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GM tells some Bolt owners to park 50 feet away from other cars

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Re: GM tells some Bolt owners to park 50 feet away from other cars

#381

Post by jfk13 »

martin_a wrote: post #369
mschuster91 wrote: post #367

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They do require a lot more water to be put out though. > "Improvise. Adapt. Overcome." it is. And here is the problem: most fire departments are horribly underfunded, meaning their machines are old, water tankers don't have enough capacity, water lines are un(der)maintained and the firefighter training has been ... spotty to put it lightly.

Don't know where you're from, but for Germany this is mostly solved, but those tactics are obviously still "new" for most and need to be refined, yes. edit: > They do require a lot more water to be put out though. As OP was mentioning garage fires, I was expecting urban neighborhoods, where getting enough water should (hopefully) not be a problem in 2021.

I see you haven't lived in a mega-city like Karachi. When I lived there (some years ago, admittedly, but I don't believe things have improved much) we were lucky to get mains water for a few hours a couple of times a week at some seasons.

Re: GM tells some Bolt owners to park 50 feet away from other cars

#382

Post by martin_a »

ikurei wrote: post #372
martin_a wrote: post #364

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Fires destroying electric bike shops are a thing, with one fire expanding to all the batteries around. All we need now is for a cascade auto battery fire in a parking lot. Or, worst case, a garage under a building. As a firefighter let me add some context: Electric car fires are no big deal anymore. Yes, they're not "out" when there's no more flames or smoke for the moment as the damaged cells might be reacting fur…

> Electric car fires are no big deal anymore. > Easy solution: Put them in a tub full of water for at least 24 hours How is this not a big deal? This forces firefighters, which sometimes are small departments without a lot of resources, to transport the cars. It's a nuissance if it's 1 car, but a parking lot caching fire would be an absolute nightmare. If a car catches fire in a narrow street in the middle of a city,…

> How is this not a big deal?

First of all sorry for my English, I sometimes fail to find the right words, so it's sometimes hard to explain what I mean.

It's not a big deal in the sense that you'll call the control/dispatch center and tell them that you'll need a tub for an EV. They'll then take care of getting it to you and that's what firefighters worry about.

How the car leaves the place? None of the firefighters' business, at least here in Germany.

Of course there are lots of things in the aftermath like how to recycle the water from that tub as it might be contaminated and needs special treatment, but that's a problem for someone else and possibly already solved somehow.

> but a parking lot caching fire

Yeah, that would be shit, but it could also happen today with gas-powered cars. I've experienced something similar myself once with a used car sales lot. It was somewhat frightening as the fire spread to multiple cars very fast because of the large amounts of heat.

In the end we concentrated on cooling the unburnt cars at first, and only as a second measure slowly fighting and extinguishing the ones that already caught fire when reinforcements (lots of!) had arrived.

Would you handle it differently with EVs? Yes, probably, you'd also need lots of tubs.

Would it be completely differently? No. Cars are, once burning, very nasty to extinguish, no matter how they are powered.

I wouldn't fear an EV more than a gas-powered car if I would get called right now.

Re: GM tells some Bolt owners to park 50 feet away from other cars

#384

Post by JohnWhigham »

dmurray wrote: post #4

> The automaker told Bolt owners to limit the charge to 90 percent, plug in more frequently and avoid depleting the battery to below about 70 miles of remaining range. Tesla's approach here would be to issue an OTA update that told your car to treat 90% as 100% and 25% as 0. I can't decide if I like that better or worse.

Yeah, this kind of shit just isn't going to work. If I have to be told how how to maintain my fuel source, then these cars with this battery technology aren't ready for mass adoption. They just aren't.

Re: GM tells some Bolt owners to park 50 feet away from other cars

#385

Post by wffurr »

ceejayoz wrote: post #284
wffurr wrote: post #259

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Which is exactly why I am wondering how sodium batteries will be any easier to manage.

https://spectrum.ieee.org/sodium-ion-battery > Sodium batteries are also more stable and safe than lithium-ion. They have a wider temperature range, are nonflammable, and there is no thermal runaway—which can cause lithium-ion batteries to catch fire—under any condition, says Pouchet.

Thanks for the actual informative link instead of the CATL press release others are linking. Sodium-ion batteries seem to have some very desirable properties over other rechargeable battery chemistries.

