I'll just put this here. A new Rivian owner thinking about going to a Tacoma.

Those that think themselves impartial but argue from the most biased perspective ouut there are the most hilarious.

 

Why would you think that? What's wrong with weighing the pros and cons to lithium ion batteries? Current battery technology could be the wose part EV. I don't believe LI batteries are inherently bad, or make EV bad. If there is better battery technology out there, as claimed lets see it in practice. Is the risk of fire any less prevalent with solid state, and other battery tech? If yes that's an improvement. If no and the risk is the same, and there are other benefits that can be considered an improvement as well.

As far as the crashes go it would be interesting to see if it's FSD causing or contributing to the crashes. What's wrong with finding out if it is or isn't a factor. I'm not a proponent for autonomous driving of any kind, but I wouldn't be surprised if it isn't more driver error involved. Maybe a combination of people trying to rely on the autonomous system and not paying attention.

Maybe it's the screen actuated controls distracting drivers and causing them to crash. Either way why not find out what it is and correct it.

 

Not remotely on topic. Where are all the winter EV at?

 

I love that you think “winter”=icey, snowy hellscape across the country

 

Again, two questions:

was salt water immersion a factor in your 2012 Tacoma purchase decision?

Do you have any evidence or stories of BEVs having problems with salted roads in the northeast and rust belt?

 

No that Tacoma has no lithium ion battery that could ignite. The last two hurricane seasons produce EV that ignited after being flooded with salt water. That concerning, the easy solution would be to keep your lithium ion BEV away from saltwater storm surge.

No never heard of a BEV igniting due to salted roads. I don't think it's an issue, without the battery being submerged. There isn't much evidence to support the outcome either way. I'll be looking out for any incidents. ICE vehicles see a higher rate of fires during icey wet inclement weather events where road salt is used. Those fires are usually involve the electical system. It's not too far off to think EV vehicles could also see more electical system fires in the same conditions.

 

Mine was daily driven, never garaged, never washed, always parked in mud, frequently towed with and miraculously did not catch on fire all winter long.

 

How much salt did you drive on and how frequently?

 

Every day.

 

A saltwater flood event totals any vehicle. So you should keep them away from salt water storm surge, or just, you know, have insurance. For me, and any other buyer who isn’t trying to save a salvage title flood car, this is a nonissue

as for the second part, we have a decade and a half of BEVs in salted winter conditions. Do you have any evidence (even anectdotal) that they’re igniting?

 

I don't even really want to ask, how many days, how many hours a day how much snow/ice accumulation, was it wet or mostly frozen, what was the relative humidity, was it sodium chloride, or other salting agents, was it an aggregate application applied on top of the already fallen precipitation, was there a liquid brine solution applied prior to the falling precip, what was temperature when driving?

There are so many variables that could apply that could produce a different outcome.

What happens if your truck makes its way to the northeast and is driven for the three winters. We don't know that the battery cell has been or will be compromised in the future and could ignite due to driving on wet salty roads.

 

Damn you’re really trying hard to create a problem where one doesn’t exist

 

You are skipping the part that the battery could potentially ignite post flooding, that's not an issue on ICE vehicles. That's not an issue for the owner once the vehicles is gone. It's a big deal for anyone in possession of the vehicle after it's been flooded.

 

I doubt if it's a problem, but the circumstances that have an influence on winter driving are varied. It's going to take some time to come to a definitive conclusion.

 

Yeah the time has already come and passed and the conclusion has been reached. Over a decade of Tesla's on the road now with less than 200 that have ever caught fire.

 

Man I really give a lot of shit about salvage title saltwater flood cars having problems.

 

So the past decade and a half haven’t given you what you need?

 

Not really. Just for shits I added up the number of EVs registered in most states that get significant snowfall, not including CA, OR and WA since there’s a ton of variability in those climates. That leaves 270,700 vehicles. The Federal Highway Administration lists the average miles driven per year in the US as 14,263 miles. Assuming full on winter conditions exist for 4 months of the year that’s 4754 miles per vehicle or a total of 12,869,078,000 every year in the winter. Nearly 13 billion miles a year aren’t enough to say there’s not a predominant issue of EVs catching on fire in the winter?

 

I've never seen an EV fire in the winter. I'd put fire due to crash in a separate category, and have not seen any of those either. I do notice less EV in the road during the colder months. I doubt if most EV drivers are driving in inclement conditions. Most people will stay home if given the chance, most EV drivers have a 2nd vehicle that's probably an AWD or 4x4 SUV or CUV.

Do I think EV are prone to battery fires due to road salt? No.

I haven't seen many Rivians on the before the beginning of 23, and maybe December 23. I would expect Rivians to be the most popular vehicles to see road time in winter precipitation.