Electric cars will waste lots and lots of water if they catch fire

How many gasoline fed cars on the road did it take to compensate for one car that caught fire back in the early 1900's? Because cars caught fire back then didn't mean they panicked and decided to stay with horse and buggy. They learned and fixed the problems and moved forward to what we have today. At some point the oil used to create gasoline will be exhausted and if we sit on our butts and do nothing to utilize and develop new technology, we will likely be going back to the days of horse and buggy.

 

Some companies make extinguishers for lithium batteries that cool the battery as it extinguishes the fire. Here is one such company https://www.avdfire.com/

 

I think those extinguishers only work if the fire is caught early. What are the chances you're going to wake up when your car is charging all night and it suddenly catches fire?
Once the fire has grown in size and the whole big battery has caught on fire, I'm thinking it's going to take a much bigger extinguisher tank than that.

It might work fine for a laptop fire, but long-range electric cars are going to contain a whole lot more lithium. Nowhere in that link did I see any mention that that extinguisher is designed specifically for electric car fires.

 

Read this link which will give you the information you need to properly extinguish an electric car (Tesla) fire. This includes the car battery as well.


Tesla on fire: How to extinguish an electric car fire (firerescue1.com)

 

If you click on the button that says "What is AVD" and then scroll down the page you will see that it is not a little fire extinguisher only technology and if you scroll down the home page you will see it is listed for automotive fires. It appears to be just another type of AFFF. A lot of fire departments already have foam systems on board their trucks, so I doubt that say replacing Class B with the type foam would really be a significant technological barrier. Hell, this stuff is probably safer than A/B foams.

 

Ironic ILLOGICAL allegation of yours since NO ONE has been FORCED to either own an EV or set them on fire.

Do YOU ever READ what you post?

Asinine STRAWMAN again?

I was exposing the HYPOCRISY about the amount of water used for a handful of car fires while you IGNORE the BILLIONS of gallons of water WASTED on golf courses.

Sad!

 

The problem with electric cars have always been power storage. From what I understand, its the battery that causes them to catch fire. In fact, there is a lot of technology that we are simply waiting for a jump in portable power storage to take off. Capacitor banks are looking like an interesting solution right now.

 

The possibility of batteries catching on fire is remote. The limitations are range needing electricity to charge it and battery life these limitations have not gone away they're still as present now as they ever have been.

 

By "we", do you mean individual consumers, or the government "making" individual consumers make the "right" choice?

 

Yes, that's true.

A lot of the people that are trying to push this have no understanding of science. It just seems like a good idea to them. Most people are not using logic or math, they're just adopting the belief from someone else.

Even a lot of engineers and some scientists are saying battery-powered electric cars may not be the best option, and we should be looking at other technologies.

 

Thats true, but we have better batteries today and we keep improving them. If we continue to do so, eventually a bank of batteries (or perhaps a bank of ultracapacitors) will have the same energy storage capacity per weight and volume as a tank of gasoline, and even the same time required to recharge. Given the other mechanical benefits electric already has over ICE, such as the lack of a need for a transmission, lower weight/power/torque ratio and fewer moving parts, its likely that electric will become the preffered mode of transportation. We've still a long way to go to get there, but we're a bit closer to it with every innovation.

My favorite thing about electric is the increased self sufficiency of it. The financial and material investment required to generate my own electricity is substantially (by orders of magnitude really) lower than that required to generate my own gasoline. When used electric trucks become as cheap and plentiful as used ICE trucks, I will buy one if for no other purpose than having one more option for reliable transportation in a 'grid down' situation.

 

doubtful electric vehicles fell out of favor around 1900 and they've been struggling with the same limitations ever since

their lack of self-sufficiency is why I don't like them you have to have a power grid and if your electricity is off due to too much demand which we're having problems with in some areas then you are not self-sufficient. It's dependency that's why I don't like them.

I doubt there will be a large market for used ones if I'm going to pay 50 grand for an electric vehicle I'm going to drive it until it dies which will be 7 to 10 years.

You wouldn't have an option for grid down you need power grid to charge these things.

 

I didn't get a Tesla because it might or might not be eco-friendly. I bought a Tesla because they kick butt and I could afford one.

 

I don't have any problem if you choose to get a Tesla. As long as no one was coercing or forcing you.

