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Will Hurricanes Prompt More Purchases of Electric Cars? (msn.com) 329

Days after a hurricane struck America's southeast, Florida's state's fire marshall "confirmed 16 lithium-ion battery fires related to storm surge," according to local news reports. "Officials said six of those fires are associated with electric vehicles and they are working with fire departments statewide to gather more data." (Earlier this year America's federal transportation safety agency estimated that after a 2022 hurricane "about 36 EVs caught on fire. In several instances, the fire erupted while the impacted EVs were being towed on their flatbed trailers.")

But Tuesday, when over 1 million Americans were without electricity, the Atlantic pointed out the other side of the story. "EV owners are using their cars to keep the lights on." When Hurricane Helene knocked out the power in Charlotte, North Carolina, on Friday, Dustin Baker, like many other people across the Southeast, turned to a backup power source. His just happened to be an electric pickup truck. Over the weekend, Baker ran extension cords from the back of his Ford F-150 Lightning, using the truck's battery to keep his refrigerator and freezer running. It worked so well that Baker became an energy Good Samaritan. "I ran another extension cord to my neighbor so they could run two refrigerators they have," he told me.

Americans in hurricane territory have long kept diesel-powered generators as a way of life, but electric cars are a leap forward. An EV, at its most fundamental level, is just a big battery on wheels that can be used to power anything, not only the car itself. Some EVs pack enough juice to power a whole home for several days, or a few appliances for even longer. In the aftermath of Helene, as millions of Americans were left without power, many EV owners did just that. A vet clinic that had lost power used an electric F-150 to keep its medicines cold and continue seeing patients during the blackout. One Tesla Cybertruck owner used his car to power his home after his entire neighborhood lost power.

One Louisiana man just ran cords straight from the outlets in the bed of his Tesla Cybertruck, according to the article. "We were able to run my internet router and TV, [plus] lamps, refrigerator, a window AC unit, and fans, as well as several phone, watch, and laptop chargers." Over the course of about 24 hours, he said, all of this activity ran his Cybertruck battery down from 99 percent to 80 percent...

Bidirectional charging may prove to be the secret weapon that sells electrification to the South, which has generally remained far behind the West and the Northeast in electric-vehicle purchases. If EVs become widely seen as the best option for blackouts, they could entice not just the climate conscious but also the suburban dads in hurricane country with a core belief in prepping for anything. It will take a lot to overcome the widespread distrust of EVs and anxiety about a new technology, but our loathing of power outages just might do the trick.

The article notes that Tesla has confirmed all its electric vehicles will support bidirectional charging by 2025.
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Will Hurricanes Prompt More Purchases of Electric Cars?

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  • Or less? (Score:2, Informative)

    An electric car is more dangerous than a gas car if it has flooded.
    • Re:Or less? (Score:4, Funny)

      by Anonymous Coward on Saturday October 05, 2024 @10:43AM (#64841841)

      All part of a plot by democrats. Did you know they can control the weather now? https://www.newsweek.com/marjo... [newsweek.com]

    • Re:Or less? (Score:5, Informative)

      by Baron_Yam ( 643147 ) on Saturday October 05, 2024 @11:01AM (#64841871)

      If you live in a flood zone, you prep for living in a flood zone.

      Spoiler: Very few people prep for living in a flood zone when they live in a flood zone. Instead, they think it'll never affect them and hope for government relief when it does.

      • Re:Or less? (Score:5, Informative)

        by PleaseThink ( 8207110 ) on Saturday October 05, 2024 @02:35PM (#64842359)

        Most of those people don't realize they live in a flood zone. Here's a good article on the issue: https://www.washingtonpost.com... [washingtonpost.com]

        In summary, FEMA's flood risk maps are outdated. When FEMA tries to update them, local governments push back because they don't want more areas to be labeled as flood zones. Further, FEMA only takes into account flooding from water ways. They don't take into account direct rainfall based flooding. Meaning if a thunderstorm hovers over your city and drops 10 inches of rain, none of that flooding will be on the maps. You'd need to look at your local elevation and sewer maps to figure out if you'd flood or not. Frankly, that's something the open source community could take care of. A bit of software that takes an elevation map and lets you fill it in with different levels of water. Super extra credit if it can take sewer overflows into account too.

      • Re:Or less? (Score:5, Insightful)

        by ihavesaxwithcollies ( 10441708 ) on Saturday October 05, 2024 @03:13PM (#64842427)

        Spoiler: Very few people prep for living in a flood zone when they live in a flood zone. Instead, they think it'll never affect them and hope for government relief when it does.

        Conservatism 101: The government is the devil and taxes are evil, until they need help. Then, it's open hands and "Money. please.".

