Experts warn electric vehicle weight threatens road safety and infrastructure

By Susan Ferrechio - The Washington Times - Updated: 6:50 p.m. on Monday, February 12, 2024

Safety experts are grappling with an array of infrastructure burdens and dangers associated with electric vehicles, which can weigh up to 50% more than traditional automobiles thanks to their heavy lithium-ion batteries.

Heavy electric vehicles damage roads, bridges and parking garages. Some can plow through highway safety guardrails and pose a greater danger to gasoline-powered cars, pedestrians and bicyclists. The problems associated with EVs are poised to grow as more consumers buy them under the Biden administration’s plan to eliminate gas-powered vehicles and the tailpipe emissions that come with them.

In January, a group of engineers writing for Structure magazine warned that construction industries must adapt the nation’s infrastructure to support an increase in heavier electric vehicles.

The authors said parking garages are an example of infrastructure threatened by an increase in EVs, such as the Ford F-150 Lightning, which at 8,240 pounds weighs nearly 1,800 pounds more than Ford’s bestselling, gas-powered F-150.

“Significantly increasing passenger vehicle weights combined with recently reduced structural design requirements will result in reduced factors of safety and increased maintenance and repair costs for parking structures,” the engineers wrote. “There are many cases of parking structure failures, and the growing demand for EVs will only increase the probability of failure.”

Another scary EV safety threat unfolded this fall at the Midwest Roadside Safety Facility in Nebraska.

Engineers pitted an electric-powered pickup truck against a standard highway guardrail.

They chose one of the heaviest EVs on the market — the 3.6-ton Rivian R1 — and sent it speeding straight toward the metal guardrail at 62 miles per hour.

In a second experiment, engineers hurtled a Rivian down the road at the same speed and steered it into the guardrail at an angle.

In both cases, the Rivians ripped through the guardrail and continued onto the other side of the road.

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https://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2024/feb/12/experts-warn-elect...

 

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Maine Center For Public Interest Reporting – Three Part Series: A CRITICAL LOOK AT MAINE’S WIND ACT

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(excerpts) From Part 1 – On Maine’s Wind Law “Once the committee passed the wind energy bill on to the full House and Senate, lawmakers there didn’t even debate it. They passed it unanimously and with no discussion. House Majority Leader Hannah Pingree, a Democrat from North Haven, says legislators probably didn’t know how many turbines would be constructed in Maine if the law’s goals were met." . – Maine Center for Public Interest Reporting, August 2010 https://www.pinetreewatchdog.org/wind-power-bandwagon-hits-bumps-in-the-road-3/From Part 2 – On Wind and Oil Yet using wind energy doesn’t lower dependence on imported foreign oil. That’s because the majority of imported oil in Maine is used for heating and transportation. And switching our dependence from foreign oil to Maine-produced electricity isn’t likely to happen very soon, says Bartlett. “Right now, people can’t switch to electric cars and heating – if they did, we’d be in trouble.” So was one of the fundamental premises of the task force false, or at least misleading?" https://www.pinetreewatchdog.org/wind-swept-task-force-set-the-rules/From Part 3 – On Wind-Required New Transmission Lines Finally, the building of enormous, high-voltage transmission lines that the regional electricity system operator says are required to move substantial amounts of wind power to markets south of Maine was never even discussed by the task force – an omission that Mills said will come to haunt the state.“If you try to put 2,500 or 3,000 megawatts in northern or eastern Maine – oh, my god, try to build the transmission!” said Mills. “It’s not just the towers, it’s the lines – that’s when I begin to think that the goal is a little farfetched.” https://www.pinetreewatchdog.org/flaws-in-bill-like-skating-with-dull-skates/

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Hannah Pingree on the Maine expedited wind law

Hannah Pingree - Director of Maine's Office of Innovation and the Future

"Once the committee passed the wind energy bill on to the full House and Senate, lawmakers there didn’t even debate it. They passed it unanimously and with no discussion. House Majority Leader Hannah Pingree, a Democrat from North Haven, says legislators probably didn’t know how many turbines would be constructed in Maine."

https://pinetreewatch.org/wind-power-bandwagon-hits-bumps-in-the-road-3/

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