If/when most transport is electric powered it will likely be more efficient to provide the power source from outside of the vehicle, so we may see cars with smaller batteries for the commute to/from the powered routes.
,
Jul 19, 8:01am
The fire risk from petrol is much higher.
fordcrzy,
Jul 20, 7:18am
theres a guy on youtube who loves teslas and buys up damaged ones. the repair prices quoted for simple stuff is INSANE. really small accident damage can write a tesla off when itd be a sub $1500 on a normal car
nzdoug,
Jul 20, 7:31am
Add Toyota, how can you go wrong? 🚙🎸☀ï¸
trade4us2,
Jul 20, 8:34am
I have helped to put out a 3 metre high petrol fire in the engine of a VW Kombie, using water. Water from fire engines will not put out a fire in a Tesla.
lusty9,
Jul 20, 8:49am
but foam will, my son works for the fire service and says, they're ready for any fire be it from combustion engines or EV vehicles.
intrade,
Jul 20, 8:58am
Ldv have a electric van come out you can practice 🔥 extinguisher on them soon enough. . If the quality is as there other crap.
apollo11,
Jul 20, 9:25am
Recommended procedure in the 'States is to allow the fire to burn itself out. Too much risk of re-ignition apparently.
harm_less,
Jul 20, 7:35pm
There was probably a similar concern as people transitioned from horse transport to vehicles that require highly flammable hydocarbon fuels. The situation seemed to work itself out though.
lusty9,
Jul 21, 1:26am
my son said he finds that hard to believe, foam dampens it down giving enough time to save occupants, who cares what the fire does afterward.
,
Jul 21, 4:54am
Except that EV's are far less likely to catch fire in the first place, and they also burn very slowly. Petrol goes up like. petrol.
blogzy,
Jul 21, 5:47am
Having to replace batteries every few years is trouble (expensive) in my view.
apollo11,
Jul 21, 5:55am
Yeah, you get the occupants out and then leave the car to burn. There have been issues with cars reigniting (sometimes several hours later) when the fire looked like it was well and truly out. There is no way of knowing if the remaining cells still retain charge and are likely to ignite at a later stage.
apollo11,
Jul 21, 5:56am
You don't have to. For Tesla at least the batteries should last the life of the car.
3tomany,
Jul 21, 6:01am
Yes very true everything is sound deadened. That foam inside the tyres is another thing to dispose of and a puncture may not be able to be repaired because of all the foam stuck to the inside if the tyre.
apollo11,
Jul 21, 6:38am
Yeah I watched a youtube clip where no tyre shops wanted to repair a tesla tyre. You have to cut the foam away from the damaged area, sort the puncture and then re-glue the foam. What a pain in the arse.
framtech,
Jul 21, 8:37am
Only issue Ive know of is they don't have an alternator and the battery goes flat.
,
Jul 21, 8:49am
The savings on operating costs even on a first generation car (which have the worst batteries) more than pay for the cost of the whole vehicle. My car is free just operating costs alone after 2.5 years of ownership on a $12000 car. The battery is now 7 years old and still does around 100km on a charge. The car costs around $1.70 per 100km to run with pretty much no maintenance. There's no way a petrol or diesel car can match it. Newer cars are even better, naturally as the technology improves.
blogzy,
Jul 21, 4:01pm
So at seven years your battery must be getting close to replacement. What is replacement cost ?
,
Jul 21, 5:44pm
No, it depends on range requirements so probably 3 years or so for my usage. I can get it replaced here in Christchurch for $4500 NZ at the moment. In 3 years it'll be much cheaper, Nissan will do it for $2800 USD in Japan now. In 3 years the car will have saved me about $25k at 2016 fuel prices so you can see that from a financial point of view if you commute a decent distance to work each day they are awesome. Also much better to drive than your average jap hatch.
strobo,
Jul 21, 6:37pm
Nothing like being duped by false positives !
intrade,
Jul 21, 7:21pm
we debunked that 1.70 to charge cost more then once it is more like 5$ to 6 bux per 100km in the non fictonal world and at least 4 to 5 in auckland who seem to have the Lowest power price and lowest line charges.
harm_less,
Jul 21, 7:35pm
About $4/100km for a Nissan Leaf if you're paying full retail price for your electricity but most EV owners pay a lot less than that by using off-peak rates (e.g. Ecotricity) or their own generation (PV, etc). And very few moving parts compared to a fossil fuel vehicle so minimal maintenance costs.
apollo11,
Jul 21, 8:02pm
I'd probably spent the extra ten grand on some solar panels if I bought an ev. We are paying 30 cents per kilowatt here, so it would cost me around $30 to 'refuel' a Tesla from the 'grid.
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