beeb
Dr. Beebenson, PhD HA, ST, Offset (hons)
Yep.This thread isn't about dumb memes poo pooing electric cars.
As long as an electric vehicle isn't solely charged off fossil-fuel powered generators, the vehicle will still be (much) more efficient/clean/green over its lifespan than an internal combustion engine car.
For example, it might be charged off an owner's solar array 99% of the time, and topped up from a diesel-powered electric charger when visiting a regional area on 1% of trips. That's still a vehicle that's being powered 99% of the time/travel range by renewables, and if the regional charging station was to connect to a renewable energy generation source down the track the vehicle would then be run 100% off renewables. But poo-pooing it because of that 1% usage case when comparing to a vehicle with an internal combustion engine doesn't make any sense.
Yes, battery packs are expensive and (currently) expensive to repair because it's very niche work (and if the pack is damaged, potentially very dangerous). So yes, the mechs/techs/sparkies need to be qualified, because they're working with High Voltage electricity. You need qualifiactions to work on 600V (for example) because it can kill you in an instant if you get the decomissioning process wrong. They should have sensors that cut the HV circuit if there's a short, but I wouldn't be volunteering to test them out.
Battery recycling centres are already starting to pop up in Australia, NZ will follow. More battery repair centres will come about purely from market demand in future, and prices will drop as it always does with more competition and more batteries becoming available to salvage used cells from. I'd hazard a guess the insurance agencies will strongly drive that just through commercial interests. They won't want to pay for new replacement packs just because a vehicle has a battery with a failed cell within the pack or the external structure of the pack has been damaged in a crash.
The emergency service response/actions after a crash is an interesting topic, interesting to see how that one progresses over the next couple of years.
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