Ker-boom! Florida Officials Warn as Multiple Explosions Continue

When it comes to electric cars, they’re not exactly everything they’ve been cracked up to be.

Many states lack the power grid to support an all electric fleet of vehicles. The replacement cost of the batteries is astronomical. And now, owners must fear the possibility that their car could actually EXPLODE!

I know what you’re thinking, “fat chance”, right? Obviously this sounds like something straight out of a movie scene. But I assure you, this isn’t science fiction. This is cold hard fact.

Fox News explains:

A top Florida state official warned Thursday that firefighters have battled a number of fires caused by electric vehicle (EV) batteries waterlogged from Hurricane Ian.

EV batteries that have been waterlogged in the wake of the hurricane are at risk of corrosion, which could lead to unexpected fires, according to Jimmy Patronis, the state’s top financial officer and fire marshal.

“There’s a ton of EVs disabled from Ian. As those batteries corrode, fires start,” Patronis tweeted Thursday. “That’s a new challenge that our firefighters haven’t faced before. At least on this kind of scale.”

“It takes special training and understanding of EVs to ensure these fires are put out quickly and safely,” he continued in a follow-up tweet. “Thanks to [North Collier Fire Rescue] for their hard work.”

Patronis published a video of firefighters in Naples, Florida, battling a fire started from a Tesla EV’s battery. A bystander is overheard in the video saying that the crew had used hundreds of gallons of water attempting to put the fire out.

Last week, Hurricane Ian pummeled cities along Florida’s west coast including Naples and Fort Myers, making landfall as a Category 4 storm. The hurricane caused more than 100 deaths and over a million residents to lose power.

It is unclear how many EVs were impacted or destroyed by the storm.

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Will Biden Take Responsibility?

I can’t help but wonder if Biden will own the fact that he’s been pushing Americans to replace their current vehicles with EVs. In fact, he wants EV sales to make up 50% of the market share by 2030. He’s even implemented a tax credit of up to $7,500 per EV purchase in the recent “Inflation Reduction Act,” (which, by the way, is failing to reduce inflation).

However, before taxpayers jump at the credit, consumers should really do their research. I was shocked to learn that the cost of simple maintenance is almost as pricey as the actual car.

In a recent article, I wrote:

Did you see the recent tweet showing what a person was charged to replace the battery in their Chevy Volt?

The battery cost more to replace than the CAR! It would cost the owner over $29,000 to replace his battery. Ironically, he could get another Volt for that price. That’s if they continued to make the ill-fated vehicle, as they were discontinued in 2019.
Worse, the battery needed to be replaced around 70,000 miles. That’s about one-fifth the driving distance people expect to get out of a car these days.

To be fair, I did a little research to make sure this estimate was legit. And it actually is 100% real. However, I was told by the dealership that other battery replacements on the newer model types is much cheaper. You can get one of the newer batteries for anywhere between $9,000 and $12,000 usually.
Wait, read that again. Who has $10k sitting in the bank for a new car battery? I’m cranky when I spend $150 on mine. No wonder Elon Musk, THE maker of electric vehicles, expressed his adulation for “black energy”.
But now we’re not just talking maintenance costs and electric grids. We’re talking lives. The fact that our first responders aren’t equipped to deal with this exploding car phenomenon is unthinkable.

Tweeters Weigh In

Luckily, common sense doesn’t escape all of us. It still exists, even in the Twittersphere.

I must say, that’s an intriguing theory. I often tell my family that I would hate an electric car because gas-stops on road trips would suddenly go from five minutes to two or three hours. Who wants to travel like that? But I never stopped to think maybe that’s the point- immobilizing a nation fed up with its government.

Either way, you won’t catch me driving a car that needs a $10k battery and might explode if we come into contact with mother nature. This mama has four-wheel drive, need I say more?

 

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