Graham Butcher

Totally agree, but here the problem is, just what is the right approach to fire fighting with these cars that these ships could be equipped with, given that they still continue to burn even when totally submersed or in CO2 saturated atmosphere given CO2 sinks to the lowest to point and builds up from there to become the equivalent of dumping the cars in water that totally submerges them thus both cutting off a free supply of oxygen which is an absolute must to support fire, so removing the oxygen normally stops a fire dead in its tracks, but not so with the current and most prevalent range of batteries. If there was a 100% foolproof method of doing so, then that has not been shared with the rest of the world and given that there has been much research worldwide on this subject for over a decade now, must be a real major concern for the safety for the ships and everyone else across the world. Nobody is currently denying that such fires are not yet common place happenings, but they are now beginning to become more common and will continue as the numbers of electric vehicles grow. What is the current problem is that when one of these rare events happen, the consequences are so bad that many people do tend to suffer greatly from the results of them.

@Evolution13 Good point, if the plug is not fully engaged then the contact area might be struggling to carry the full load of the recharging current and the result will be a heating up of the plug/socket and the connecting leads and terminals in the vicinity of the plug and socket. If this often happens, it will result in degradation of the contact resistance and if left unchecked could result in local charring/burning in that area, or in some cases a possible fire. Always best to double-check that the plug is fully pushed home each time.

It seems the official report into the cause of the fire onboard the Fremantle Highway has been kept secret until Dagblad van het Noorden invoked an international treaty that requires it to be made public. Just as expected, it was indeed a battery electric BMW car that started the fire and because there is no way of currently putting such a fire out, even though the ship was flooded with masses of CO2, which with an ICE car, would have extinguished the fire, fire as we know demands oxygen to burn, and with CO2 being heavier than air would have prevented oxygen reaching the fire. Li-ion batteries generate masses of oxygen, so any defeated the CO2 fire suppression system. Now I wonder just why was the report kept secret?? Add to this, just how many other reports of similar events have been kept secret?? 'Secret' investigation with major consequences: fire in electric BMW cause of Fremantle Highway disaster - Dagblad van het Noorden

Update time, and I'm very pleased to be able to report that by replacing the M6 screw in the top of the handle with one 40mm long and passing that through a plate, trimmed to fit as mentioned above and the removal of the splined "thimble" piece and cutting out the shelf piece that it sits on, but leaving the stiffening rib in place, it seems to be a pretty good fix. The top cover went back on, and you have to look and hard to spot any sign that it had ever been removed. The handle is now good and solid, and let's hope it remains that way. 👍

Got some longer screws incoming and also some 24mm square washers, the plan is to cut the washer so it forms as near as possible as a second flat plate (the shape shown by the green area) that is almost the same size and shape as the inside section of the handle where it meets the door card. Screw the longer screw through the washer/plate into the door and so trapping the broken pieces and the reaming good piece of the handle between the card and the reshaped washer. Dremel the "thimble" off the snap on cover, as this piece will now be in the way and then snap this cover back onto the rest of the handle, using the 5 metal clips which will grab this piece of trim in the locations in the locations depicted by the red circles. Hopefully this should be an almost permanent repair of the handle, if not then maybe a trip to a breakers' yard might be in order?

@Aspman Well if MS are doing that, then no matter whatever safeguards the legislators try and build in for self-driving software etc, there will be some operators who will attempt to circumnavigate around them in order to make more profits etc. I'll put my faith in a human any day of the week.

Agree 100% with the Tesla reliance on cameras, Lidar is far better, maybe a combination of both system is even better, but then the problem comes when one system thinks it detects something and the other doesn't! What happens then which system prevails or even cancel each other out and so no action is taken when there should have been etc. It is the same thing as these psychometric tests, the person who compiles the test leans towards what ever outcome they think is the desired result, i.e. one person's belief. A few years ago, I attempted to better myself by applying for a technical position with a German company, and I failed their psychometric tests, so I was not accepted, skip forward a couple of years and the company I was working for was taken over by the German company, so I ended up working for them anyway. The area manager of that company remembered me, from my earlier attempts and within a year, most of the other technical people doing the role that had applied for, were gone as I was outshining them in every dept and the area manager complained to the MD about the tests, and they were scrapped. He cited my case, where he had a gut feeling that I was right for the job, but their tests said otherwise, and then when I became part of their team through acquisition, I proved to be the best performer in that role. That and the fact that despite how many people are working on Microsoft Windows software and the years they have been doing it, they regularly get some major bugs and screw things up. I have equipment here like NAS drives that worked flawlessly under Windows 7, XP, 10 etc but will not work on Windows 11, they did get it working briefly a while ago, but it is not working now and that is why I don't trust software driven systems with my life.

Just strikes me as a poorly designed item, given that the handle is going to get a lot of use, not so much by the younger person but certainly the older generation, like myself. I saw that because the car itself is so easy to get in and out for when you find it hard to get down low enough for a graceful entry and exit from more conventional cars, and then that large handle come in handy as an extra support, a couple of extra mm thickness of material at that top mounting would be a great idea.

Ouch, it seems to be a common problem with Kodiqs, I'm leaning towards getting a longer fixing screw and large washer to sandwich the handle and the card between the washer and the door?

Arh yes true, but you would only do that in an emergency of course, i.e., they fall asleep like a driverless car would do if the software crashed (equivalent of the dreaded blue screen of death on a computer). 😊

Huh, you have greater faith in autonomous vehicles than I have, at least you can shout at and prod a human driver and hopefully stop an accident from happening...

