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Hey Ben, firstly I'm loving your videos. Just a question about the EcoFlow portable products. Is there anything that could be kept in an EV (like a jerry can with petrol), incase you needed an emergency top up?
Technically yes, EcoFlows OG Delta Pro Has ~3kWhs of storage built in, but only a 30A 120V output. You're probably stuck with level 1 charging and only going to get 2-10 miles of range from that depending on your EV and the situation. Not quite like a Jerry can. But if you're not in an emergency and/or you're able to wait you could bring some solar panels with you and recharge. Look up EV canon ball run, that was pretty neat, and the guy was a mechanical engineer(I'm an EE and jealous "we" didn't do it first 😅😂)
Last week our electricity was shut off for 48hours because of the winds here in Murrieta, we ran our internet, 2 refrigerators, lights, TVs from my f150 lightning with a loss of only 10% battery per day.
We don’t lose power often so I was not prepared- ran extension chords to everything, I’m going to look into a generator inlet with transfer switch which is about 800 dollars, then i can power my whole house including powering my solar panels so they can help. The Ford solution for this is way too expensive, I’ve read several thousand dollars, the generator inlet with switch is under 1k.
In Florida wasnt it the gas stations that ran out of fuel but all the EV chargers were still up and running. Power can be restored faster than fuel can be delivered
After Hurricane Helene, it all went down. Gas stations with generators could repower and supposedly any superchargers on "the hospital grid" came up within a day. I think what needs to happen for predictable power recovery is DC fast chargers should be placed on the "critical infrastructure" category, akin to hospitals.
During the 2017 fires that wiped out neighborhoods in Santa Rosa, were woken up at 2 am by firefighters yelling at us we had 10 minutes to leave. We put clothes on, and ran to the back yard to hook up our travel trailer to a Tesla Model X. We also had a Toyota Highlander. We drove both to the property of friends that were out of harm’s way. Within hours all gas stations in a wide area had either ran out of gas or if they still had some, they had very long lines of gas cars waiting. The next day you couldn’t get gas within a 20 mile radius. We were very glad to be able to keep using our Model X as a means of transportation. We kept it charged by connecting to a 2 phase wall plug our friends happened to have. Many with gas cars were not able to move them at all.
@@daveblock It's going to be at least 4 miles per hour charging in a Model X at 120V. If the friends have a 240 outlet, such as for their washer/dryer, you can plug into that for a faster charge.
Nope ...nope ...nope .... You can always store a couple of jerrycan full of diesel fuel in your garage to anticipate evacuation order due to natural disasters ... EVs are deadweights during floods .. hurrycan ... long traffic jam ...snow storms .. etc
I live in Thousand Oaks in a "Fire Adjacent" area. Our solar/battery setup in our detached garage provided us very welcome backup power during the intermittent power outages. And it provided off-grid power to keep our Tesla charged. My wife helped out her friend who had to evacuate in Encino, using our Tesla to re-visit her home so she could pick up a few things she had forgotten. I feel much better during these disasters with such a setup.
I had this conversation with some of my former coworkers pretty often. With solar and battery backup and an EV you could last much longer with more modern conveniences than most people.
@@kebeleteeek4227 considering that solar and battery backup systems are incredibly reliable and have the potential to pay for themselves and will last longer then a couple of cans of fuel and also can't be spilled, ruined with ambient moisture in the air or easily stolen when others might be looking for resources in an emergency I'd say so.
@kebeleteeek4227 I think his point is that a household can sustain with sunlight. Once the petroleum is spent from your can. That can last a day or so. Then you are stuck purchasing gas or diesel from a fuel station with no power. And then you are only hopeful there is still fuel in the storage tank.
When electricity is out, you can't pump gas near me. The owner of a station told me it's not because of pumping. They have backup pumps that can run off gas. It's because they can't connect the pumps to the internet. They can't sell gas without an approved credit card and even if you have cash, the system won't work. They can't override the credit card system on the pump without an internet connection.
EV's can be used as backup power in case of a power disruption. Japanese Gov't has ordered a lot of EV's from BYD for uses In Hospitals & Emergency Services.
Holy Moly. that's crazy. I never (or anyone else for that matter) never thought about that piece of the puzzle. so the Gas pumps will be inoperable in an event of power loss as well? but wouldn't their backup generators power the entire station which would also include the debit machines?
During Helene, here in Asheville gas trucks couldn't deliver fuel to gas stations and many stations had no power to run the pumps. A Rivian owner down the street trailered water daily to the neighborhood. Folks with EVs could run supplies around. EVs are lifesavers in a disaster.
