EV - buy or wait?

Sorry David, The overview is nothing happend but because one vehicle was a hybrid they were expecting the end of humanity as we know it :open_mouth: the fire brigade were just being cautious as well they should. I have been stuck in traffic twice on said piece of road one a lorry fire and another a petrol car, no headlines for those.

I went to a car meet the other evening and one of the others turned up without his classic car, it had burnt to a crisp a couple of days earlier. He has no idea why. He got a lot of sympathy from the others but I know that if it had been an EV that had burned a lot of them would have been reminding him about it for ever. ICE fires seem to go unnoticed, EVs cause headlines even when there’s no fire. One day people will catch up with reality.

In a previous life, I was responsible for emergency planning for the transport of hazardous munitions and, you’re right, the emergency services are very cautious in their risk assessment (quite rightly). I recall that, after every exercise, I’d get a bollocking from the regulator because the emergency services were too slow to enter the cordon despite it being completely out of my control.

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According to the National Transportation Safety Board, (OK I had to Google it!) ICE vehicles are 60 times more likely to catch fire than EVs.

Specifically 1530 vehicles per 100,000 compared to 25 per 100,000

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The link that Corona posted refers to a hybrid car catching fire. Strangely enough, hybrids have the worst fire record of all. They have all the fire risks of an ICE but when they do catch fire they bring the risk of dealing with lithium batteries as well.

I cannot see the point of Hybrids apart from a slightly improved fuel consumption. Why drag around a spare petrol engine (with all the associated problems) just in case you run out of battery power? Surely it is more efficient (and safer) to get an EV with a bigger battery. I say this having previously had a hybrid for 10 years.

Which hybrid did you have Mik? I agree with your overall comment some hybrids are pretty good for longer runs, a cabby with a Mitsubishi Outlander often does EU runs and says he couldnt stop to recharge with passengers onboard. Over 60mpg on long runs.

Hybrids come in all shapes sizes and types.
Evidence showed that a lot of early hybrids weren’t a good option because the majority of owners did most of their mileage using inefficient petrol engines propelling a heavy car and the electric miles were few and far between.
My son has a non plug in hybrid where the combination of electric and ICE gives unbelievable performance and economy from a small capacity family car but of course has no electric only option.
Harry of Harry’s garage has records for his family’s hybrid Range Rover which show fantastic average mpg figures over a year.

In London the survey was carried out that showed 80% of plug in hybrids were never plugged in but were used to get around the congestion charge. My Toyota Estima got the vehicle going up to 20mph then the engine cut in. With London being mostly 20mph it should have been ok on the short runs but the battery was small so invariably it was running on a cold starting engine pretty much using more fuel than a warmed up engine.

I had a Toyota Prius. I only bought it because I liked the look of it. I had no thoughts of conservation at that time.

That was a pretty good one compared to my Estima although a similar system the shear size and weight of the Estima made it not worth it IMO. Thousands of cabbies using prius models and the tech has moved on a bit. Toyota lags behind because the CEO doesnt believe in electric. :roll_eyes:

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That’s more than 1.5% of ICE vehicles catching fire - it seems a number so high as to be unlikely.

Don’t believe everything you read on the internet. -------- Abraham Lincoln

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So are you telling me that you just posted false data to make EVs look better?

NO, I posted a link to what I thought was a perfectly reasonable explanation of the data from the National Transportation Safety Board and the Bureau of Transportation Statistics. As far as I can tell they are a well-respected outfit. I posted it to show clearly where the information that you queried came from.

There is always the caveat that misinformation could be involved on any website as I alluded to.

Are you telling me that you think ICEs are less of a fire hazard than EVs? Or are you just haggling about how much safer EVs are than ICEs when it comes to fire risks?

If all the rags posted every ICE vehicle fires people would really shocked.

Well, yes, things that happen regularly aren’t news, things that are unusual or shocking (or align to a media organisation’s agenda) get coverage.

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I’m not telling you anything, nor have the least interest in haggling with. I pointed out that the idea of more than 1.5% of IC vehicles would catch fire seemed excessive and you posted a comment about not believing everything on the internet in a way that suggested your information was actually not to be believed.

That’s all, nothing else to see here.

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My apologies for being unclear.

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Not to mention the disinformation such as that from the the Koch network to protect the petro chemical interests

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A bunch of Kochs

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