Dead battery or starter?

[Petros]

I also like how the Tesla company called the article a "fake" when they must have the record of all the phone calls the poor guy made to try and keep that fancy overpriced golf cart moving.

the real fraud is the idea that electric cars are somehow "green", it just means they have to burn the fuel at the power station to make the electricity rather than burn fuel in the car. In fact I would bet the total energy cycle for electric cars is more costly, consumes more resources and is ultimately putting out more pollution than a good running conventional automobile. Consider too that most cars will drive over 200k miles before major maintenance is required, with a 300-400 mile range between refuels. that can not be said of the Tesla (of which several have had their batteries explode and burn the car to the ground).

[Jarf]

I once asked my Toyota guy what the carbon footprint of a Prius is, he said he has asked the same question many times but never received an answer.
Though he did mention that the parts just to BUILD the batteries are sourced from 10 different countries, shipped to Japan and assembled, my guess is anything electric has a much bigger footprint than conventionally powered vehicles.
Many years ago I was changing spark plugs on a V8 Mustang 2, horrible little car with no room to work. In those days I used to wear a metal watch band.
It found its way in between the positive post and the frame rail, left 2 really good burns on my wrist and I haven't worn a watch since.
I can just imagine what sort of shock one could from a shorted electric car battery pack!
God forbid anyone folds one up in an accident.
Your right on the pollution is just moving of the source emissions and I often wonder how many "green" electric cars are being powered by coal fired generating plants?
One step forward, 3 steps back.

[Petros]

A friend of our families young adult son is going through firefighting training right now. they have to have extra trainging for hybrids and electric cars because of the danger from the batteries. If the first vehicle to get to the accident site does not have this extra training, they are instructed to wait until one of the specialists arrives, they can not even approach the car until after the hood is ripped off and special non-conducting heavy wire cutters are used to sever the battery cables. than they can attend to the occupants. there is too much hazard to the rescue personnel from an exploding battery. they choose to leave injured occupants rather than jeopardizing the rescue personnel.

This of course means that not only are the occupants in jeopardy, but also any other occupants in other cars involved in the accident. You could be blown up by someone who is more worried about being "green" (which is not green at all) than safety.

[dlb]

totally agree on all the greenwashing points. i think hybrids and electrics are largely just a way for car companies to have a product to sell to people who otherwise might not buy a car. it's a business move on the manufacturer's part, not an environmental one, so they don't care about the carbon footprint or waste that occurs in the production process—just as long as the customer doesn't see it, and still feels good about buying something 'green.' of course the most green thing would be for people to drive less overall, drive smaller vehicles when they do drive, and keep older vehicles on the road for for as long as possible. that's all bad news for multiple industries though.

[keith]

FYI, I have a Schumacher, 1.5 amp, but I don't think brand matters that much as long as it is a float charger. If you have aftermarket alarms and a high power stereo system, both contribute to a high parasitic drain, then you might need the 4 amp float charger that is sold by Optima (the battery people), Very pricy though.