Random EV thoughts.....

liamog

There were 3,783 vehicles on board, including 498 battery electric vehicles, a Tokyo-based spokesperson for K Line (Kawasaki Kisen Kaisha), which had chartered the vessel, said.

He declined to say anything about the car brands, including whether or not it included any cars from Japanese manufacturers.

Same report indicates they were new cars

https://www.rte.ie/news/world/2023/0728/1397001-dutch-cargo-ship-fire/

Boat was headed to Singapore and supposedly contained cars from Mercedes, BMW and construction equipment

unkel

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120907619#Comment_120907619

Seems an incorrect translation from the orignal Dutch press release from ANP that doesn't mention they were new cars. Not saying they aren't though.

Can't find the original press release from the Japanese charter company K Line in a two minute google, maybe someone else can? That could shed some light. I did see mention that there were several hundred Mercedes and also a large number of BMW and MINI. Which in fairness would point to brand new cars alright.

liamog

There's this from the NL Times

https://nltimes.nl/2023/07/28/nearly-500-electric-cars-board-freighter-burning-near-terschelling

Both BMW and Mercedes use Bremerhaven to ship cars. VW's go through Emden.

Port Said is the entry point the Suez canal, so I wouldn't take that as dumping point for old cars.

MartyMcFly1989

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120798924#Comment_120798924

All powered mainly by fossil fuels.

KCross

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120907408#Comment_120907408

My recollection of that incident is that the driver saw smoke and drove into the centre with it that way and abandoned it! 🤦‍♂️

So, if that is true, it was actually running when it happened.

zg3409

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120907859#Comment_120907859

I remember the same, car was smoking before driver drove it into car park. Oops.

sh81722

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120907870#Comment_120907870

Cool. I remember now that it was the fan motor resistor pack and not a ptc on the Zafira. And it was pretty poor form from the driver to abandon it at the multistorey if it was already smoking when driven in.

Old diesel

Interesting read......

If shipping companies are "unprepared"

What or who is to blame.....

Should shippers have developed more understanding of how EV fires should be put out????.

Is it vehicle makers not providing support in terms of vehicle knowledge?????

Is it EV tech coming to market too fast for people who need to know the tech from a shipping point of view to keep up????.

https://europe.autonews.com/automakers/ev-technology-could-be-risk-under-prepared-maritime-shippers

JohnC.

If the shipping industry are still playing catchup at this point, they only have themselves to blame. EVs have been shipped for, what, about 15 years? They'd want to pull their finger out.

the_amazing_raisin

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120909514#Comment_120909514

Sure they've been like that for years, crews trained to the absolute bare minimum, safety equipment outdated or broken and ships registered in countries with lax safety laws

the_amazing_raisin

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120909466#Comment_120909466

From what I can see manufacturers have worked with fire departments in the past, so I can't see why they'd deny the shipping industry any chance for engagement or training

I would imagine it's a basic tenant for any maritime insurance policy that if you're carrying cargo then you've taken the required precautions to handle it safely

While I agree with the sentiment that it's probably better to abandon ship, it seems to be an expectation that the crew is capable of fighting a fire and preventing it from spreading

It makes sense, a burning ship isn't just a danger to itself and it's crew, it poses a navigation risk to other ships and possibly even the shore. If a ship sinks in a busy shipping lane then it could partly block traffic and restrict the number of ships in that area.

I suspect then that the insurance companies are going to turn around and demand that car carriers have better fire suppression systems or carry fewer EVs or both in future

Old diesel

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120909735#Comment_120909735

If I'm understanding some of the articles I've read this week.

Part of the issue seems to be that the vessels and firefighting equipment on board are designed with ICE cars in mind.

This will probably hurt EV perception in at least the short term as Joe Public won't necessarily realise that the risk to them of owning EV.

Is much lower then what they may think from seeing an incident like this....

the_amazing_raisin

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120909919#Comment_120909919

Honestly I'm not even 100% convinced they can tackle an ICE fire

But taking the EV case, it's true that EV fires are rare but unfortunately those EVs that use cobalt based batteries are very difficult to extinguish and burn intensely for days

Your typical foam won't put it out because the battery contains an oxidiser, the only real solution at the moment seems to be immersion in water and let the fire eventually run out of fuel

So as I said before, regardless of whether the EV causes the fire, it'll certainly contribute to it once it's caught in the blaze

From what I understand of the design of those car transporters, they have a semi open deck design. As in the sides aren't enclosed and allow water to drain.

I suppose they could use high capacity pumps to essentially flood the hold of any cars where a fire breaks out and it would hopefully drain out fast enough that the boat wouldn't sink and the fire wouldn't spread

unkel

All EVs really should have a battery that can't go on fire (as in LiFePO4 or NaFePO4). A lot of newer EVs already do like most EVs from Chinese brands like Volvo, MG, Lotus, Saab, BYD, etc. and even the cheaper Tesla cars.

