A question to the EV owners on this board… is your EV more expensive to insure than your ICE? This article seems to say it is. Save money on oil changes and fuel just to send it to your insurance company?
Yes it is. Its probably about 20% more than a similar and equivalently priced ICE car.
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A recent article in the local paper in relation to those electric scooters appearing all over town, the fire department warned to not charge them inside due to fire risks. We have had two house fires in the recent past from charging batteries.
Still waiting for any news reports but I was coming home a couple weeks ago and the road off the interstate was blocked. There was a huge fire in the side of the road. I couldn’t get close enough to see but it appeared the car was burned to a crisp. It was a very hot fires with flames high in the air. I suspect I know but would still like my suspicions confirmed. Car fires are rare and usually just engine fires that just burn the front of the car, not the whole thing.
I was talking to an electrician friend at a banquet the other day and asked him how many charging stations he has installed. Nada, zip, none, but rewired a barn for 220 for the metal and woodworking equipment. Just not a big deal here like on the coasts.
Besides battery fires, weight is another risk, especially in under-designed parking structures:
Electric vehicles could put pressure on parking garages (nypost.com)
One of my neighbors had a fire that started from charging a cheap scooter in the garage. The garage and the room above it were damaged, maybe more damage occurred. The house was repaired and the family is back.
I don’t think this relates well to EV charging. EVs use smart chargers that monitor charge level and control charge rate. If my Model 3 is under 20% state of charge (SOC) charging may start out over 100 kW but that level gradually drops to less than 10 kW as the SOC exceeds 90%. It goes to 0 kW as the SOC reaches 100%, of course.
There is also a thermal management system that uses a heat pump to control temperature during charging or while driving. It even runs in my garage if the battery is too warm. Recall that @VDCdriver has a heat pump for the same reason in his new Lexus.
The batteries used are moving to chemistries less prone to thermal overrun. Tesla and Ford are switching to Lithium Iron Phosphate batteries to reduce the possibility of thermal overrun. Maybe others will as well though GM’s new Ultium batteries are Nickel Cobalt Manganese Aluminum chemistry.
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More tech is being put into cars these days, so that can’t help any.
I recently switched insurance companies due to the local Allstate office moving out of town 30 miles away. I switched to Stat Farm since there’s 3 offices in town and the price difference for the same coverage on my Bolt.
Allstate gave me plenty of discounts and my insurance coverage still cost me $860 for 6 months. State Farm, for the same coverage, is $280 for 6 months. Not difficult to make THAT decision about switching.
edit: I don’t even want to guess what it would cost to repair even just the front bumper on my Bolt, what with the forward facing camera and all.
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Recently put on my pedestrian shoes and took a stroll to the local Walmart. Along the way found a whole bunch of car parts from a fender bender (presumably) that had been shoveled off the road & onto the devil strip. Wow, a lot of cool stuff! Most of the stuff was damaged beyond repair, but I picked up a very nice, robust looking part which I think is either a DC electric motor or stepper motor. Presumably this part came from a car’s front or rear bumper area. No idea what function it served there. Also found a high strength (10.9) fine thread long, 14 mm metric bolt .