    • Re:Or less? (Score:4, Insightful)

      by AmiMoJo ( 196126 ) on Saturday October 05, 2024 @11:48AM (#64841941) Homepage Journal

      Is there any statistical evidence to back this up? The high voltage systems are very carefully protected in most vehicles, with fuses and disconnects.

      All EVs also have a HV disconnect that you can manually remove if you are worried about flooding.

    • Older EV's yes, but newer are less prone to it, and future EV's even more so. It's not like ICE cars don't get on fire due to a shortcircuit or a fuel leak and a hot engine (happens even more as with EV's).
    • An electric car is more dangerous than a gas car if it has flooded.

      If your car has flooded, it's totaled. Can't say I'm overly concerned that a worthless, ruined car might catch fire. That'd be a problem for the junk yard, not me.

    • An electric car is more dangerous than a gas car if it has flooded.

      Well, you could always jump in the water over by the shark. Then you wouldn't get electrocuted...

  • by TeknoHog ( 164938 ) on Saturday October 05, 2024 @10:47AM (#64841855) Homepage Journal
    The elephant in the room seems to be global warming; gas guzzlers are making the hurricanes more frequent and worse. But it's nice that EVs can be both the immediate solution to the small first-world problem, and a long-term solution to the big problem.
    • Yeah, except for the glaringly obvious fact that hurricanes have gotten neither more frequent nor worse. Instead, human habitation has expanded farther into flood plains and become significantly more expensive to replace.

  • by geekmux ( 1040042 ) on Saturday October 05, 2024 @11:16AM (#64841893)

    Will home insurance companies treat you new EV like a rabid pit bull after enough of them raze the entire house before the fire can be put out?

    Bonus points if you can answer what happens to insurance rates when you don’t even own one of those newfangled rolling blowtorches, but your neighbors all do, and all of their battery-torching reserves proved more than enough to level your house too.

    • Re: (Score:2, Informative)

      They don't even have to be your neighbors. If it is a national company than any fires in the nation affect your rates.
    • by dcooper_db9 ( 1044858 ) on Saturday October 05, 2024 @11:42AM (#64841925)
      Do you think keeping a gas-powered vehicle in the house is safe? How many people have died from carbon monoxide poisoning because they left the car running in the garage? How many fires have been fueled by gasoline fumes? How many car engines have caught fire?
      • How many people have died from carbon monoxide poisoning because they left the car running in the garage?

        Just the ones who are really sad and the ones that are really stupid. Besides, modern cars have catalytic converters which have around a 74% efficiency at turning carbon monoxide into carbon dioxide (thus completing the combustion) so it is apparently quite difficult to die that way with a modern vehicle.

    • by Ksevio ( 865461 )

      No one asks that because it's a pointless question. EVs (especially newer ones) are significantly safer than ICE vehicles in terms of fires. There are some cases with some models where if the entire vehicle is submerged then it could short circuit, but that's only applicable to houses in flood zones and then the house is likely ruined anyways

  • No (Score:3, Insightful)

    by dcooper_db9 ( 1044858 ) on Saturday October 05, 2024 @11:37AM (#64841917)
    A portable generator costs about $1000. A Cybertruck costs $80,000. Besides, hurricanes can knock out power for weeks. What happens when the battery runs out? Now you have a dead vehicle and nothing to run your fridge.
    • Re:No (Score:5, Insightful)

      by ShanghaiBill ( 739463 ) on Saturday October 05, 2024 @11:51AM (#64841947)

      What happens when the battery runs out?

      I recharge from my solar panels.

      What happens when your generator runs out of gas?

    • A portable generator costs about $1000. A Cybertruck costs $80,000. Besides, hurricanes can knock out power for weeks. What happens when the battery runs out? Now you have a dead vehicle and nothing to run your fridge.

      Yes, if you have a generator, you are hopefully not siphoning gas out of your car to run it. Running your fridge should not come at the expense of driving range if you decide you do have to leave after all.

    • >> hurricanes can knock out power for weeks

      So where are you going to get your gasoline?

      • So where are you going to get your gasoline?

        From the stockpile. Gasoline is far more energy dense than batteries, and thus easy to store. Granted you do want to cycle through it so it does not get old. This is easy if you have other gas powered tools like lawnmowers, chainsaws, trimmers, etc.

    • Re:No (Score:4, Insightful)

      by thegarbz ( 1787294 ) on Saturday October 05, 2024 @12:44PM (#64842069)

      The thing about power outages is you can't get gas because the gas stations don't have power to run their pumps. Sure you can store a weeks worth of hazardous highly flammable material in your home, but I hope you cycle through it regularly or you'll find when that disaster strikes your generator shits itself from being fed expired fuel.

