You cannot just slot EV's in where cars are without some adjustment. A glimmer of hope for this state?
Yet another thing that politicians and EV boosters aren't telling us.
I learned something recently about EV's and hybrids, yet another thing that is not part of the discussion about switching over from internal combustion vehicles to others.
We have a hybrid, and, as I've written about before, this means that we cannot get it serviced where we live out on the Plains. It has to go to Denver to a dealership.
That's the price you pay.
But, I thought at least that some systems in the car would be the same or at least close enough that they could be serviced up here.
Recently the car started acting as though it was low on refrigerant. You know, when the AC is on and the air is cool, but not cold. There could always be other things going on, but the first thing to check is whether or not the car has enough refrigerant.
No problem I thought. I'll take it over to the mechanic that I take my other, older car to and have him check the pressures. I mean, the AC does get powered off the powertrain but AC is AC right?
No. That's not the case.
In fact, since hybrids (and esp EV's) might be running off battery power at times, the designers moved the compressor over to be powered by an electric motor running off the car's battery.**
It gets a little complicated (see the screenshot from the link below, or the link itself for a little more detail--by the way the link is from an auto parts company but I do not endorse nor vouch for them it's just that this was the best link on the issue that I could find), but the upshot here is this.
Since the AC system is run off the electrical system in the car and not just a belt, there is a small, though not zero, chance that an electrical fault could short circuit through the hoses or the oil/refrigerant running in the AC system.
So, in hybrids and EV's the refrigerant in the lines has to be different and to prevent contamination with regular refrigerant, you have to use dedicated gear to work on the AC system in an EV or hybrid.
That means, off the car goes to Denver to get the AC fixed.
The point here is that there are a whole lot of unknown unknowns that we still have to (as a society and as consumers) stumble upon with regard to hybrids and EV's.
Can you get it serviced where you live?
Does it take special equipment and or know how?
Does moving one part cause a cascade of other design changes that affect either of the above?
One more thing to remember when the media, activists, and politicians paint the rosy picture of a simple one-to-one swap: besides the big issues, we're in for a bunch of smaller, but equally tedious speed bumps along the way.
Life's more complicated than that.
**One other little niblet? Running the AC off the battery means a couple things. One if you have an EV and you're running your AC, that means less range. Also, if the battery gets low, it's often the case that the car will prioritize moving over cooling and so the AC gets locked out.
https://www.delphiautoparts.com/en-gb/resource-center/article/servicing-air-conditioning-on-hybrid-vehicles
Maybe a glimmer of hope for this state?
I've posted in the past about the attempt by the the Polis administration, through his workhorse Air Quality Control Commission (AQCC) to institute some sort of regulations on large employers for what has come to be called Employee Trip Reduction Programs, essentially a list of rules and regulations imposed by the state on employers of a certain size.
These programs have a variety of stipulations, the AQCC's former effort including things like requiring employers with more than 100 employees to take steps to reduce employee trips by 40% (an effort which would have included things like employer-purchased transit AND employer monitoring of who is driving, when, how far), and regulating parking, etc.
The Joint Transportation Committee of the Assembly was pitched a billl in late August in an effort to revive the stalled effort via a new law, but demurred. See the article linked below for more details.
Now, be aware that this doesn't mean the effort is completely dead. Again, from the article (this time quoting):
"That doesn’t mean an individual member of the TLRC — or a legislator who doesn’t sit on the committee combining the House and Senate transportation panels, for that matter — won’t run a bill mandating or incentivizing employers to work to get employees onto transit or bikes. But because legislators are limited to five bill titles (a cap against which interim committee bills don’t count) and because committee bills tend to carry more weight, the chances of a new battle arising over an employee trip-reduction program in 2024 at least appear to be reduced."
I don't know that I share the writer's optimism that the bill won't be back. With some of the rabid environmentalists and socialists in the Assembly, I wouldn't be surprised to see some effort of government control of your commute to come back.
But, I'll celebrate even a minor win now when I have it.
And I'll update if I see this effort come back.
https://tsscolorado.com/joint-transportation-committee-wont-propose-employee-trip-reduction-bill/