By now most people who have either owned an electric vehicle or done some research on them know all about how terribly unreliable they can be in cold weather. Limited travel range, overall battery drainage and massive charging issues when the temperatures drop. They are simply not fit for purpose. And when considering how dangerous these problems can be out there on the road in real-time, as well as all the other safety issues with electric vehicles not cold weather related, it's a no brainer. Do not waste your hard earned money on one of these potential death traps. But that's enough from me, watch the video below by MGUY Australia for a quick and informative overview of what to expect from an EV in minus temperatures.
Some comments from the video
Architect here. The added danger of EVs catching fire and being nearly impossible to put out has not gone unnoticed. Building codes are looking at restricting the number of EVs allowed in parking garages and building fire enclosures around the charging area.
What a pain. Why would anyone want to inflict EV ownership on their lives? Isn't life challenging enough already?
They say to keep the EV battery last longer, you can only charge to 70% capacity, now in cold winter, you must keep that for at least 20-30% before next charge. It means that you can only have 40-50% of the capacity for the winter, and most of the capacity will be drained by heating rather than mileage. Current EVs are not for cold places for sure.
Electric cars have been heralded as the future of sustainable transportation, promising reduced emissions and decreased reliance on fossil fuels [forget about the devastating impact on the Earth that EVs take to produce and dispose of]. However, recent data suggests a potential downtrend in electric car sales in America. The reasons behind this drop are suspected to be various. But factors talked about below, such as market saturation, limited charging infrastructure, decreasing federal incentives, and consumer preferences all have a part to play.
Market saturation plays a significant role in the downtrend of electric car sales in America. Initially, the introduction of electric vehicles (EVs) garnered considerable attention and excitement. But as the number of electric car models and brands on the market increased, not only did the negative aspects to EVs start to appear, but consumers also became overwhelmed with choice.
Video: An interesting news report by CNBC which goes through some of the reasons for the sales drop, and talks to some experts in the car industry who have some very valid points and concerns.
The limited charging infrastructure in America [As well as in the UK] remains a significant issue hindering the widespread adoption of electric vehicles. While strides have been made in infrastructure development, including public charging stations, there is still a prominent lack of accessibility compared to conventional petrol [gasoline] stations. This concern leads to 'range anxiety' among potential buyers, who, rightfully fear being stranded without a charging option on long journeys. The lack of convenient charging stations outside urban areas may deter potential consumers from committing to an electric car purchase.
Another crucial factor contributing to the downtrend in electric car sales is the decreasing federal incentives. For a number of years, the federal government incentivized the adoption of EVs through tax credits and other forms of financial assistance.
But the diminishing scale and limited time-frame of these incentives have made electric vehicles less appealing to cost-conscious consumers. A decline in financial benefits may have resulted in potential customers waiting for better deals or delaying their purchase altogether, contributing to the observed downtrend in sales.
Consumer preferences heavily influence the sales performance of electric vehicles. Despite increasing environmental awareness, many buyers remain focused on factors such as pricing, safety, and range capabilities.
Gasoline-powered vehicles generally offer a wider variety of models, often with good acceleration and longer ranges, meeting the demands of buyers seeking performance and convenience. Economic uncertainty and the higher initial cost of electric cars may also further deter price-sensitive consumers from embracing this relatively new technology.
The dealerships in the US don't really seem to help the situation much either. Many potential buyers complain about dealers adding extortionate amounts of money on top of the average retail price, making people even more hesitant to part with their cash in fear they are being ripped off.
As well as a downtrend in electric car sales in America, there's also talk about the situation being very similar in Europe. And I wouldn't be surprised to also find out that its close to the same in the UK.
Scary video footage from a restaurant shows the moment a Tesla, which is believed to be a model 3, goes past at breakneck speed before crashing. One person died and 20 others were injured, 3 seriously. What was the reason for the car to be travelling at such a high rate of speed? Some say the driver was speeding, others claim his foot hit the wrong pedal, which doesn't seem plausible at all. Especially when the driver of the car, which was a Taxi, has 30 years of experience as a Taxi driver.
Tesla has responded and said there was no sign of technical fault / malfunction with the car. However, many people are suspicious and think the fault lies with the car. The driver of the Tesla said the car accelerated on its own and the brakes would not work. This is not hard to believe at all. Just take a look at one of the lists of Sudden Unintended Acceleration complaints submitted to the NHTSA. Sudden Unintended Acceleration is a known problem.