      I find Americans funny. You should visit some other parts of the world and expand your mind. There's a reason poor struggling people off the grid with shithouse power connections have solar panels and batteries at home. - Far more reliable and available than gas.

      Besides, hurricanes can knock out power for weeks. What happens when the battery runs out?

      The battery of a large EV can power necessities for weeks. Contrary to popular believe, running your entire house's AC is not a necessity during a disaster.

      A portable generator costs about $1000. A Cybertruck costs $80,000.

      I can't ride a portable generator to work. No one is buying a Cybertruck just to use it as a battery. Use your brain a bit when making comparisons or you start to sound really stupid.

      • Around where I am, the emergency crews always get certain crucial grids up first so there is normally at least one gas station soon following the event.
      • Contrary to popular believe, running your entire house's AC is not a necessity during a disaster.

        That depends where you live. It gets absolutely miserable here in Florida without air conditioning, and I do have a few window units that I run from my portable generator during an outage. You'd never be able to convince me that a good night's sleep isn't worth the fuel costs.

    • A portable generator costs about $1000. A Cybertruck costs $80,000.

      A generator that can run the essentials (fridge, lights, fans, and phone charging) is still under about $400, if you're not overly concerned about waiting for a sale. The cheapest new EV is the Chevy Equinox EV at $33.6k. Otherwise, your point still stands.

    • by tlhIngan ( 30335 )

      A portable generator costs about $1000. A Cybertruck costs $80,000. Besides, hurricanes can knock out power for weeks. What happens when the battery runs out? Now you have a dead vehicle and nothing to run your fridge.

      A portable generator is something that sits around like a lump until it's needed. An EV can be used in non-emergency situations.

      Like stuff that sits around, if you don't properly maintain it, it might not work when you need to, in which case you have a $1000 non-working generator. Maybe you're

  • So, how does one charge an EV then? Add a bit of flooding making life even more fun for the life electric.
    • So, how does one charge an EV then? Add a bit of flooding making life even more fun for the life electric.

      Solar panels would be a good start. How do you fill up your gas car? Oh right you don't, the power is out and gasoline stations can't run their pumps - something that somehow surprises drivers despite it being discussed literally during every disaster.

  • One Louisiana man just ran cords straight from the outlets in the bed of his Tesla Cybertruck, according to the article. "We were able to run my internet router and TV, [plus] lamps, refrigerator, a window AC unit, and fans, as well as several phone, watch, and laptop chargers."

    Nice that this guy is getting some use from his purchase considering it's on its fith recall [cnn.com] since last year.

    • Just to be really clear, I have a very low opinion of Tesla's Cybertruck. That said, I can't help but find it amusing that people who never have anything nice to say about EVs simultaneously believe that the infrastructure to support them should magically appear from nowhere with no subsidies of any kind, but are silent about the fact that the fully mature fossil fuel sector still receives billions of dollars in subsidies every year, thus making gas-guzzling trucks and SUVs "affordable".

  • by Malay2bowman ( 10422660 ) on Saturday October 05, 2024 @01:53PM (#64842261)
    There is going to be a lot of "salvage" cars flooding the market in the coming months. These are flood damaged cars that have been "cleaned up" and sold as used or even new by crooked sellers. The damage won't be immediately apparent and the cars might look and even run just fine, but there is corrosion and damage to the electrical system and other problems that will start to show up later on. And this can lead to fires, in both ICE and EV cars. This is why you need to thoroughly check the car for any signs of flood damage/cowboy repairs such as "funny smells" or the overuse of chemicals to try to mask such smells, corrosion hidden under carpeting or panels, or anywhere else which is not immediately visible, slightly mismatched carpet or paneling, and other subtle things that seem "off" before making a purchase.
  • by WaffleMonster ( 969671 ) on Saturday October 05, 2024 @02:11PM (#64842309)

    It is so dumb having chemistries that produce oxygen triggering ridiculous cascading failures in gigantic battery packs with literally thousands of cells. The industry needs to switch to LFP or solid state or something that isn't so inherently dangerous.

  • by MtViewGuy ( 197597 ) on Saturday October 05, 2024 @05:21PM (#64842589)

    Like it or not, due to several REALLY bad incidents of battery fires with the originally defective battery pack on the Chevrolet Bolt and Bolt EUV, people are still highly skeptical of buying an EV, since EV's use lithium-ion battery packs with liquid electrolytes, which are highly vulnerable to igniting and the fires are just about impossible to extinguish once the fire starts.

    This is why there is a major technological race to perfect solid state batteries. By eliminating the flammable electrolytes, that makes EV's a lot safer, and because of the higher storage density of solid state batteries, it also means much lighter EV's for the given range compared to today's vehicles.

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