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We hope scenes like this are rare, and clearly even petrol and diesel cars can also go on fire.
But we as electric users have no control of how electric power is made.
However production stopped in 1980, so one would hope today cars are better made, however air getting into a battery can result in fire, and an accident can very easy cause the battery to be damaged.
The battery is well protected, but this means the car is heavier, so I can do the 16 mile to local town and back with a 12 Ah 48 volt battery on my e-bike, so a car designed to carry 5 and at least twice as fast, looking at least 10 times that. So 360 watt/hour is reasonable.
So taking the Renault Kango long wheel base electric van as an example, 110 mile range, and 22 kWh pack, so 22/110 = 200 watt/hour so seems they are doing very well, in real world around 80 - 90 miles range so 275/watt hour per mile, which all in all is not bad.
For a van having a 80 mile range does seem a little limiting, and at 3.5 kW charging clearly the originals until 2018 needed over night charging, newer models do have 7 kW charging but not DC option, so may be very good as a second van, but one would need a second form of transport for the longer trips.
I picket the Kango as wanted a utility vehicle not a sports car, and I used a kango van converted into an disable vehicle (Gowing) petrol for some years, not good mile per gallon around 40 - 50, could not find a second hand one as diesel as most started life as a issue from Government who would not pay the extra for diesel version.
Why Renault not a clue, as not what I would call reliable.
It seems there is a big question as to how safe EV's are. Plus the infrastructure required, both at home and away.
It is all well and good saying you can charge at 22 kW so a 22 kW/h pack would be recharged in an hour, less with a DC charging point, but at 3.5 kW it takes over 6 hours, and we have seen people fined for leaving there vehicle on charge in a supermarket over the 90 minutes allowed.
As to recycling rechargeable lithium-ion batteries there is not as yet even the ability to do phone batteries. I have just binned my smart watch when the battery forced the back off the watch, and warped the watch, lucky not too expensive.
OK 1982 the Bedford CF electric came out, it was the first mass-produced electrically powered vehicle based on a fossil fuel vehicle platform. It was built in partnership between Bedford, Lucas, Chloride Group and the UK government on a 5-year grant scheme. But by 1987 the scheme was wound down, so just 5 years we had electric vans.
It seems daft now to make a van so big with a 40 kW motor, 45 amp input to charger and 30 amp out to a 216 volt battery. Range 120 miles so actually better than Renault Kango.
However this vehicle had 36 x 6 volt lead acid batteries that did not burst into flames. Has there really been an advance?
But we as electric users have no control of how electric power is made.
Having watched American films I know American cars burst into flames at the slightest bang, the Ford Pinto was well known for it.New research analysing car fires in the United States has found that electric cars are dramatically less likely to catch fire than other vehicles, while hybrid vehicles are surprisingly much more likely, even compared to ICE vehicles.
However production stopped in 1980, so one would hope today cars are better made, however air getting into a battery can result in fire, and an accident can very easy cause the battery to be damaged.
The battery is well protected, but this means the car is heavier, so I can do the 16 mile to local town and back with a 12 Ah 48 volt battery on my e-bike, so a car designed to carry 5 and at least twice as fast, looking at least 10 times that. So 360 watt/hour is reasonable.
So taking the Renault Kango long wheel base electric van as an example, 110 mile range, and 22 kWh pack, so 22/110 = 200 watt/hour so seems they are doing very well, in real world around 80 - 90 miles range so 275/watt hour per mile, which all in all is not bad.
For a van having a 80 mile range does seem a little limiting, and at 3.5 kW charging clearly the originals until 2018 needed over night charging, newer models do have 7 kW charging but not DC option, so may be very good as a second van, but one would need a second form of transport for the longer trips.
I picket the Kango as wanted a utility vehicle not a sports car, and I used a kango van converted into an disable vehicle (Gowing) petrol for some years, not good mile per gallon around 40 - 50, could not find a second hand one as diesel as most started life as a issue from Government who would not pay the extra for diesel version.
Why Renault not a clue, as not what I would call reliable.
Data obtained by Air Quality News through a Freedom of Information (FOI) request revealed that in 2019 the London Fire Brigade dealt with just 54 electric vehicle fires compared to 1,898 petrol and diesel fires.
Similarly, so far in 2020, the fire services have dealt with 1,021 petrol and diesel fires and just 27 electric vehicle fires.
During an electric vehicle fire, over 100 organic chemicals are generated, including some incredibly toxic gases such as carbon monoxide and hydrogen cyanide – both of which are fatal to humans.
For the fire brigade, the real problem when it comes to an EV fire is with trying to put it out.
The services have two main options, let the fire burn out or extinguish it.
The obvious choice seems to be to extinguish the fire, however many EV manufacturers actually advise for a controlled burn. This is where the fire services allow the vehicle to burn out while they focus on protecting the surrounding area.
Once the fire has been successfully put out, the problem for the fire brigade is not over.
Electric vehicle fires are known to reignite hours, days or even weeks after the initial event, and they can do so many times.
Not only does this pose a safety issue, but it also poses a legal issue: recovery firms are increasingly concerned about dealing with electric vehicles.
It seems there is a big question as to how safe EV's are. Plus the infrastructure required, both at home and away.
It is all well and good saying you can charge at 22 kW so a 22 kW/h pack would be recharged in an hour, less with a DC charging point, but at 3.5 kW it takes over 6 hours, and we have seen people fined for leaving there vehicle on charge in a supermarket over the 90 minutes allowed.
As to recycling rechargeable lithium-ion batteries there is not as yet even the ability to do phone batteries. I have just binned my smart watch when the battery forced the back off the watch, and warped the watch, lucky not too expensive.
So only been using them for 22 years, and the Renault Kango came out 2011, and so there are very few vehicles more than 10 years old.The first lithium-ion battery was invented in the 1990s and it was used to power a car in the early 2000s.
OK 1982 the Bedford CF electric came out, it was the first mass-produced electrically powered vehicle based on a fossil fuel vehicle platform. It was built in partnership between Bedford, Lucas, Chloride Group and the UK government on a 5-year grant scheme. But by 1987 the scheme was wound down, so just 5 years we had electric vans.
It seems daft now to make a van so big with a 40 kW motor, 45 amp input to charger and 30 amp out to a 216 volt battery. Range 120 miles so actually better than Renault Kango.
However this vehicle had 36 x 6 volt lead acid batteries that did not burst into flames. Has there really been an advance?