China's electric farm trucks are very different than ours. I went there to see how
China's electric farm trucks are very different than ours. I went there to see how
When I recently took a trip to China to see the world of electric micromobility, I was greeted with a...
When I recently took a trip to China to see the world of electric micromobility, I was greeted with a...
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Low end electric vehicles of this type seem trustworthy, but I would absolutely avoid any of the high end EVs from China. The amount of battery issues (and fires from those) and other structural problems with their more expensive EVs seems like a lot of corners are being cut.
In the US there's huge tariffs on EV stuff from China anyhow. Hopefully as solid state takes off battery fires become a thing of the past globally.
I would absolutely avoid any of the high end EVs from China
Won't be an issue, since Chinese EV tariffs and trade restrictions are going to preclude imports entirely.
The amount of battery issues (and fires from those) and other structural problems with their more expensive EVs seems like a lot of corners are being cut.
Are you talking about a particular model? I haven't heard of any BYD vehicles exploding into flames, like the odd Tesla.
Just general news. Such as these:
https://www.semafor.com/article/02/27/2024/china-ev-battery-safety
Here's one specifically on a BYD even: https://www.scmp.com/news/hong-kong/society/article/3249963/byd-electric-car-catches-fire-hong-kong-charging-station-expert-says-short-circuit-could-be-cause
There are about 2000 fires in more than 800000 electric vehicle-related enterprises in China every year
Is a 0.000125% rate of vehicle fires considered a serious problem?
Uhhhh, I think you need to check your math there. 2000 out of 800,000 is 0.25% or 1 in 400. And while that's not high as a generality, when it comes to selling a product, especially an expensive car, that's pretty high.
For US electric vehicles, yes. And for most other nations, as your article notes. China is the exception, it seems, with much higher rates of fires occurring.
The numbers you provided are lower...
Good point! Now I'm the one who can't math. :P Though your source doesn't seem to mention the cause of the fires? I would assume the batteries, but involved in a fire can be vague. Same for the gasoline vehicles.
Meanwhile, the original source I have was fires just from the manufacturing of the cars, so not even including the numbers for the vehicles sold themselves.
Look, I understand you're trying to feel like you're right but you should just accept that compared to gas cars there's pretty much nothing to worry about, people are freaking out because EV cars are the new thing but the stats are pretty clear, gas cars fires just don't get as much coverage because gas cars are the norm.
Eh, I wouldn't say there's nothing to worry about: Worry about taking good care of your batteries is wise. So is avoiding cheap shoddy batteries and bikes that don't have any protections built in.
Take care of your batteries: Don't charge them when frozen, avoid extreme heat, protect them from impact/damage, and regularly inspect both your battery and bike's systems to keep yourself (and your bike) safe.
That said, yeah, cars are still way more dangerous statistically speaking even when only talking about fires.
I wouldn't say there's nothing to worry about: Worry about taking good care of your batteries is wise.
Don't charge them when frozen, protect them from impact/damage, and regularly inspect both your battery and bike's systems to keep yourself (and your bike) safe.
Any amount is a serious problem that should be addressed by improved safety IMO. Hoping that solid state batteries pretty much eliminate fires but I guess we'll see.
Any amount is a serious problem
An incidence of failure that low can more readily be attributed to human error than manufacture's defect. The idea that Chinese vehicles are less safe than their American or Japanese counterparts is not born out by your citations.
Could be, but why not engineer against human error too? Seems like a very sensible thing to do: Make your products easy to use safely. No such thing as perfect but it should still be an important factor in engineering/designing anything. It can be tough to compromise between usability and safety but a really good design finds ways to meet both requirements.
In NA, vehicle fires happen at the following rates per 100k sales per year:
Hybrid : 3,474
Gas : 1,523
EV : 25.1
If the proposed 2,000 per 800,000 is accurate that works out to 250/100k per year. Or way lower than everything but EVs in NA.
And you would trust the cheaper vehicles? You think they use better parts in cheap cars?