@@Robert-cu9bm But if someone has solar and a battery backup system in their house, they can recharge that EV. Sure, not everyone has that, but not everyone has a gas generator hooked up to their house either.
@@ElMistroFeroz Not for a long time. Teslas have very effective pressurized biohazard modes to keep them isolated. Turn on air recirculation and you'll be good for hours.
The sheer magnitude of the fire and the wind is incomprehensible to most people. Many years ago i worked a wildfire outside of Ellensburg Washington, and the wind was blowing 40+ Mph. It switch direction and caught me, burned over me so quick i couldn't get completely covered, so suffered burns on my lower legs. That fire was a tiny fraction of the size of LA fires.
Not sure if you're aware of this but here in the midwest we are still paying for that "2021 weather event" in Texas. Because of Texas' mismanagement of their grid, it caused a huge spike in natural gas prices. So, the natural gas companies managed to pass a fee onto our monthly natural gas bills for each and every person that is a customer of the gas company until they make up for the losses. It is actually a line item on the bill "2021 weather event." Ironically, our gas supplier is based in....Austin, Texas.
Yep, bi-directional charging is key. I remember when they first talked of this, they wanted users to let the power company grab your battery energy when they needed it and promise to give it back to you later. I think having it sitting full and unplugged is a much better solution for grid down scenarios.
MGuy appears to have forgotten that gas pumps need electricity to pump gas. If the power has gone out, it doesn't matter how much gasoline is still stored in that underground -bomb- tank.
@@kebeleteeek4227 any idea of how many gas stations have backup generators or hand cranks? I'm guessing the number approaches 0. I'm also sure the one station with a generator would be out of fuel in no time...leaving them in the same situation as not having a generator.
lol, I guess gas stations are immune to natural disasters right? I very clearly remember having to spend hours looking for a gas station that was open let alone without massive lines after our last hurricane. Not to mention a lot of gas stations ran out of gas or were rationing it before the hurricane even hit. At least my car is fully charged every morning and I have plenty of range to get out of the area if I need to as well as having backup power when the grid goes out. We also have solar which was a god send when we lost power for almost 3 weeks.
Emergency delivery of fuel by helicopters .. air drops .. to disaster area is a big relief ... Can you do that with battery based power system ..???? LOL ..
@@kebeleteeek4227 I get my power from the sun. I don't need airdrops. You have to rely on a massive supply chain. I don't. I also don't have to worry about gas prices and availability constantly fluctuating depending on whats going on in the world.
@@kebeleteeek4227 Yes they have portable power stations that are fueled by portable solar panels that they can ship in and have shipped in these situations.
You didn't mention a few years back in a mountain region of Pakistan where a road got snowed in while people were evacuating in their ICE cars and many asphyxiated from the fumes while running the engines to try to stay warm. Deadly stuff that gas.
As an Australian, I am embarrassed by MGUY - but just know he is absolutely aware of your points, he has a history of cherry picking and is ultimately appealing to a base to generate revenue. Australia is very experienced with disasters, recent flood events saw communities cut off withour fuel and no way trucks could resupply. The EVs were all operational. When the power went out in SEQLD for a week, EVs ran homes including medical equipment. A recent outage in Canberra saw the EV V2G trial kick in and all the EVs on the trial supplied power to the grid. Australia is set to be the first country to fully enable V2G... cant wait to see MGUYs response.
@jasonhutcheon5991 in the Canberra black outs about 250,000 houses lost the interconnector to nsw and Vic. There were about 15 evs connected to the grid. That accounted for 1 or two seconds more of power for all the house holders. Plus when they went to drive those evs, the battery was flat. That is a great example of the system.
@@jasonhutcheon5991 unless you pay extra to have your house wired up to allow electricity to run from your connected ev to the house, it doesn't happen. Most ev home chargers will not do this.
Yep, my thoughts exactly. You can be miles away while Mguy is still pouring petrol into his car from his jerrycan. You’ll notice that the more EVs gain traction, the more desperate and laughable Mguys arguments become.
ITs a constant fight against so much misinformation about everything these days. Its really becoming hard to keep fighting. I am at the point where I know what is and isnt true for the most part and just giving up trying to explain things to others
The frustration goes away when you understand the absurdity of it all. You’re eating ribeye steak but getting upset because of people who believe a peanut butter sandwich is better.
Ben you forgot to point out one other clear benefits of certain EVs during wild fires. The woman being interviewed mentioned that the smoke was getting so bad that she could not wait for the road to clear of the abandoned cars blocking the traffic. If one is in an X or an S model Tesla, the Bio-hazard mode can filter out quite the bit of it to a point when even that gets clogged out after hours of thick abuse. Not a solution for every situating but sure as hell helps a lot when driving through a natural catastrophe involving harmful particles for humans to inhale.