It's obvious that G7, the Paris taxi company the driver works for, also thinks the issue may be with the car. After the crash they put the use of their 37 Tesla Model 3 cars on hold. That says it all really. The Taxi driver involved in this accident has filed a law suit against Tesla. The reputation of Tesla's safety has been under fire for quite some time now, and it doesn't seem to be getting any better as the years roll by; with news reports, complaints submitted by owners and videos of incidents becoming commonplace.
A recent report by Madeleine Cuff of the "I" newspaper — Twitter @theipaper has revealed that there are not enough Electric Vehicle charging points in the UK to keep up with the large increase in electric car sales. As a result, waiting times at some of the UK's most used charging points are starting to quickly show the urgent need for a fast roll out of more charging points. Sales of EVs has risen sharply in the UK, but charging point installations have been much slower off the mark, leading to an EV car Vs Charging point disparity, as well as frustration for a lot of EV drivers.
An EV charging point in Sutton Coldfield, West Midlands, UK.
Within the first seven months of 2022, there was a little under 128,000 new Electric Vehicles driving on UK streets. That's an increase of 50% compared to the previous year. Tally that with the amount of new charging points that were added in the same first seven months of 2022, which was approximately 4800, and you can see there is a huge imbalance.
According to Ginny Buckley [Electrifying.com], there are more charging points in Westminster alone than in the West Midlands. Spending a lot of time in the West Midlands myself and knowing it well, I find that very hard to believe because the West Midlands is huge compared to Westminster.
However, I'm sure Ginny has done the research and has all the data, so there is no reason to doubt the findings. But this is so disproportionate [that's a land comparison of 21.47 Km² for Westminster Vs 902 Km² for the West Midlands], that unless everyone in Westminster drives an EV, and that number is much higher than the amount of people who own EVs in all of the West Midlands combined [very unlikely], it does seem like there is some favouritism for certain locations going on here.
All in all, It's the drivers of EVs who are the losers. They switch to Electric Autos thinking the grass is greener and they are doing there bit for the environment, but all they get in return is a longer wait time at the plugs than they would have gotten at the petrol / diesel pumps. Also worth thinking about. With energy prices rising, how long will it be before many of the free charging points around the UK are no longer free.
Electric cars are taking over the automobile industry and transforming transport worldwide. These cars are powered by battery systems and run on renewable energy sources such as hydrogen or batteries. Many countries and states have made switching to electric cars the norm. The ones that haven't yet are trying to. One of these states is California, which has a high number of Tesla cars sold compared to other states. The state’s reason for having so many electric cars is due to the clean energy source used by these vehicles and the premium paid for these vehicles by consumers.
Tesla uses rechargeable lithium-ion battery packs to power its electric vehicles; this, supposedly, reduces the amount of CO2 emissions produced by vehicle production. Some reports disagree. It also reduces fuel consumption. In addition, the company sells its cars at a premium compared to other auto brands because it produces fewer vehicles and owns its own factories— which increases efficiency. Shame this doesn't appear to translate into more overall reliability compared to other, non electric luxury car brands around the same price.
However, this makes it possible for Tesla to produce more electric cars than there are currently owned; this results in more sales and more buyers purchasing a Tesla car. Other auto manufacturers that produce hybrid or electric vehicles also produce fewer units than there are owned but they cannot increase sales unless they reduce costs and prices of their models in favor of consumers.
The cost of owning a Tesla car is significantly higher than that of other cars in the industry due to proprietary technology used in manufacturing its vehicles as well as due to supporting renewable energy systems for powering its cars. In addition, owning a Tesla car requires an owner who is tech-savvy enough to operate their vehicle without difficulties— this includes having access to charging stations and knowing how to charge their car’s battery pack at home or at work. And, of course, knowing about the safety features of the car, which are of key importance should an accident happen.
Due to the clean energy system used by a Tesla car, owners can drive longer distances on less charge than they would with a regular gasoline-powered vehicle without damaging their car’s battery pack or setting off government pollution inspection systems.
California is one of the top markets for Teslas sold as it provides favorable laws for regulating transportation using electric vehicles as well as charging infrastructure for these vehicles. In addition, residents in this state can afford luxury transportation without impacting their finances due to price premiums offered by Tesla owners compared to non-owners.
