicle GM sells in North America, has been “linked to at least nine fires” since early 2020, and Hyundai’s vehicles have been involved in about 15 fires. Meanwhile, three Teslas have gone up in flames in the past four months. So far, 27 EV batteries are firing and still counting.

Firefighters may need 30,000 to 40,000 liters of water to contain a Tesla electric vehicle (EV) than they would normally use on a mainstream gasoline car that was on fire.

General Motors announced in August 2021 that they are recalling 73,000 Chevrolet Bolt EVs in addition to the 70,000 bolts made between 2017 and 2019. Fixed all 143,000 of the bolts that were recalled due to fire hazard to replace new battery modules Morningstar analyst David Whiston told the Detroit Free Press that it could cost GM around $ 1.8 billion.

Another “hit” in these potential EV sales forecasts is the German one Trend of the ban on parking electric vehicles in the underground car park due to potential fires of electric vehicle batteries.

In 2020, a Couple from California awoke to a loud car alarm and a burning house. The fire had started in one of the two Tesla S vehicles in their garage and spread to the other.

The culprit in almost all electric vehicle fires are the lithium-ion batteries, which provide them with energy and which burn with extraordinary violence. In addition to the fire and heat hazard emanating from these events, there are also extreme emissions of toxic fluoride gases. Corresponding a study, these fumes can be a major threat, especially in confined spaces where people are present.

Because lithium-ion fires are a chemical reaction they can only be cooled not extinguished. In some cases, they burn for several days. There was extensive damage to a parking garage in Germany. So it decided on this German parking garage, ban all electrified vehicles from the underground car park. This includes hybrids, PHEVs and EVs, regardless of whether they contain lithium-ion or nickel-metal hydride batteries.

Most California electric vehicles are currently owned by people on incomes higher than the working poor. These wealthier owners have better access to private garages in their homes to charge their electric vehicles, or access to charging points in new apartments with underground parking. Beware of the wind: parking in closed areas of garages and underground parking garages may not be the best place to park electric vehicles.

While many in California see the rapid growth of “Energy poverty“What makes California’s economic recovery from the pandemic even more difficult, the state has 18 million (45 percent of 40 million Californians) who have the Hispanic and African American Population of the state.

The working poor need workhorses. For current electric vehicle owners, the state’s limited electric vehicle use is just over 5,000 miles per year, reflecting that the electric vehicle is a second vehicle for those who can afford it and not the family workhorse.

As Pew Research reported in June, “In each of the past three years, electric vehicles accounted for approximately 2% of the US new car market.“There are many reasons why electric cars don’t hit consumers by the exhaust pipe, but the most important ones are affordability and functionality.

Electric cars are still a luxury product that attracts the Benz and Beemer people, not the low and middle income consumers. The average household income for electric vehicle buyers is about $ 140,000. That’s about almost double the US median, so about $ 63,000.

From this limited elite group of owners, there is a growing percentage of California EV users who switch back to gasoline cars, which sends a message that could further weaken the growth projections for electric vehicles.

Germany was the first country to go “green,” and now they, not California, are setting the trend not to park electric vehicles in confined spaces.

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