An aside, I was driving next to an Aston Martin DB9 today. That is a very nice looking vehicle.
Posted on 10/10/2020 10:57:31 AM PDT by RomanSoldier19
The National Transportation Safety Board says the U.S. is woefully unprepared to deal with EV fires, which require different strategies than gasoline vehicle fires.
31 percent of fire departments don't train for EV fires, and half say they don't have special protocols in place to deal with EVs after a crash, the agency's report found.
Note the caveats, though. There are more than 29,000 fire departments in the U.S. This survey only asked for information from 32 of them.
If you have been reading Car and Driver for a while, there's a decent chance you remember the news when a Tesla Model S caught fire in 2013. Or that the NTSB was investigating Tesla fires in 2019. Or when a Porsche Taycan went up in flames earlier this year.
You might remember those things, because electric-vehicle fires make headlines. Of course, the reality is that, according to the U.S. Fire Administration (USFA), an average of 171,500 highway vehicle fires happened in the United States each year from 2014 through 2016, and the vast majority of them were in gasoline-powered cars.
Nonetheless, electric vehicles are still a shiny new thing to many people, and when something goes wrong with them, we notice. Automakers build safety systems into their battery packs, including rapid discharging in the event of a crash, but fires still happen, just as they can with gasoline-powered vehicles.
(Excerpt) Read more at msn.com ...
You forgot boats.
” If the electric lock mechanism jams, you cannot open that door. If the electric lock mechanism jams on all the doors, you’re screwed.”
True for any car. Doors are automatically unlocked in an accident per design.
Compare to manual door locks. The do not unlock automatically thus preventing access from the outside.
“Worst investments:
New cars
Time shares
Young women”
~~~~~~~~
That’s why you do a short term lease.
;)
Doors are *not* automatically unlocked per design in an accident in most cars even today.
What I don’t think you’re getting is that these cars do not have a manual override if power to the door locks are cut or the controls fail. There’s no knob or flap you can hit or pull to open the lock mechanism.
Except they didn’t. Check cites on the incident.
“That’s why you do a short term lease.
;)”
I have a friend that took seven short term leases.
After his seventh divorce, he said never again.
“...fires still happen, just as they can with gasoline-powered vehicles.”
That they do.
One way to help prevent an engine bay fire is to keep the engine and surrounding accessories clean and free of leaves/pine needles, ect.
“Doors are *not* automatically unlocked per design in an accident in most cars even today.”
Manual locks don’t but electric locks do.
“What I don’t think you’re getting is that these cars do not have a manual override if power to the door locks are cut or the controls fail. There’s no knob or flap you can hit or pull to open the lock mechanism.”
On the Tesla the same ‘flap’ that electrically unlocks the door from the inside also unlocks the door manually.
“Except they didn’t. Check cites on the incident.”
Unrelated to EV power train.
True. I forgot to include my rules.
1. Don’t buy a boat, have a friend with a boat
2. Don’t buy a dog, have a friend with a dog
3. Always just be friends with at least one hot chick, she has hot friends.
Ummmm, if you check the original post, that’s exactly what I said. I said that both electric and gas cars made in recent years have the problem so it was unfair to blame the electric car specifically.
Did the electric car wipe your reading comprehension skills? :P
Er, no, electric locks don’t in much of the industry. Mostly it’s German cars and not even all of those do it. Structural integrity issues upon additional hits is why.
You might want to ask Tesla about the locking mechanism. I know for a fact it doesn’t in the Model S because my boss’s door lock solenoid failed and the flap wouldn’t unlock the door. IIRC, the mechanical door release is actually under the seat and all but impossible to get to in a crash.
An aside, I was driving next to an Aston Martin DB9 today. That is a very nice looking vehicle.
The thing for me is, I grew up in the 80s and 90s where “American muscle” was an oxymoron and a lot of the cars of the 80s were faster than most or all of the classic muscle cars. Also about the time where we finally learned that the old SAE Gross HP ratings were lies.
In the 2000s I had a situation at a client’s place where we ended up proving that a restored Chevelle 454SS was slower and had less wheel horsepower than the receptionist’s Honda Accord V6. And I got a steak dinner out of it. :D
And during a power failure? when all cars are battery powered, and there’s a power failure, than all cars stop. I’m betting the ruling elite won’t be driving battery powered cars, but will have something that runs on gasoline while the ordinary people, who they scorn, walk home.
“Er, no, electric locks don’t in much of the industry. Mostly it’s German cars and not even all of those do it. Structural integrity issues upon additional hits is why.”
My Mustang does, same with my wife’s Lexus. Some vehicles have a six second delay to keep the doors locked during the accident.
“You might want to ask Tesla about the locking mechanism. I know for a fact it doesn’t in the Model S because my boss’s door lock solenoid failed and the flap wouldn’t unlock the door. IIRC, the mechanical door release is actually under the seat and all but impossible to get to in a crash.”
You might want to ask Tesla!
https://tesla-info.com/doc/model_s_owners_manual_north_america_en_us_2020_4.pdf
Rent them!
The most common protocol is to stand down and let the fire burn itself out.
From page 14 of your linked owner's manual for a Tesla Model S:
Opening Interior Doors with No PowerIf Model S has no electrical power, the front doors open as usual using the interior door handles. To open the rear doors, fold back the edge of the carpet below the rear seats to expose the mechanical release cable. Pull the mechanical release cable toward the center of the vehicle.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.