Opinion Polls: Delphi's Polling Place
Hosted by Showtalk
Opinion polls on all subjects. Opinions? Heck yes, we have opinions - but we're *always* nice about it, even when ours are diametrically opposed to yours. Register your vote today!
- 4886
MEMBERS - 119993
MESSAGES - 2
POSTS TODAY
Discussions
What's Wrong with Wind and Solar? The Serious You: How Current Events Affect You
Started 2/22/21 by WALTER784; 51836 views.
Staff
From: WALTER784
Jan-8
Electric vehicles lose efficiency in cold weather, motor club warns drivers
WBBM NEWS RADIO 780 AM & 105.9 FM
December 22, 2022 10:44 am
(WBBM NEWSRADIO) -- With a winter storm bearing down on the Midwest, Triple A has some advice for motorists, including drivers of electric vehicles.
It’s common sense to a lot of drivers in the Chicago area, but it bears repeating: If you must venture out during a winter storm, keep an emergency kit in your car. It should include items like your cell phone, jumper cables, food, water, blankets, hats and kitty litter or sand in case you get stuck in snow and need traction.
And for owners of electric vehicles, says Molly Hart, spokesperson for AAA, the auto club group, be advised that cold weather decreases your driving range almost by half.
“When it dips to 20 degrees and the HVAC system is being used to heat the inside of the vehicle, the average driving range is decreased by 41 percent,” Hart says.
That means instead of getting 100 miles of combined urban and highway driving, the range at 20 degrees would be reduced to 59 miles.
Electric vehicles lose efficiency in cold weather: AAA (audacy.com)
FWIW
Staff
From: WALTER784
Jan-17
U.S. Official Airs Safety Concerns over Heavy Electric Vehicles
FILE - A truck drives down a rural road near a water tower marking the location of the Memphis Regional Megasite on Sept. 24, 2021, in Stanton, Tenn. Ford Motor Co. and a South Korean company would have to create more than 5,000 full-time jobs at a planned electric pickup …AP Photo/Mark Humphrey, File
SIMON KENT
12 Jan 2023
The safety risks posed by heavy electric vehicles in any collision with lighter vehicles has pushed the head of the National Transportation Safety Board to issue a general warning to all road users.
The official, Jennifer Homendy, raised the issue in a speech in Washington to the Transportation Research Board. AP reports she pointed, by way as an example, to an electric GMC Hummer that weighs about 9,000 pounds with a battery pack that alone is 2,900 pounds — roughly the entire weight of a typical Honda Civic.
“I’m concerned about the increased risk of severe injury and death for all road users from heavier curb weights and increasing size, power, and performance of vehicles on our roads, including electric vehicles,” Homendy said in remarks prepared for the group.
File/Jennifer Homendy of the National Transportation Safety Board speaks during a news conference, Oct. 3, 2019, in Windsor Locks, Conn. On Wednesday, Jan. 11, 2023, Homendy raised concerns about the risk heavy electric vehicles pose if they collide with lighter vehicles. (AP Photo/Chris Ehrmann, File)
The extra weight EVs typically carry stems from the outsize mass of their batteries. To achieve 300 or more miles of range per charge from an EV, batteries have to weigh thousands of pounds, the AP report sets out.
Homendy said her worries about safety risks stem from a steady proliferation of EVs on roads ands highways.
“We have to be careful that we aren’t also creating unintended consequences: More death on our roads,” she said. “Safety, especially when it comes to new transportation policies and new technologies, cannot be overlooked.”
The official noted Ford’s F-150 Lightning EV pickup is 2,000 to 3,000 pounds heavier than the same model’s combustion version. The Mustang Mach E electric SUV and the Volvo XC40 EV, she said, are roughly 33 percent heavier than their gasoline counterparts.
“That has a significant impact on safety for all road users,” Homendy added.
Reuters reports acting NHTSA Administrator Ann Carlson told reporters Monday the agency was studying the impact of vehicle size on roadway safety.
Carlson said the agency was “very concerned” about the “degree to which heavier vehicles contribute to greater fatality rates,” further noting some subscribe to the “mantra that bigger is safer” but that did not necessarily take into account other factors.
