Friday, 22 April 2022
Fundamentally immature.
Karl D. Stephan has a piece in Mercatornet on electric vehicles and their main problem - battery technology.
The underlying problem in electric-car battery fires is the technology. You may not be aware that the liquid or gel electrolyte in the type of lithium battery used in electric vehicles cannot be exposed to air without catching fire. This is one reason that manufacturing such a battery is so tricky.
We already know about the fires, but it's a fairly short piece and worth reading. I was particularly struck by this observation for example.
Do you think military tank drivers go ten thousand miles without needing any service, or astronauts think they’ll be able to ride their rockets for ten thousand launches without having any problems? Yet we start a car several times a day for years and expect nothing to go wrong.
It’s that kind of standard that every electric-vehicle battery is expected to meet, and the wonder is that they have come this far. Pardon an old technologist for making a statement that is more intuitive than fact-based, but when I look at a typical EV battery that consists of several thousand individually-manufactured, hermetically sealed, and electrically insulated cells, I see a technology that is fundamentally immature.
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7 comments:
There have not been many technological advances in batteries since they were used in the electric cars of the 1920s (which used lead-acid ones).
The problem is increasing the energy-density inevitably also increases the hazards: toxic chemicals and/or flammability.
And unlike the infamous Ford Pinto, with its petrol tank vulnerable to rear-end crashes, all these electric vehicles have opted for floor-panel batteries. So, perhaps safer than a Pinto if rear-ended, but liable to be damaged in many other crash variations and, if perforated, then burn.
So definitely an immature technology, being pushed on us with little concern for these inherent dangers. Locked doors after a crash, with flames shooting out from below? Get out anyway you can or be cremated. For safety, always carry a window glass breaker in an electric car.
"If the best you can say about electric car fires is that they’re no worse than fires in gas-powered ones, that’s faint praise"
But when a conventional vehicle catches fire it can be extinguished, using normal equipment, and without the risk of it suddenly flaring up again - and again...
I'm quite attracted to the idea of a hybrid that you can, at a pinch, use to power your house by using it as a generator. But probably we'll just keep our diesel as long as possible. (It's only 17 years old.)
Batteries are basically bombs. All those stored kWhrs being released in a very short time. And they do not need oxygen to "burn". So the conventional method s of putting out a fire do not work. Starving it of oxygen, getting the temperature below that which will sustain the fire.
A lithium battery in a thermal runaway state will melt steel and cause aluminium and it's alloys and any composite to burn.
And all this produced nasty toxic fumes. You do not want to be in the vicinity.
I certainly agree that it's 'immature technology'. As I've mentioned before, I spent the last ten years of my working life building, cutting open and assaying the very li-ion cells under discussion, albeit in the aerospace not the automotive industry. Whilst it's not correct to say that there haven't been many technological changes in batteries since the 1920s, their application to the automotive sector is political. And we all know where science and technology driven by a political narrative ends up. Ignominious failure!
Sleepy Joe has announced that the USA will be spending billions to manufacture electric versions of all military vehicles.
As tanks are regulary turned into infernos now would anyone want to drive a battery powered version or anything else likely to come under fire.
Ed - and there is an unknown age problem. Do the cars become more dangerous through thousands of miles of mechanical vibration affecting the integrity of the battery?
microdave - that's seems to be the issue, problems putting the fires out permanently. Plus the fumes of course.
dearieme - I quite like the idea too, but even here, bureaucratic interference could be an issue.
Doonhamer - I wouldn't want it to be anywhere near the house either, or a school.
Tammly - yes, battery application to the automotive sector is political and as you say, this kind of meddling leads to failure. Unfortunately this one may be too big to fail so we may be stuck with whatever comes our way.
Wiggia - and of course weapons will be developed to target the battery.
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