Has CATL substantially improved the energy density? Half the capacity on a per-weight basis than Lithium-ion seems pretty bad for EVs. Halving the range of already barely-acceptable vehicles seems pretty bad. Maybe it’s fine for short-range EVs and hybrids, but the range is one of the selling points of the Bolt.

Re: GM tells some Bolt owners to park 50 feet away from other cars

#386

Post by rjmunro »

dylan604 wrote: post #21
qbasic_forever wrote: post #17

So what is a family with a two car garage supposed to do, park the Bolt a block away? This seems like the kind of thing GM should get wayyyy in front of with a very generous offer to buy back the cars as a trade towards another GM model.

Park outside the garage in the driveway, or next to your neighbor's car that won't return your mower they borrowed six weeks ago.

> Park outside the garage in the driveway

That only works if your driveway is >=100ft long.

Re: GM tells some Bolt owners to park 50 feet away from other cars

#387

Post by raxxorrax »

martin_a wrote: post #364
Animats wrote: post #42

Maybe lithium-ion batteries in mass-market vehicles aren't such a good idea. We may need a battery technology that can survive poor maintenance less than perfect battery construction, and low-cost vehicle designs. Tesla had to put a titanium plate under their battery. That's not a mass-market solution. BYD is converting over to lithium iron phosphate, which is much better behaved when damaged. Toyota is working on so…

> Fires destroying electric bike shops are a thing, with one fire expanding to all the batteries around. All we need now is for a cascade auto battery fire in a parking lot. Or, worst case, a garage under a building. As a firefighter let me add some context: Electric car fires are no big deal anymore. Yes, they're not "out" when there's no more flames or smoke for the moment as the damaged cells might be reacting fur…

Well, if the manufacturer says I should park my car 15m away from others due to spontaneous fire risk...

Re: GM tells some Bolt owners to park 50 feet away from other cars

#388

Post by npteljes »

abdullahkhalids wrote: post #335
karussell wrote: post #328

OT: a cookie banner showed up and after I agreed it stated "preparing your Cookie preferences can take minutes". And it took indeed very long (a minute?), I was even able to do a screenshot: https://user-images.githubusercontent.com/129644/133563621-6... What a time ...

On Firefox, you need the following addons * I don't care about cookies (which will remove all cookie banners; but I think uBlock Origin can also do it with the right list) * Cookie AutoDelete (to delete all cookies as soon as you close the tab)

Temporary Containers and clicking "I agree to all cookies" works more naturally I think. Also, this way your browsing is separated from your logged in facebook, google etc session too.

Re: GM tells some Bolt owners to park 50 feet away from other cars

#389

Post by chrisjc »

ddlutz wrote: post #254
retsibsi wrote: post #43

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The article says they've announced a recall, so I assume this advice is for people who have chosen not to send the car back yet. edit: no, I'm confused. From another article: > The Detroit automaker has recalled all of the roughly 142,000 Bolts sold since 2016 because the battery can catch on fire. GM has taken a $1.8 billion charge so far for the cost of the recall and has been buying cars back from some disgruntled…

Some people have gotten buy backs. GM Says that a buyback is an option for me, but I have to wait 5-7 business days (from a few days ago) to speak into more details.

Interested in what you're going to do? If you take the buy-back, going to buy another GM? Would you consider a EV again?

Re: GM tells some Bolt owners to park 50 feet away from other cars

#390

Post by martin_a »

raxxorrax wrote: post #387
martin_a wrote: post #364

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Fires destroying electric bike shops are a thing, with one fire expanding to all the batteries around. All we need now is for a cascade auto battery fire in a parking lot. Or, worst case, a garage under a building. As a firefighter let me add some context: Electric car fires are no big deal anymore. Yes, they're not "out" when there's no more flames or smoke for the moment as the damaged cells might be reacting fur…

Well, if the manufacturer says I should park my car 15m away from others due to spontaneous fire risk...

I don't understand this at all. Right now I'm in the second recall with my Hyundai Kona EV. They have found that there might be a problem with the battery packs, so ALL Kona get a new one where the bug is fixed.

Might take its time till they are done, but they did not tell me to park near a river or something, in case the car catches fire. So either GM is even more cautious or just stupid.

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