“Bigger is safer if you don’t look at the communities surrounding you and you don’t look at the other vehicles on the road,” Carlson said. “It actually turns out to be a very complex interaction.”
U.S. Official Airs Safety Concerns over Heavy Electric Vehicles (breitbart.com)
FWIW
Staff
From: WALTER784
Jan-18
2022 Toyota Mirai Review – Is Hydrogen really the fuel of the future ?
FWIW
Staff
From: WALTER784
Jan-23
EV charging stations in LA unusable...
EV skid row! How LA's 'Electric Avenue' has become overrun with homeless - and drivers are too intimidated to charge their $60,000 cars at sidewalk stations
A video shows homeless encampments surrounding EV charging stations
Alexandra Datig, who posted the video, said: 'It's better to charge at home'
LA has more than 62,000 registered EVs, with many more predicted
Meanwhile, there are more than 69,000 homeless people living in the city
Newly-elected Mayor Karen Bass declared a state of emergency over the crisis
By RONNY REYES FOR DAILYMAIL.COM
PUBLISHED: 19:59 GMT, 29 December 2022 | UPDATED: 00:22 GMT, 30 December 2022
A conservative commentator has warned electric vehicle drivers in Los Angeles that charging stations for their $60,000 cars are littered with homeless encampments.
Alexandra Datig shared a video of her driving in downtown LA on Wednesday, with one of the local Blink EV charging stations surrounded by trash and tents.
'When you live in Los Angeles, it's better to have a charging station at home for that $60,000 EV,' Datig wrote on Twitter.
'The closer you get to downtown, the charging stations have homeless 'attendants' who live on the same sidewalk as the stations.'
The vagrancy crisis in LA carries on two weeks after newly-elected Mayor Karen Bass declared a state of emergency over the situation. More than 69,000 homeless people currently live in the city.
A video shared on social media shows trash and homeless encampments surrounding one of the local Blink electric vehicle charging stations in downtown Los Angeles
Last year, Los Angeles had 62,851 registered electric vehicles, with city officials projecting even more in 2022. California as a whole had 563,070 registered EVs in 2021, more than 100,000 more compared to the year before.
The boom has meant that charging stations have popped up throughout the city, with about 4,296 public stations installed so far, according to PlugShare.com.
And even more are expected to spring up after the state approved a ban on the sale of new gas cars by 2035, demonstrating a commitment to electric vehicles.
Automakers are now required to reduce the number of gas guzzlers they sell in order to reach the first quota of the plan that mandates 35 percent of new cars, SUVs and small pickups sold in California by 2026 be zero-emission vehicles.
Datig (above) condemned the state of the stations and called on city officials to ramp up the crackdown on homeless camps
The quota increases every two years, with 51 percent by 2028, 68 percent by 2030 and then 100 percent of all new vehicles sold should be battery-powered five years later - 20 percent of these sold can be hybrid plug-ins.
But the work in LA could be undermined by the ongoing homeless crisis affecting the public charging stations.
While taking a jab at the state of the streets near the pricey stations, Datig said: 'The human suffering is insurmountable around here,' noting that there are thousands living on the streets of the city.
Conservative commentator Alexandra Datig, who posted the video, said that given the situation, LA's more than 62,000 EV owners were safer charging their cars at home
As of December 2022, one count estimated that more than 69,000 homeless individuals reside in Los Angeles as encampments pop up across the city
Less than 24 hours into her role as Mayor, Karen Bass issued an emergency over the homeless situation, vowing to construct new shelters for the people
Less than 24 hours into her term, Mayor Bass vowed to tackle rampant vagrancy in the city, with plans to build 3,000 new homes, lease motel rooms and apartments, and issue tax payer-funded housing vouchers.
Bass signed the declaration of emergency on December 12 inside the city's Emergency Operations Center, in a room designated as the 'United Homelessness Response Center.'
'We must build housing faster, and we will. We must coordinate shelter and services and we will,' Bass said. 'I will not accept a homelessness crisis that afflicts more than 40,000 individuals and affects
...[Message truncated]
Staff
From: WALTER784
Jan-25
Have any new or changed laws/regulations to improve the situation been put forward?
Sometimes, it takes a while to implement new or changed laws/regulations!
But they all have to start with a change or introduction of a new law to fix something.
FWIW
TOP