From a commercial point of view, most of them will very soon. A legislative nudge is all it takes for all EVs to be safe, I suppose.

mfceiling

https://maritime-executive.com/article/china-launches-first-700-teu-electric-containership-for-yangtze-service

That's a first.

the_amazing_raisin

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120914973#Comment_120914973

Looks like battery swaps found another market, saw a similar solution discussed for river shipping in the Rhine and Danube

Seems like a smart solution, although it is worth saying these ships are a fraction of the size of the massive container ships you'd see blocking the Suez canal and the like

Still, it removes yet another low hanging fruit of things that can easily be electrified while we're figuring out the trickier stuff

the_amazing_raisin

https://www.electrive.com/2023/07/28/rose-tinted-glasses-on-tesla-range/

So apparently Tesla's underreport their available range

In other news, rain is wet, donuts are bad for you and it turns out Euro 6d isn't as clean as advertised 😏

Part of me is struggling to understand why this is newsworthy, pretty much every other manufacturer does the same thing and it's well know that every car loses some range is colder weather

Reading into it, it seems that the argument against Tesla is the extent of the range loss between reported versus actual range, and rather than taking a more conservative estimate the cars always report the most optimistic scenario at the start of a journey and then "corrects" later on

There's also an implication that Tesla are stonewalling customers with range complaints by doing stuff like not answering the phone and cancelling service appointments

I'd definitely agree that there's no need for service centre staff to waste their time on cars that don't need fixing, but I would say if it's true then Tesla really need to engage with customers more

Personally I think anyone who trusts the GOM with absolute certainty is a fool, particularly when there's a big change in driving habits or weather or when the car is new

But, I can also understand when a car dramatically overstates it's range it can be very frustrating for owners. My own experience is that after a while the GOM is fairly accurate but it's pretty fictional when you set off at the start of a journey

Maybe we should just make the GOM less prominent and instead just show the remaining battery and consumption data and let the driver figure it out

liamog

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120917315#Comment_120917315

Been discussed recently in Tesla Talk (https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120904384/#Comment_120904384)

cannco253

https://www.sustainable-bus.com/electric-bus/dublin-bus-electric-buses-testing-started/

some more detail I didn't read about before

Dublin Bus is currently undertaking an extensive training and piloting programme with drivers from the Phibsboro and Summerhill depots. There is a selection of routes being used to test the range of the electric fleet and provide valuable information that will feed into operational plans for the rollout, including routes C1, C2, 9, 15a, 15b, 122, and 123. A total of 760 drivers will be trained up in the coming months.

wassie

Interesting to see how they perform in winter when they will have heating demands on them also.

DaveyDave

Ah the C2. When the C spine was rolled out they removed the 25 and made people get an L bus down to Lucan Village to get the C3/4 which are always packed from Leixlip (the C3 often never arriving in the morning). It took a year for the C2 to come up to the new road Adamstown Boulevard as it wasn't open for a long time. Now months later, the C2 still isn't going down it's proposed route through Shackleton estate as apparently the roads from Shackleton down to Adamstown train station are too narrow.

The bus drivers also often don't know where they're going and not stopping at marked bus stops.

I'm sure the EV rollout will be smooth as butter...

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120919993#Comment_120919993

If we're lucky the heating will be on low to maximize range, nothing worse than being on a hot, stuffy bus as people never open the windows and there's no apparent AC. But hey, we have USB plugs that won't work and crappy WiFi now!

the_amazing_raisin

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120919993#Comment_120919993

130 people in the bus will provide plenty of heating, it's whether they have AC for summertime is my worry

insullation

I'm in the market for a EV but I see lots of ads on Donedeal where the seller have mentioned that the battery has been replaced (I assume under warranty). But this has put me off as are the replaced battery likely need replacing also and will most likely be outside of kms guarantee thus costing me 1000's to replace. Should I be concerned buying a car that has had its battery replaced?

KCross

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120922180#Comment_120922180

I'm in the market for a EV but I see lots of ads on Donedeal where the seller have mentioned that the battery has been replaced

What make are you looking at where you see “lots” with replacement?

Its a rare occurrence except in the case of a manufacturing defect and covered by recall under warranty.

All Kona’s had battery replacements I believe and nearly all early Model S.

Other than those two it would be rare for a battery to be replaced under normal circumstances and not something you should be unduly worried about as the batteries are usually under 8yr warranty anyway.

insullation

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120922237#Comment_120922237

Ah okay thanks. That's a relief to hear.

the_amazing_raisin

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120922237#Comment_120922237

A few ID cars had cells replaced as well

I would personally take a full battery replacement as a potential plus, you're effectively getting a brand new battery on a car that's a few years old

the_amazing_raisin

Another article about new electric buses for Dublin Bus

https://www.electrive.com/2023/07/28/electric-buses-arrive-in-dublin-driver-training-begins/

Gotta say, Eamonn Ryan is really looking the part of an annoyed bus passenger who's trying to ignore the guys trying to start a conversation across the aisle. He just needs a set of airpods to top it off 😂

silver_sky

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120922180#Comment_120922180

There was a global recall for certain Hyundai Kona EVs where the battery was replaced due to a manufacturing issue. Not due to wear and it was covered fully by Hyundai. If you got one of these where it was replaced then should be no issues.

coolbeans

Can anyone recommend an OBD device for checking battery health on a Kona. I haven't a clue about them.

innrain

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120932148#Comment_120932148

I have this one on my 2019 Kona. The ON/OFF button allows me to keep it in the port permanently without the risk of draining the battery.