There are many videos and also articles about this topic, and while I sympathise with you as you have all been encouraged to buy into the ethos of electric motoring and cheaper running costs for those home charging. Fact remains those with ICE car are still paying for more than 3p a mile in fuel duty, plus the 20% VAT, so every time oil goes up, so does duty and VAT pro-rota. It was predictable that, governments were bound to wake to the fact that they were loosing so much revenue by the continuing subsidizing of electric motoring and realise their folly. As we live longer, the pressure on their reserves and income is going to be under more strain than it was before.

@skomaz the ideal thing would a metal plate that the shape of the internal part of the end cap, complete with "thimble" to sit inside the extrusion with the splines on it so that the Torx screw could once again be tightened and hold the entire handle firmly in place by sandwiching the broken part between it and the door card, if only that were possible....

Today, I have seen locally, new electric buses, police cars, both are 100% electric and also PHEV paramedic vehicles, the latter was plugged in to charge at a public charger half a mile away from me.

No I don't have a photo, maybe I'll take one tomorrow if its not pouring down, but the break is round where the handle is fixed to the door card, the piece that sits flat on the card and is attached to it in some way has broken away from the actual handle. The handle, then, comes away from this bit at 90 degrees, so there is nothing there to work with I don't think. These photos I took from the link that @skomaz posted, the spline is where the Torx screw is located, and the other one is behind the windows switches, and the broken part is around that spline. These photos are from another forum where this problem seems to be a common one with Kodiaqs the damage shown is very similar to mine. The handle and armrest does look as if it is removable to me, but can't be sure until I get the door card off the car. It looks to me as if there are 4 more Torx screws on the rear of the card that screw through into the padded part of the door armrest/door pull? I have yet to get the door card off the car, this I can't do myself as I can't get down low enough to rotate the 2 bottom twist locks. I'll have to ask my son to help with that sometime. Although the video shows the N/S rear door card being removed, the principle is the same.

Thanks, I'll have a go at this, but I'm not sure that it will work for me as the plastic is broken away, I have tried to glue it, but no luck. I have to take the card off and have a good look.

I have an annoying squeak / rattle emanating from the door card on the drivers' door if I rest my arm on the door armrest. Upon inspecting it closer, it seemed like the handle was loose at the top mount as there is some movement around the chrome trim piece and there is a screw there that holds the card to the door, great I thought, remove the trim piece and tighten the screw and the job's good. Nah, life is never that simple is it, turns out the screw is tight, but the grab handle is snapped at that location and it is now creating a gap between the handle and chrome trim when pulling the door shut. So my question is this, is that handle assembly available as a separate piece or is only available as a complete door card? If it is a separate part, does anyone know the part number of it for a right hand drive car?

This car was already sitting in a water filled container for safety after it was rear ended in an accident, and security cameras caught the car going into thermal runaway, fire dept were called who filled the tank up, so the car was completely submerged and still the runway continued and the water literally boiled for 13 hours and can be seen in this video. There is also footage of another car on fire with a blanket over it, which I'm given to understand was incorrectly used as the blanket traps the highly toxic gases and the fire just burns slower, lift the blanket because thermal camera show the temperature is dropping, increased oxygen is introduced and those gases go mental as they burst into flame. The proper use of the fire blankets when the car on fire is an EV, is to deploy the blankets on adjacent cars etc to try and prevent the fire spreading to them.

All I'm saying is that it is theoretically possible that with all the built-in electronics in cars these days. My car has no fewer than 25 minicomputers, all talking to each other on the internal network that it may only require a minor software update and many cars these have over the air software update feature built in that allows the manufacturer to also remotely diagnose and also like in the case of Tesla, unlock extra functions etc. Older cars like the old ICE cars never had any form of electronics in them other than a capacitor across the points in the distributor and maybe a radio in some cars. Perhaps that could be a reason why the proposed scheme currently is only being proposed for electric cars, BEVs, PHEVs and also Hybrids are all thought to be targeted for 2028, with ICE following later. For confirmation, time will certainly tell us all one way or the other.

That is the type of thing I was referring to that could be used for PPM, all new cars already have some form of connectivity, even if it via a sim card like the SOS button, and it only requires the software to retrieve the data and send it via what ever method possible, even ICE cars have had digital mileometers for decades along with SOS buttons.

I would not be surprised if that feature or something similar is not already built into most of the more modern BEVs, just not software enabled, or publicly announced just yet.

Don't forget to also bolt a ladder to the body to help you get in and out as well 🤣

Still a long way to go, yet before there will be more affordable offerings in all the segments of the market, and also the massive differences for those that cannot charge at home. Also I see that Rachel from accounts is now looking at applying the 3p per mile charge to hybrids as well as BEV's. If that happens, it risks stalling the transition completely as both hybid's and PHEV's are already paying fuel duty and we know that many PHEV's never are plugged in, so you could argue that they are already paying more pro rata than the equivalent ICE model because their MPG figures are worse as they also have to lug all that extra weight around them.

Actually it seems you are correct as the main generation is 3 phase which is 120 degrees but the way that they get 220/240V and 110/120V is to take what we call a single phase supply to a centre tapped transformer, to which the earth and neutral are connected. So you effectively get the same thing as our 110v portable tool transformers.

On this occasion I think that Dave takes it On, makes some good points.