Posted on 07/18/2022 5:15:47 PM PDT by lowbridge
If there is one consistent fact about electric vehicles, it’s that they are unreliable. Now their charging stations have come into question as well.
In Aspen and Glenwood Springs, Colorado, many companies have implemented charging stations in their parking lots. All of them are not fully functional, however.
Chris Lane, a Basalt resident who owns two electric cars, highlighted a couple of issues with the local charging stations: Cables are ripped out, attachments are damaged and screens are cracked.
If there is a mechanical problem with any one of these stations, it automatically shuts down, Aspen Daily News reported.
“I charge in Glenwood, I see problems. I charge in Aspen, I see problems,” Lane said. He mentioned one exception: Tesla’s stations.
“I will say this, the Tesla stations are way better, flawless,” he said.
Companies and stores that have EV stations in their parking lots are expected to take care of them, but this has not always been the case.
The Willits Town Center in Basalt, Colorado, is a prime example. With 11 total stations, five were out of order and two were inaccessible, leaving only four functioning chargers available.
“I see mechanical failures up and down the valley,” Lane said.
(Excerpt) Read more at westernjournal.com ...
The Ford Crown Vics are also known to get high mileage.
The 4.6L engine is very reliable.
The 4R70W transmission behind it, not so much.
Diesel engines driving generators, driving electric motors at the wheels.
For many applications for many people in many cities and jobs, a hybrid DOES make sense . A hybrid IS economical and DOES allow emergency and all-weather service.
But this administration HATES ALL ENERGY options that make sense and are economical.
So you hear nothing about hybrids.
0baᵐa's 2009 Cash for Clunkers program had something to do with that.
“ EV’s are just not going to work for at least 50 years.”
I have real life experience that they DO work…as a commuter car. I charge mine at home. Zero problems.
I just had my 1 year “maintenance”; State inspection and rotated the tires.
If I have to travel more than 150 miles or so round trip I’ll take a gasoline engine vehicle which is very happy not to be doing all of the short mileage trips.
Until they jack up my electricity rates I can drive 100 miles for about $3 or so.
Not all vehicles qualified for that, and even back in 2009, I didn’t see many vehicles from the 80s still on the road.
A plug-in hybrid makes even more sense. If the range is sufficient, like 40 miles, most trips for most drivers can be completed on battery alone.
My 37 year old Nissan Hard Body (first year) has zero rust, no problems with ECU, switches work fine, and I’ve never failed to find new old stock parts.
You sure about that?
At that rate, it would cost $31.00 to $43.00 to run a single 100 watt old style lightbulb for an hour.
Heck, my electric bicycle at full throttle can use 9000 watts per hour.
I'd guess that you mean per kilowatt hour. and you are better off charging at home; In California, with their expensive electricity, the average cost is 15.4 cents per kilowatt hour. In my state electricity averages 11 cents per KWH.
There are places in the country where rust is not a problem.
I don’t happen to live in one.
I live in Northern Virginia, where the dipsticks that VDOT hires to salt the roads dump so much salt that the road turns white and a car parked 90 feet from the road got it’s windshield covered in salt. (It was clear when I parked it).
and unless they used tantalum capacitors in that ECU (I know GM used them—presumably other automakers did too), they used electrolytic capacitors which WILL leak and corrode the board. It’s only a matter of time till that happens. The only fix is to recap it before, or wait till the board corrodes and then recap it AND have fun soldering jumper wires over all the open traces.
And hope it’s not a multi-layer board, those are REAL FUN to repair...
At least with tantalum capacitors, they just short when they fail...
Don’t worry about EPROM bit rot that also eventually affects old ECUs, hopefully they used a mask-programmed ROM in yours.
Nissan discontinued the fuel filter bracket on mine. Thankfully I was able to get it apart even though it’s rusted.
There are NO NOS fuel filter brackets to be had. If it breaks, you rig something with a hose clamp.
Or just leave it bouncing around, which is probably an acceptable repair for some people (not me).
I have looked into the Weber carb kit in case the ECU ever goes bad and I can’t get a good replacement.
Southern California has what seems like millions of D-21s still on the roads; rare to see one of them junked without major damage.
A megasquirt fuel injection system might be a better option than a carb.
I think I saw a youtube video where someone was doing a board-level ECU repair on an 80s Nissan pickup.
They were in California, where the vehicle has to pass an emissions test no matter how old it is—meaning no carb swap in place of a failing ECU. (25 years is the cutoff date in Virginia, no emissions test after 25 years, they must figure that most vehicles will be rusted to pieces by then!)
I don’t know if the illegals bother to get emissions tests or if the police even stop them for non-current registration.
No emissions tests here, in WA state. I could live with the Weber kit just fine although it is not particularly inexpensive. Last I checked the U.S. distributor for it was about 60 miles from me.
You prove my point. EV’s have some limited value in congested city traffic.
I hope they become commonplace within 10-25 years in cities just for the reduction in air pollution.
It will be 50-100 years before they can have real value outside the congested areas.
They are still dirty and very expensive to own and replace the high environmental impact batteries. We are decades away from practical use batteries. As another poster mentioned; EV’s move the pollution impact out to the more rural areas where the power is generated.
I wonder what the AGW cultists think will happen to these chargers that are installed in Chicago, Baltimore, or Atlanta.
I think what we are really asking is why is a freedom loving person who would responsibly pay their own way, by charging at home , is using these stations. Sounds like welfare for EVs.
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