Featured Vancouver EV owner shares cautionary tale after car deemed ‘total loss’ (Another case in Post #50)

rare case, no cause for concern, but what a great parts car! someone is going to clean up on that one.

 

I'm not sure the first thing I asked the salesperson when I bought my last ICE car in 2010 was the price of an engine replacement.

At the same time, there are risks and costs associated with newer car architectures.

 

If he didn't hit anything then I'd be looking to find out how abusive the service center is when they're moving cars around or putting it up on the lift.
A good takeaway might be to take lots and lots of pictures of the belly of your car before you lay out your cash so they can't make a claims that you did it.
.

 

maybe putting the battery on the very bottom without enough protection is a bad idea?

 

Early model S had pack penetration issues & they got retrofitted in quick order - w/out putting it back on owners.
.

 

A leading edge that causes the car to ride over contact with road debris and a liner made of UHMW PE backed by a thin sheet of high strength steel would have been a better choice than an aluminum skid plate.

 

Steel is heavy. The 2014 Model S opted for titanium which has a stronger strength to weight ratio - as well as being more corrosion resistant.
.

 

The only other option would be 7075 aluminum which has the same strength as stainless steel but weighs less than half.

The armour of the Bradley and the M113 is made of 7075.

Because of the potential fire hazard, the Insurance Institute will eventually start battery penetration test in the future.

 

I remember mentioning the 2019 Kia Niro was less money than my Prime. The picture of the battery under the car is what mainly changed my mind. I don’t know if that was fair or not, but instinctively made the decision. Been burned enough.
Not sure how the battery itself got scratched here, maybe there is more to the story. That doesn’t help everyone’s insurance rates in Canada. That’s a lot of dough. I’m not sure how the claim was possible, collision, comprehensive?

Seeing this pic of battery disassembled it’s more concerning than I thought. The aluminum container hanging under the car is where the battery cells are. It’s not a protective layer. Holy cow.

https://www.diyelectriccar.com/cdn-cgi/image/format=auto,onerror=redirect,width=960,height=960,fit=scale-down/https://www.diyelectriccar.com/attachments/01ae80b2-858b-4f28-9ee1-9f1b54820150-jpeg.133358/

 

Reminds me of the Ford Pinto gas tank.

Or, more recently; the Concorde.

 

Also concerning are collisions where the EV structure is involved in such a way that the battery enclosure sustains damage in the way of compression or distortion.

That is all part of larger question on insurability and repairability vs declaring the vehicle is totaled.

Something an insurer will have to figure into rates.

Am not an EV hater - have a PHEV, just thinking out loud about some questions this thread is creating for me.

I would actually consider an EV for our next vehicle.

 

And yet the nhtsa and insurance institute are passing these vehicles with flying colors

 

Those agencies are reactionary rather than pre-emptive. The Ford Pinto and the Concorde were in service for many years before there was found a need for safety modifications.

Unfortunately, that only happened with loss of lives.

 

Apparently we are suggesting the '70s era Pinto was the last car that had a gas tank that burned the occupants alive? Sorry it's still happening - & there's nothing we can do to stop a vehicle from catching on fire when it has stuff in it w/ propensity to be flammable. Besides, per million miles, an electric car is LIGHT years ahead of gassers - when it comes to NOT burning occupants alive.
The fact that the Ops article links a damaged battery, that in itself may have prevented the car from becoming a torch.
.

 

There are collision standards cars have to meet. The safety crash testing is like a comparison tool of finished cars that already passed the standards as far as I know.
I still having trouble how the owner got the car totaled without an accident involved. Comprehensive is so cheap, I didn’t know the car could be road damaged and you get a new car.

 

It won't be cheap after many claims for a full replacement of such cars with such issues will have been made.

The insurers are not stupid.

 

Manufacturers have many many years of experience with gasoline fueled vehicles.

Battery vehicle design and safety issues are still in the infancy stage.

 

Yet per million miles - gassers have more fires - per stating it above. Then compound that statistic with the fact that gassers have had decades more experience preventing gas fires? That also says volumes for ev car safety.
.

 

Gasoline fueled vehicles don't burn for hours and require large volumes of water to extinguish.