In the countryside of Mexico electricity is called “luz” (light) because that is still the main use for 95% of our neighbors (small refrigerators are coming in), and when “la luz” fails (often) they just light candles like two decades ago.
Husband and I work electronically, and bought a big reliable automatic start generator. For years I have planned to buy a big home battery when the prices come down. They have not come down.
Time to find a electric truck?
Would be interesting to compare. I have an Urban Assault Vehicle that weighs about 6000 pounds. Still on original Hankook tires at 69k. Will probably get a new set before a road trip later this summer.
Another factor with EV batteries is accidents. I don’t know the percentage of cars involved in an accident each year, but apparently insurance companies are noticing.
Insurance companies with ever-increasing frequency are writing off EVs involved in minor accidents. Some of these cars only have a few hundred miles on them…
It was the hope that EV batteries would last for at least a decade or more…But that is not what is happening. Once a battery shows damage, it’s more feasible for insurance companies to just total the entire car. And that’s especially true with EVs like the Tesla Model Y. Its battery pack is also a structural part of the car. As a result, most EV repair experts say that the Model Y battery is unrepairable.
DB2
This is a silly thing to say.
Some of these “journalists” need to spend a few hours at a modern junkyard. Most of the valuable things, like batteries, are quickly removed from the junked vehicle and sold. The less valuable things are slowly removed as well. Then the hulk remaining gets crushed and may also eventually get recycled to raw metals if economically feasible.
Where do those people think reconditioned engines or reconditioned batteries come from?
96% of car batteries are recycled. Mostly they’re busted up, the lead plates extracted, melted down and turned into new lead plates for new batteries.
Lead is lead. It doesn’t get “used up” it just gets gunked up so it can’t be effective in the electrical process anymore.
OK, but what’s your take on the rest of the paragraph about damaged batteries being unrepairable?
DB2
I was rear ended recently, resulting in only cosmetic damage to the bumper and spare tire cover. I thought about blowing it off, but hey, it is my car and I want it to look nice and the other guy is paying so I took it to the shop.
I assumed they would simply buff it out and repaint, or maybe just buff it out. Instead the insurance company replaced both the otherwise perfectly good bumper and spare tire cover. $3500 to repair some paint scratches. I was astonished. I asked the body shop guys about it, and they said that’s just how it works.
But it would be silly to conclude from that episode that car bumpers don’t last.
By the way, the other guy’s insurance company was Allstate. Outstanding to work with.