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Electric vehicles may be too heavy for old parking garages: report

13 points by harambae 4y ago

yamtaddle 4y ago
The two main factors brought up when we discuss how bad huge trucks and SUVs are for safety are: 1) High weight, and 2) They're very tall (more damaging to, especially, pedestrians; resulting worse visibility makes hitting people, especially kids, more likely) Electric vehicles don't necessarily have the second problem, but do we have a sense yet of how their extra weight per se is affecting or will affect safety?
- brianwawok 4y ago
  You are assuming a fair story. This is Fox News, who just paid 700 some million dollars for lying about voting machine fraud. Do you think they care about a real issue? Are local governments having problems with parking garages? Or is it a good story for the anti-EV red narrative Fox can use for clicks and eyeballs?
deleted 4y ago
[deleted]
thatfrenchguy 4y ago
> "We have height restrictions in car parks, why not weight?" he asked. Oh this is going to backfire on conservative people with dumb only-for-groceries pick up trucks / way too big cars so quickly :). A Chevy Tahoe or a gas F-150 is heavier than a ID4 :)
tallowen 4y ago
Although electric vehicles are certainly heavier than their ICE counterparts, I would imagine that increasing in average vehicle weight is due in large part of a shift towards selling larger vehicles (pickup trucks, SUVs). More broadly, beyond parking garages I'm curious what other infrastructure will be ill suited towards the shift to bigger and heavier vehicles especially in urban environments.
teach 4y ago
This reads like a FUD piece to me, especially given the source. I'm seeing lots more of these "but here's yet ANOTHER problem with electric vehicles that nO oNe HaS tHOugHT oF YeT" articles making the rounds. It's a good sign. "First they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they fight you, then you win." - not Gandhi but often true
thelastgallon 4y ago
Not anymore. CATL has announced a new “condensed” battery with 500 Wh/kg HN discussion: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=35649935 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=35649935
petsfed 4y ago
The specious inference here is that because electric vehicles weigh more (which is true, the heaviest model of the Mercedes E-Class is actually the hybrid), we should be careful about encouraging people to own electric cars. This is the "priuses pollute more than hummers" phenomenon all over again, with the same hidden agenda, and the same absence of rigorous examination of the problem. >The report from the British Parking Association noted that some electric cars weigh more than double what popular models in the same segments did in the 1960s, due in part to their heavy battery packs. What this doesn't address is frequency of these heavier cars, especially as it pertains to their presence in parking structures, or how car weight has in general increased over time. Its true that the newest electric Hummer weighs almost a ton more than the conventional. But not every car in a parking structure is a brand-new Hummer. Should we be concerned about a Tesla Model S's weight, but not the hybrid Mercedes E Class? Which is worse for these structures, a Chevy Bolt or a Dodge Ram 3500?
jgwil2 4y ago
Big discussion 10 days ago: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=35524702 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=35524702

13 points by harambae 4y ago

The two main factors brought up when we discuss how bad huge trucks and SUVs are for safety are: 1) High weight, and 2) They're very tall (more damaging to, especially, pedestrians; resulting worse visibility makes hitting people, especially kids, more likely) Electric vehicles don't necessarily have the second problem, but do we have a sense yet of how their extra weight per se is affecting or will affect safety?

brianwawok 4y ago
You are assuming a fair story. This is Fox News, who just paid 700 some million dollars for lying about voting machine fraud. Do you think they care about a real issue? Are local governments having problems with parking garages? Or is it a good story for the anti-EV red narrative Fox can use for clicks and eyeballs?

deleted 4y ago

[deleted]

thatfrenchguy 4y ago

> "We have height restrictions in car parks, why not weight?" he asked. Oh this is going to backfire on conservative people with dumb only-for-groceries pick up trucks / way too big cars so quickly :). A Chevy Tahoe or a gas F-150 is heavier than a ID4 :)

tallowen 4y ago

Although electric vehicles are certainly heavier than their ICE counterparts, I would imagine that increasing in average vehicle weight is due in large part of a shift towards selling larger vehicles (pickup trucks, SUVs). More broadly, beyond parking garages I'm curious what other infrastructure will be ill suited towards the shift to bigger and heavier vehicles especially in urban environments.

teach 4y ago

This reads like a FUD piece to me, especially given the source. I'm seeing lots more of these "but here's yet ANOTHER problem with electric vehicles that nO oNe HaS tHOugHT oF YeT" articles making the rounds. It's a good sign. "First they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they fight you, then you win." - not Gandhi but often true

thelastgallon 4y ago

Not anymore. CATL has announced a new “condensed” battery with 500 Wh/kg HN discussion: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=35649935 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=35649935

petsfed 4y ago

The specious inference here is that because electric vehicles weigh more (which is true, the heaviest model of the Mercedes E-Class is actually the hybrid), we should be careful about encouraging people to own electric cars. This is the "priuses pollute more than hummers" phenomenon all over again, with the same hidden agenda, and the same absence of rigorous examination of the problem. >The report from the British Parking Association noted that some electric cars weigh more than double what popular models in the same segments did in the 1960s, due in part to their heavy battery packs. What this doesn't address is frequency of these heavier cars, especially as it pertains to their presence in parking structures, or how car weight has in general increased over time. Its true that the newest electric Hummer weighs almost a ton more than the conventional. But not every car in a parking structure is a brand-new Hummer. Should we be concerned about a Tesla Model S's weight, but not the hybrid Mercedes E Class? Which is worse for these structures, a Chevy Bolt or a Dodge Ram 3500?

jgwil2 4y ago

Big discussion 10 days ago: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=35524702 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=35524702