Furthermore, some cities in California are trying to ban gas stations that supply gasoline-powered automobiles [petrol and diesel] due to "climate change" and since there are so many clean energy-powered auto alternatives available today. This is wrong in my opinion. Electric cars are very expensive, so most people will either have to get themselves into debt to have access to an electric vehicle, via finance or bank loan, or be restricted to relying on public transport.
Based on factors such as production methods, price, charging methods and alternative energy sources used, California has many more Teslas sold compared with other states that have greater numbers of electric cars available today. Additionally, given that some cities worldwide are trying to ban gasoline-powered autos entirely from certain areas due to health concerns [Washington USA, Oslo Norway, Madrid Spain, Milan Italy and many other European cities] related to engine exhausts causing air pollution, we can see how favorable public opinion has made California a hotspot for electric car ownership.
It's no secret that electric cars are potentially at risk of catching fire. There have been many reports over the years of such incidents taking place. Of course, thanks to being filled with flammable liquid, and having a boat load of electrics themselves, normal combustable engine cars are not immune from catching fire either. It's a regular occurrence.
No vehicle is 100% safe, regardless of what power source it has. But for a car brand that claims to have the "safest cars in the world", with such low numbers of Tesla cars on the road in comparison to normal cars, and with the manner in which Tesla cars seem to be catching fire, sudden and mostly unpredictable, this is very concerning. And very dangerous.
Seems like if a Tesla does catch fire, its not long before the car is turned into a fireball. There are some serious safety issues and design flaws with the batteries and other aspects of Tesla cars that really need to be addressed before more lives are lost.
Self Driving
In the past year in America alone, there have been 273 known crashes involving self driving Tesla cars. If you want to read some figures, take a look at some of the known Tesla Fire records and a record of some known Tesla accidents resulting in death [fault and not at fault].
Door Handles
The door handles of a Tesla retract into the body of the door when the car is in operation. In the event of an emergency, such as an accident, these handles are meant to pop out automatically, but there have been cases where that did not happen. Needless to say, if such an error occurs, fleeing the vehicle is made much harder, and anyone attempting to rescue people from the car from the outside can not do so in an effective amount of time.
There was one such case where this exact situation happened to named Omar Awan, a doctor who lived in the USA. He was killed in the crash. Basically burned to death. It was discovered that he had been driving under the influence of alcohol, and many people found it hard to sympathise once this was revealed. No one likes a driver who's putting innocent lives at risk.
However, this doesn't remove the serious issue of the door handles not operating as they should in an emergency. If they did Omar Awan may have been saved. There were bystanders [conflicting reports of either bystanders or fire men] outside the car who tried to open the doors from the outside, but were apparently unable to find the handles which had not popped out.
Tesla said it themselves. The handles won't operate if the power is suddenly cut in the vehicle. This means if there is a total loss of power nothing works anymore as the vehicle is entirely electric. This is a huge design flaw and extremely dangerous in the event of an emergency situation.
Laminated / hard to break windows
In the same crash the bystanders also tried to break the windows, but could not do so because the windows are laminated and could not be broken. Sometimes even normal window glass can be hard to break, so laminated glass being fitted in such a potentially volatile environment, where everything is dependant on electric, and if that electric fails , or even worse catches fire, the occupants of that vehicle are sitting on top of Lithium batteries that burn at up to 2,000 degrees Celsius/3632 degrees Fahrenheit.
It doesn't seem like a good idea to fit disappearing door handles that may not pop out and toughened window glass into such a vehicle. I know that the doors can be released manually from inside the car, but for some models the door release lever is fairly well hidden and easily forgotten. And for the back seat passengers the location for the manual door release on most Telsa models would be extremely difficult to locate as its so well hidden.
There is little to no chance that someone would just happen to find it in an emergency if a person has not been told exactly where it was beforehand. Or had not spent time reading the relevant pages of the manual for that specific vehicle model. It gets worse. One model seems to not even have manual back door levers. Tesla's model 3 ERG states that there is no mechanical release for the rear doors.
Going back to the front seat occupants. What if the person inside the vehicle forgets the location, is unconscious, trapped / stuck, or in a state of extreme panic. What options does this leave a potential rescuer who can't open a door or smash a window. Given how fast these cars are swallowed by flames once a fire has started, seconds are vital.
