Fisker Karma reported to blame for House Fire

I regret to say I personally believe EV's are electrically dangerous in some situations due to discussions on the UK Nissan Leaf forum at the moment. To cut a long story short, I tried to arrange a 24 hour test drive of a Leaf today but was turned away when I asked if I could have the charge lead to enable me to charge it at home - it was a 24 hour test drive after all and the dealer was 30 miles away.

When asked why, the crux was that they said it could cause problems with my electrics!?! despite me having had them upgraded to the latest standards last year when a new bathroom was installed. It is indicated that 8 hours continuous draw of 2.2kwh is too much!?! despite 3kwh plug in heaters and home a/c units being available for 24/7 use.

Either the electric cars like the Leaf ARE dangerous when used via a normal household plug OR it's all fud to try and get us to buy one of their £800 charge stations.

Full details are found on this link and where I still use the Grumpycabbie handle;

24 hour Leaf Test Drive Shenanigans - Nissan; The Big Turn OFF?

 

Gut says that this nothing more than the typical dealer BS. Ask another dealer and you'll get another answer.

 

It's only electricity. The only thing that's different is that other appliances which draw this much current, such as electric stoves, clothes dryers, and central air conditioners, are always installed with a sufficient circuit. But here you have a small portable EVSE which can be plugged into any outlet. Of course it should trip a breaker if it overloads, but when circuits have been extended or wiring is faulty/damaged, an otherwise functional circuit can become dangerous.

Most electrical codes require a dedicated circuit for equipment which draws so much current (I'm not British, I'm just guessing it's like that). So maybe the dealer was correct, it's inappropriate to plug the cable into just any outlet.

 

Looking beyond "the possibility of fraud or malicious intent," if the news
article is correct, the culprit would seem to be the 12V battery/circuits.

The LEAF, i(MiEV) and TH!NK City all have a 12V battery just like the
Prius to do the same things; boot the computer(s) on start-up and power
the HV circuit breakers. And like the PRIUS, when the car is shut-down,
the HV battery/circuits are isolated.

Don't know, but would think that the other brands are the same.

 

I think something has gone sour in Sugarland Texas!
GC, I jumped over to Leaf Talk, I enjoyed your thread, and your point is absolutely valid, I could not agree more. It is not "Black Magic" just proper AC wiring. Car Dealers sell cars, not home wiring items.
Either Nissan is going to have to step up to the plate, or quietly fade away. It's just that simple!
This might take years to dispute, somebody email me the final results when this mess wraps up!

 

IF the car is indeed deemed to be the source of the fire, that combined with the bad press from their recent "restructuring" by the DOE probably won't be good for them.

 

Bad Karma!

 

Fiskers does make a decent pair of scissors, of course you don't need to have a charging station to use them.....
Their electric shears, you are all on your own!
Good Luck!

 

If the news article is correct, I expect we can go outside and watch cows jump over tonight's especially full moon all night. Arson investigators are really good. This fire is obviously suspicious, and we'll have to wait and see what caused it. Since the HV battery is intact, it wasn't the cause. Since the car wasn't charging, it wasn't the EVSE or the act of charging the battery.

 

Perhaps it was a gasoline leak.

The issue with the Leaf test drive seems to be about liability, and then negative press. The dealer can't just take a potential test driver's word that their wiring is up to snuff. If a fire did occur, what are the chances of that tester just saying 'my bad' and taking responsibility. A person buying the car is more likely have the wiring inspected, or even put in a dedicated circuit. It's a small fee compared to the cost of the car. Besides, without the onboard fast charger, and regular use of a majority of the range, the level 2 charger is a must.

After what Volt went through on the news cycle, I'm sure Nissan has concerns about PR fallout from such a fire.

 

It turns out that Nissan ARE now happy to issue the leads and for the car to be charged in any home and on any UK plug. Looks like it must have been lots of overly zealous dealers panicing over something they don't really understand?

My Leaf post ended up everywhere yesterday. Amazing how quickly it spread, but spread it did - right upto the top at Nissan UK and the following response appeared today;

Re: 24 hour Leaf Test Drive Shenanigans - Nissan; The Big Turn OFF?

Hello LEAF Fans,

Following dealer and customer feedback since the start of the 24 hour test drive programme, we have reviewed the original advice given with regards to allowing customers access to the EVSE cable. While the reasons for originally not allowing the customers access to the cable remain valid, we also recognise the impact that this is having on the positive experience the test drive programme was designed to create. As a consequence we are now revising the advice originally provided and all LEAF test drive locations will now provide cables.

If you have any questions, please contact me on [email protected].

Thank you,

Bryanna

Social Media Community Manager
Nissan UK


Job sorted
​

 

Hey, way to go GC!!!
That is really quite a turn about! Now maybe the lads at the local Nissan Dealership will let you try the Leaf, and hopefully offer an apology!
Enjoy the ride, if it happens, and be sure to let us know how it goes!!!

 

There was a fire. There happened to be an EV in the garage. Ignorant persons not involved (apparently) in the actual investigation decided it must have been the car. News media ran with it because it was spectacular, and because if they reported on every fire caused by a gas car they wouldn't have enough room in all the world's newspapers to list them all.

All cars are dangerous. Electric cars less so than gasoline cars.

Liability. If your house is wired properly there's no hazard. If there's too much current draw, the fuse or circuit breaker will cut it off. But the dealer doesn't know that your wiring is good, and doesn't believe you because he doesn't know you.

Nissan marketing are total morons. They've lost many sales by their stupidity. They gave me nothing but lies, lies, and more lies as I waited for six months beyond the original promised delivery date. They lost my order, then several months later when they discovered their mistake they put my order back in at the end of the line, behind people who had ordered months after me, then they lost that car, then they assigned me a different car, then they retracted that assigned car, then after all that, four promised ship dates for the next car, without ever actually shipping it, until I finally swore I'd never, ever, buy a car from Nissan. I would be permanently banned from this board if I described Nissan Marketing in the terms they really deserve. Heck, I'd melt the board if I used the language that Nissan deserves.

Car dealers probably know less about the cars they sell than anyone else on the planet!

But congratulations on getting them to reverse their stupid no-plug policy!

 

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . now that's just crazy talk ... we all know that gasoline is very safe . . . and ...



oh - never mind

 

Congratulations. Maybe the PR issues made Nissan take the liability off the dealers. The UK uses electric heating extensively so although some older homes could have issues with the heavy load, I really don't think it would be a significant problem.

* I may be paraphrasing.