Right now in some states like California they're telling car dealers they have to sell a certain percentage of electric cars.
That ends up subsidizing the cost for electric car buyers at the expense of other car buyers, since obviously dealers will be forced to raise prices on normal car buyers to cover their losses on electric cars consumers would prefer not to be buying.

 

I don't live in the PRC so no, no one force me.

 

You missed the whole point. The government shouldn't be forcing something on people, especially when it's very questionable how much alleged social benefit that thing actually has.

If people and private businesses want to adopt something on their own accord, they're welcome to.

Saying something might not be so environmentally friendly is one thing.
But government forcing things on people for the reason of it being environmentally friendly, when it might not be so environmentally friendly as claimed, is another thing.

 

You can charge them off solar panels, wind turbines, waterwheels, a generator (gas, diesel, propane, w/e)... be a little creative. Virtually nobody can make their own gasoline... Diesel combustion is still a good choice too, because it can run on several different types of oil with little or no modification, but even cooking oil and transmission fluid will run out eventually.

 

All of which requires a grid unless you're really wealthy.

you'll have to replace your battery powered car probably more often than a vehicle than internal combustion engine. Do the primary vehicle because they are better.

 

No it doesn't. Any charging system that can put out 110V will charge a tesla (and presumably any standard EV). For example, a 1600W portable gasoline generator (the ones that are about the size of large suitcase) will charge a tesla in a day or two. This would be kinda dumb, I'm just using it as a familiar example. But those can be had for around $500 new (less if bought used). A tesla could be charged with a single portable solar panel (which is less than $100), tho it would probably need to charge something that could run a 110V inverter ( $100-$200) which would be any standard car battery (preferably deep cycle, ~$100). So we'll say a $400 minimum investment to charge a Tesla with solar. With one panel, it would take months to charge a tesla from 'empty' to 'full' but it would work. More panels = faster charging. Charging a Tesla for daily use would indeed be prohibitively expensive, requiring something like 60 to 80 portable solar panels in an array. But in a grid down situation, how much driving are you expecting to do? A small array of panels would prolly get you a few hours per week of driving for around $1000. Assuming you're not Mad Max, that should be plenty.

 

in four days it will be fully charged.

Why not just put the gasoline in a fuel efficient car. Then you don't have to buy a generator and a $60k car. You can buy a used Honda or Toyota for a fraction of that cost.

In the worst visible way that would take forever.

60K for the car and 100k for the solar panels. Plus replacing the car every decade. I'd just try and make a regular car work.

With a Tesla you'd only have the option for a couple of years. Lithium ion batteries have a life span

But you could probably still buy gasoline if the power grid was down none of it requires electricity.

 

If the grid is down, no one will be processing or transporting gasoline because the economy will have collapsed. People driving to try to find food will use up existing gasoline very quickly. Even stored and well-hidden gasoline, unless unethanolized, will go bad in 6 months to a year. Those with EVs and a way to charge them, even if that charge is extremely slow, will be driving long after the gas runs out and/or goes bad. Tesla recomends battery replacement every 10 years. I expect thats a few years after it starts to hold less of a charge and a few years before it won't hold any meaningful charge at all.

 

There would still be gasoline. They store it in there's giant tanks.

What good would a Tesla be? Sounds like the better idea is a horse.

 

Who is 'they'? Are 'they' going to give it you? I doubt it... The start of this discussion was self sufficiency. Unless you have giant tanks of gas, thats immaterial.

Yes, horses are great in a grid-down if you know how to care for them and keep them trained. Do you? I don't.

 

the people who build tanks and produce gasoline is who they is. I would think that would be obvious.

I live in an oil town and these tanks are all over the place there's not even fences around them. You don't have to give it to you can go take it. If we're talking about an economic collapse companies that made it probably wouldn't be around anymore.

you're not so sufficient if you need solar panels and someone producing batteries for your car. You will only be self-sufficient for the lifetime of that car or the solar panels whichever one fails first.

I would think training horses and burros would be a lot more simpler than going through this expense and buying all this crap to have a car for 7 years that can't tow anything.

If we're talking about post-apocalypse solar panels and electric cars are not a good idea. You can't breed to electric cars together and get a brand new electric car that'll last another lifetime.

We haven't been using horses for transportation for a good 500 to 600 years in this country. And people that trains them years ago were typically illiterate so I don't think it's going to be that hard.

 

No evidence for this.