Why is the UK govt taking so long to sort out legislation for escooters?
Why do escooters get treated so differently to ebikes as well? Fundamentally, they're the same thing, just one has a seat. The van both be modified to be illegal. They can both be ridden illegally.
Yet ebikes are already covered by law and escooters are not.
#EV#battery repair is dangerous. Here’s why mechanics want to do it anyway.
Fixing car and #ebike batteries saves money and resources — but challenges are holding back the industry.
by Maddie Stone, Dec 08, 2023
"About three times a day, Rich Benoit gets a call to his auto shop, The Electrified Garage, from the owner of an older Tesla Model S whose car battery has begun to fail. The battery, which used to provide several hundred miles of range, might suddenly only last 50 miles on a single charge. These cars are often out of warranty, and the cost of replacing the battery can exceed $15,000.
"For most products, repair is a more affordable option than replacement. And in theory, lots of these Tesla batteries can be fixed, said Benoit, who runs one of the few Tesla-focused independent repair shops in the United States. But due to the time and training involved, the safety considerations, and the complexity of the repair, Benoit said that the bill to fix one car battery at his shop might run upwards of $10,000 — more than most consumers are willing to pay. Instead, he said, many choose to sell or donate their old vehicle for scrap and buy a brand new Tesla.
“'It’s getting to the point where [the car] is almost like a consumable, like a TV,' Benoit said.
"Benoit’s experience heralds a problem that early adopters of EVs, as well as electric micromobility devices like e-bikes and #escooters, are beginning to face: These vehicles contain big, expensive batteries that will inevitably degrade or stop working over time. Repairing these batteries can have sustainability benefits, saving energy and resources that would otherwise be used to manufacture a new one. That’s particularly important for EVs, which contain very large batteries that must be used for years to offset the carbon emissions associated with making them.
But many EV and e-mobility batteries are difficult to repair by design, and some manufacturers actively discourage the practice, citing safety concerns. The small number of independent mechanics who repair EV or e-bike batteries struggle to do so affordably due to design challenges, safety requirements, and a lack of access to spare parts.
“'There are a lot of automakers who do not allow battery repair, even in case of minor damages to the battery case,' a GDV spokesperson told Grist. Automakers sometimes choose to replace the battery if the car was involved in an accident that caused the airbags to activate. Both practices 'will lead to an increase of repair costs,' and ultimately, higher insurance premiums, the spokesperson said.
"New rules around EV battery repairability would come at a critical time. Helps, of Cox Automotive, said that two trends in EV battery design are occurring in parallel: 'Batteries are either becoming very serviceable, or not serviceable at all.'
"Some, like the batteries inside Volkswagon’s ID.4, feature LEGO-like modules that are easy to remove and replace. Others, like Tesla’s new 4680 structural battery pack, don’t include modules at all. Instead, all of the cells are bonded together and bonded to the pack itself, a design Helps described as 'impossible to service.' If a bad cell group is found, the entire battery must be replaced.
“'It’s still a fully #recyclable battery,' Helps said. 'You’re just not able to repair it.'
"#Tesla didn’t respond to Grist’s request for comment."
"Sometimes batteries stop holding charges. It's something we see with household rechargeable batteries, and it's a design flaw that needs to be fixed."
You cant compare a single cell to a battery pack with smart advanced safety and management functions.
@DoomsdaysCW e-bike batteries have 1% as much energy, and 1/10th of the voltage of electric cars. They can easily be replaced without special tools or safety equipment, but modern cells will last for thousands of miles. In my experience, we replaced 3x car miles with cargo bike miles (largely by replacing car trips to farther places with bike trips to parks and more local destinations) nearly 30k gas-fueled car miles displaced by #eBikes with just about 10lb of lithium-ion battery.
A ban on rental electric scooters went into effect in Paris on Friday after Parisians voted to remove the devices from the city's streets earlier this year.
The French capital is the first in Europe to ban the rented vehicles from its streets after it was also one of the first major cities to embrace them in 2018.
The mayor of Paris, Anne Hidalgo, had advocated for removing scooters, saying it would reduce "nuisance."
Heard today at the platform that #escooters are banned on #UK#trains but #ebikes are not. This seems to be due to the recent highly publicised incidents of the scooters catching fire. Can't the same happen to ebikes?
Feels reactionary to me. We should be encouraging more electric options for transport not less. I hope this is temporary.
@whylamb yeah, battery technology is fundamentally dangerous at the moment. I think people just don't realize they have a bomb in their pockets or their fancy new bikes and go full reactionary when the slightest flaws get discovered. I don't know the story about the escooters, but my ebike came with several warning pages, including one big one in big text about taking proper care of the battery.
Do you know how far along sodium batteries are? I haven't really heard anything about them.
@timelordiroh I don't know how far along they are. I keep seeing posts on Mastodon saying they are "right around the corner" but people have been saying the same thing for years about plastic alternatives and self driving cars.