Electric Cars Are Unsafe, Even When Parked.
Worldwide demand for electric cars is dropping, as evidenced by Tesla's recent price reductions and a very soft market for used EV's. Although the raw numbers may suggest demand is surging, when you analyze the data you see that sales are lifted by large government subsidies (tax incentives) and markdowns that help bring the cost of ownership closer to conventional vehicles. It's reasonable to assume that without the subsidies and price drops, many EV buyers would opt for rides powered by gas or diesel. The EV's that people are buying are primarily new ones with factory warranties. The used EV car market has seriously declined as consumers worry about battery life and the potential for fires in older battery packs.
Of course, new electric vehicles burst into flames all the time, often with no warning. And when they do, there's nothing firefighters can do except wait for the fire to burn out on its own. While petrol powered cars catch fire more often than electric cars, the petrol powered car fires can be put out very quickly, sometimes with a handheld extinguisher. The fires in electric cars can't be put out by conventional means. Firefighters use as much as 20,000 gallons of water on an EV fire, and in one case they simply dug a big hole, filled it with water, and dumped an entire car into the hole. EV fires also produce hazardous chemicals such as hydrogen fluoride, which is highly toxic to first responders and spectators. The fires are so hot they can destroy the reinforced concrete in parking garages, potentially leading to structural collapse and mass casualties. The risk is so great, parking garages are beginning to ban EV's and hybrids from their facilities. Weight is another concern for parking garages, as they were never engineered to support the weight of electric vehicles. A typical petrol powered car weighs between 2800 and 3800 pounds. By comparison, a Tesla 3 weighs 4100 pounds, a Tesla X weighs 5250 pounds, a Ford F-150 Lightning Extended-Range weighs 6600 pounds, and a GMC Hummer EV hits the scales at a staggering 9100 pounds! While having a few of these sitting on a parking deck is probably safe, these structures were never intended to be filled with heavy EV's. At some point in the future expect to read about a catastrophic parking deck collapse, followed by lithium battery fires that consume every vehicle parked in it and probably a lot of people, too.
Another safety concern is EMF radiation from the batteries, motors, and various electronic devices in EV's:
"According to a study by Scripps Clinic Research Foundation, high levels of EMF from EVs make the drivers drowsy and sleepy while driving. Based on the study, drivers who are exposed to high levels of EMF while driving are likely to sleep 52 minutes faster than those exposed to low levels of EMF. In addition, exposure to radiation while driving can result in headaches, neck stiffness, and dry eyes or blurred vision. Long-term exposure to these sources of EMF radiation may have long-term health complications. According to Dr. Joel Moskowitz at the University of California Berkeley, hybrid cars and other electric cars have increased levels of ELF that cause cancer, increase the level of oxidative stress that leads to DNA fragmentation, cause cell damage, fertility issues, drowsiness, etc." [source: EMFGuardTips.com]
If all these reasons aren't enough to make you think twice about buying an electric vehicle, at least have some concern for the people living in extreme poverty and working in unbearably harsh conditions mining the rare earth minerals used to produce EV batteries. Having affluent people take advantage of tax breaks while the world's most vulnerable people are making less than a dollar a day in brutal work camps hardly seems like an enlightened path forward. And the environmental damage done by extracting those minerals will no doubt come back to haunt us...even those of us with the good sense to buy gasoline instead of electrons.
