"We're buying electric cars for sustainability reasons," Matthew Avery, research director at automotive risk intelligence company Thatcham Research, said.
Avery pointed out, "an EV isn't very sustainable if you've got to throw the battery away after a minor collision."
A Tesla battery pack costs tens of thousands of dollars and represents a large percentage of the vehicle's price tag. Insurance companies have found that it's uneconomical to replace battery packs if damaged.
Plus, dangerous. Slight damage to the battery pack could significantly increase the risk of a catastrophic fire, which is already a real risk with undamaged electric cars.
Many automotive manufacturers, including Tesla, have made battery packs a structural part of the car to reduce cost products but have shifted costs to consumers and insurers when batteries need to be replaced.
Unless carmakers produce more easily repairable battery packs, there will be a growing number of low-mileage EVs scrapped after collisions.
"The number of cases is going to increase, so the handling of batteries is a crucial point," said Christoph Lauterwasser, managing director of the Allianz Center for Technology, a research institute owned by Allianz.
According to Lauterwasser, the production of EV batteries results in significantly higher CO2 emissions compared to conventional fossil-fuel models. Therefore, if these batteries are discarded with low mileage, it undermines the goal of promoting environmentally-friendly practices.
"If you throw away the vehicle at an early stage, you've lost pretty much all advantage in terms of CO2 emissions," he said.
Sandy Munro, head of Michigan-based Munro & Associates, which analyzes vehicles and advises automakers on how to improve them, said the Model Y battery pack has "zero repairability."
"A Tesla structural battery pack is going straight to the grinder," Munro said.
So much for the EV revolution and the green "circular economy" touted by carmakers, politicians, NGOs, and climate activists... These EVs appear even worse for the environment when compared with traditional petrol-powered vehicles.
Every. Single. Thing. Our "government" is doing is fake and gay.
ReplyDeleteThe entire Climate Religion is based on crappola.
ReplyDeleteAt best, the "green revolution" morons look at one thing and one thing alone: the gas pump. The concept of total cost, including total emissions, from mining to end of life, is too complicated, and not one simple measurement.
ReplyDeleteWhat Munro didnt' say was that from the grinder, the materials go straight to a facility to separate the results for reuse.
ReplyDeleteYeah, right.
Deletenot to mention the added control 'THEY' have over you and your vehicle
ReplyDeleteHopefully the whole EV idea will head straight for the grinder...
ReplyDeleteI'd go with a Challenger SRT Demon thank you.
ReplyDeleteEVs are a huge boondoggle. There isn't enough lithium to make all the batteries if we all drove electric cars, and even if there was, the electrical grid as it is right now could never charge them. The politicians already know this; they want to limit our mobility, our ability to move around. Peasants don't need to travel.
ReplyDeleteThere was a short story written by Poul Anderson, _Snowball_, which featured a material called Capacitite. The formula was dead simple and anyone could make the stuff. It was basically a super capacitor which could store store electricity at a density which made gasoline look like water. The story explored the social consequences of the tech once the formula was leaked (which happened almost immediately...the inventor wasn't a very good businessman).
ReplyDeleteWe'd need something like that to make electric vehicles a realistic proposition.