Another incident that springs to mind, where luckily no one was seriously injured or worse. A man was driving his Tesla in Vancouver when it suddenly lost all power and caught fire, trapping the occupant inside. All the doors were locked on the vehicle and the car was filling up with smoke. He literally had to kick the laminated window out. You can watch the video here [embedding not allowed]. Imagine the panic of getting trapped like that, and just think if this was an elderly or disabled person, a woman with kids in the back, or a man who didn't have the strength to kick the window out. This could have easily been another fatality.
Two comments on that video which I think should be quoted:
"If you crash in an EV, the count down for being burnt to death starts right away. You might not even notice it since the fire doesn't come from the engine room in the front like traditional vehicles. Just get out first if you crash. I personally won't buy EVs as long as they're carrying the lithium ion flame buster underneath."
"Wow, this is the most greenest car tech I ever saw for 2035 and beyond, The best way to increase the CO2 emissions along with lithium and other toxic hazardous waste to the environment, it also becomes an excellent death trap for any occupants inside and can act as a rolling coffin for the bonus of autopilot. There´s a real lesson for this, Better to stay with a proven technology of gas/diesel powered cars than sorry tech of electric vehicles, these are rolling failures for sure."
Overall this paints a scary picture. If I owned a Tesla, I would never buy one, but if I did, I certainly wouldn't be driving a Tesla with the window(s) fully up most of the time just incase the worst should happen and a sharp exit is needed.
After reading the data and seeing how many issues can arise that can be life threatening, one of those being how at least one of the lithium batteries can end up damaged from something as simple as driving over a speed bump a bit too quickly. Oh, but the driver shouldn't be speeding or driving fast over speed bumps I hear you say. Well, they might not have been intentionally.
You see, speeding may not be the fault of the driver at all due to the potential for sudden unintended acceleration with Tesla cars [there are many reports of this], and, if this happens going over a speed bump or hitting a pot hole, it may lead to the battery becoming damaged and catching fire.
This one issue doesn't even scratch the surface to be honest. The overall safety of Tesla cars is just too controversial. Lots of data appears to have gone unrecorded / unreported, and there are also suspicions of coverups and bogus claims. But from what is reported, there are too many cars malfunctioning, catching fire and, more worryingly, way too many deaths associated with Tesla cars.
Take a look at this interesting report: Tesla driver fatality rate is more than triple that of other luxury cars. They are not worth all the hassle, and really should not have been available for sale to the public for at least another decade. Or, at least until many of the dangers have been addressed and eliminated. Also, the repair costs and insurance premiums are ridiculously high for a Tesla, and for full electric cars in general.
Furthermore, if an electric car does catch fire it takes much more water to put the fire out [4,500 - 8000 gallons] due to the high voltage lithium-ion batteries, which can stay extremely hot for a long period of time once they go into thermal runaway [out-of-control self-heating]. Compare that to under or around 1,000 gallons, which is what the average petrol powered car takes to extinguish. Kind of ironic given that Tesla's biggest market in America is California, where there is an apparent water shortage.
In my opinion, Tesla cars appear to have many similarities and characteristics to that of a bunch of prototype cars that shouldn't be anywhere near the public at this stage of their design. Sadly, many people have died as a result of fast tracking these prototypes to the market place when they clearly weren't and still aren't ready.
Well, yet another Tesla electric car goes up in smoke just sitting there. The car, which was dropped at the Tesla dealership for a service / maintenance was parked up when it apparently burst into flames. This happened in Fort Lauderdale, Florida. It's a good job that the person who owns the car took it in when they did and it was parked outside the dealership at the time it caught fire. Imagine this happening when the car was parked in their garage at home.
Flooding is a nightmare for electric vehicles. Lithium batteries are dangerous. They are prone to igniting without warning. There have been many reported cases. Add water into the mix and it makes things even more unpredictable. Also, once an EV catches fire, they take a huge amount of water to distinguish. Much more than a normal petrol or diesel car requires.
The temperatures lithium batteries burn at also far exceeds the temperatures reached in petrol and diesel vehicles that catch fire. Lithium batteries can burn @ up to 2,000 degrees Celsius. Making them even more dangerous is the fact that even when the fire has been put out in an electric car that uses lithium batteries, they are known to reignite again some time later.
