FUD Alert: Weight Of Electrical Vehicles Will Trigger Parking Garages To Fall Down

Ignorance will be cured by info. There isn’t a remedy for stupidity. In America, Fake Information is the temple to the excessive clergymen of silly. Within the UK, the Each day Mail fills that function. Final December, the Each day Mail ran a narrative with this scary headline: “Weight of electrical automobiles might trigger ‘catastrophic’ injury and ‘result in automotive parks collapsing’ — Engineers warn Britain’s parking amenities weren’t designed for hulking battery vehicles.”

Oh, expensive. How can that be? The reply, for these with the mind operate of a kumquat, goes one thing like this. A 1976 Ford Cortina Mk. III weighed 1.4 tons. A Tesla Mannequin 2 weighs 2.2 tons. The UK has over 6000 parking garages, a few of which had been inbuilt 1976, and had been designed to assist the burden of vehicles just like the Ford Cortina Mk. III. Concrete constructions deteriorate over time. Due to this fact, these previous garages are weaker than they had been when new. Add in the truth that electrical vehicles are heavier than vehicles had been in 1976 and — Bob’s your uncle — parking garages could be falling! We should run and inform the king!

Nicely, a treasured two-year-old might spot the fallacy in that argument. It’s often called a false equivalency and an instance could be one thing like this: Grass is a inexperienced. Grass is a plant. Due to this fact all vegetation are inexperienced. If the Each day Mail thinks its readers don’t have the mind energy to know when they’re being spoon-fed a lorry load of  bollocks, it clearly doesn’t assume a lot of its subscribers.

The Each day Mail story relies on an announcement by Chris Whapples, a structural engineer who’s a member of the British Parking Affiliation, which represents parking storage homeowners. He mentioned, “If a car is heavier than the automotive park was initially designed for, the consequences might be catastrophic. We’ve not had an incident but, however I believe it’s only a matter of time. We have now really useful {that a} loading examine is carried out on all older automotive parks and the business is responding.”

Truthful sufficient. If the burden supported by any construction exceeds the load it was designed to assist, that’s an issue. However let’s take a look at what Whapples truly mentioned. Do you see the phrases “electrical” or “EV” in his assertion? No? Then clearly what the Each day Mail has finished is put phrases within the mouth of its supply. Is that this journalism?  No, it isn’t. It’s a media outlet twisting info to swimsuit its personal editorial agenda. In different phrases, it isn’t publishing info, it’s publishing propaganda. Its readers deserve higher.

Batteries & Electrical Vehicles

We gained’t faux that the batteries in electrical vehicles aren’t heavy. They’re. However let’s not recommend that vehicles typically haven’t gotten heavier previously 40 years. Listed here are some typical vehicles bought within the UK and what they weigh. The Ford Fiesta, which often is the closest modern-day equal to that 1976 C0rtina, weighs as much as 2,720 kilos — 1,300 greater than the Cortina. An Audi A5 weighs as much as 3,990 kilos — just some shy of that Tesla Mannequin 3 the Each day Mail used to scare folks into pondering that electrical vehicles are in some way far heavier than a traditional automotive.

Let’s take a look at a couple of extra examples. Mercedes S Class — 4,775 kilos; BMW X5 — 4,863 kilos, Toyota Corolla — as much as 3,150 kilos, greater than double the burden of that 1976 Cortina. Need extra? Right here’s one to choke on. The Bentley Continental GT — 5,370 kilos.

And The Beat Goes On

You would possibly assume the kerfluffle over these scary electrical vehicles may need died down after a couple of months, however simply this week, the Telegraph determined it wanted to resurrect the story and unfold some extra Grade A horse puckey round. The one factor it added was that some parking garages have deteriorated since they had been constructed, with out specifying which of them could be affected. Why would it not try this? Might or not it’s that anti-EV forces are alive and properly and doing their greatest to make sure folks proceed to concern electrical vehicles?

We do not know, however since they determined to leap again into the fray, Enterprise Insider and MSN have now determined they too ought to be a part of the scare marketing campaign by repeating what the Telegraph reported with out doing one iota of additional digging to uncover the inaccuracies and distortions within the authentic Each day Mail story. What a tragic commentary on the state of journalism — or lack of journalism, because the case could also be.

These kinds of lies and distortions are commonplace in the present day. Auto business flacks prefer to scream about how costly vehicles are in the present day and blame the excessive costs on security and emissions rules. They fail so as to add that vehicles in the present day are fairly a bit greater than an engine, a transmission, a couple of seats, and a steering wheel (which just about describes a 1976 Ford Cortina Mk. III).

Only a few go away the manufacturing facility with out air-con, ABS, adaptive cruise management, computerized emergency braking, stability management, a sunroof, a 15-speaker sound system, and an infotainment display screen. They add in 11-way energy seats which are heated and cooled and will also have a therapeutic massage operate inbuilt.

However to listen to the anti-regulation crowd inform it, greater costs for brand new vehicles and vehicles don’t have anything to do with any of that stuff. The nanny state authorities is solely accountable. Maybe these folks would like to trip in a 1976 Ford Cortina when it will get in a collision with trendy automotive. Take a look at this video of a crash take a look at between a 1959 and a 2009 Chevrolet after which ask your self simply how silly are these individuals who complain about oppressive authorities rules.

The Energy Of FUD

We right here at CleanTechnica have been touting the benefits of electrical vehicles for greater than a decade and now we have seen a whole bunch of examples of anti-EV scare campaigns. We have now heard that individuals simply drive them into rivers and lakes when the batteries die and that they’re sporting grooves into highways due to their weight. As we speak, the story is that mining supplies for electrical vehicles will destroy the surroundings — this from individuals who don’t bat a watch when oil, fuel, and coal firms desecrate pristine areas of the world just like the Arctic in the hunt for their local weather killing fuels.

It’s time to cease believing each half-assed tweet or Fakebook submit you see. The truth that you noticed it on the web doesn’t make one thing true. We don’t dispute that electrical vehicles are heavy, however they aren’t THAT heavy. And we don’t dispute that failing constructions like parking garages shouldn’t be bolstered or torn down. However let’s cease the insanity, folks, and demand some accountability from those that purport to be automotive journalists.