One of the things that people may not realize is that each house has a single power company but as an example there are at least 4 power companies within ten minute drive from my house. Friends of mine that live two miles from me have a different power company and the nearest public EV charger (about 5 miles from me) is on a completely different power company. That is one reason I feel like if my power went out I could definitly get my vehicle charged up if I needed to.
That’s pretty awesome, but admittedly not the case everywhere. Here in Ontario Canada we have a single electricity provider - Hydro One. Every municipality’s electric company buys their electricity from them. Admittedly, I don’t recall many times where entire cities here went dark for prolonged periods other than that one time. Even with some of our ice storms the power outages weren’t always so complete. With power outage maps it’s pretty easy to confirm just how far the outage goes and know where you can still go to charge up.
100% - people not familiar with this area don't realize how ginormous LA is and how easily you can drive 10 miles and be in a totally different area completely unaffected. For example if 100K people lose power in LA that is only around 3% of people.
Somebody should do a video showing how far your EV can drive at 25mph or lower. I bet it's an insanely far distance. The less you're moving the less energy you're using so they are ideal for situations where there is slow traffic. Plus you have many with hepa filters that help keep your air clean while you wait.
While I agree with your sentiment on leaving keys in car, when you are told by a policeman to walk out or die, not too many people will take the time to take their car keys off the ring. As for EVs being useless in an emergency, I'll take my CyberTruck over any other vehicle first like so many others I have my CT charging whenever I'm home so it's full, the ICE is usually 1/2 empty. Also if grid electricity goes out the CT has power available.
We were in TX during the freeze and power outages. Periods of time power was out. We will didn't run a generator. People died running engines in their garage. We warmed up in the Tesla until the power came on. It was a godsend.
I had to add another comment about when we lost our power for just over two weeks, in the winter. A large ice storm took out power over a wide area, nothing no power. Our area, every power pole, for miles had been knocked over, along with power lines being over weighted by ice. Nobody was pumping gas, no power. They had to ship in large generators, truck loads of them, to gas stations, grocery stores etc. I don't have an EV yet, but my Subaru is getting long in the tooth and expect to replace it in the next few years, so i'll definitely charging at home, and setup to power my home as well.
@@kebeleteeek4227 Not sure if you are being sarcastic or not but no one is going allow you to hand pump gas out the storage tank. How do you plan to plug in that portable generator? Take a walk around the build, you won't find an extension cords sticking out of the back. A gas station needs to be pre-wired for a generator with an isolation/cut-off switch so energy is not sent to the grid and injuring a line worker. While some are pre-wired, most are not and many of those that are do not have generators on site.
I own a Tesla, and also have Solar with Tesla Powerwalls. Don't really care about what anybody thinks or say. But this is one of the best decision I have made for myself.
For a local emergency, EV's are fine. For a *regional* emergency? I would have concerns. If you don't, you aren't thinking clearly. Even gas can become an issue...
Fantastic review on the current situation, and how EVs are a solution, not a problem. I heard that Tesla lent some Cyber Trucks out to help the emergency services with critical electronic device charging, so it seems clear, EVs are defo great in these difficult times. Oh also I think in Japan they use specially equipped Nissan leaf’s for emergency use.
Thanks Ben- right on the money! As an Aussie 🇦🇺my heart goes out to all those affected. 😢 I’m so glad we have a home battery AND solar. If the grid went down, nothing would change here for us, except we might run an extension lead over the fence for our neighbours to run their fridge. P.S. It’s high time ALL Teslas had V2L, not just the Cybertruck.
ICE Owners: EVs catch on fire all the time and burn down your house. Also ICE Owners: Keep a 20 gallon jerry can of gasoline in your garage in case of wildfires.
Two years ago I was in the Pacific island nation of Vanuatu when twin category 4 tropical cyclones hit us. It was a frightening experience but thankfully our house had solar and batteries. While the rest of the island was without grid power for weeks, the lights in our house never so much as flickered.
One of the coolest things about an EV is that it can be fueled by any fuel source, not just electricity. Diesel or gas generator, solar, wind, water, grid, gravity... Makes it a great tool for emergency situations.
You should always have your key-card as a backup, in case something happens to your phone. That could be left. Though, as Aussie said, I's be surprised if emergency responders take the time to check and drive cars in the way, vs just plowing them out of the way.
What’s interesting is very few if any politically we’re calling to withhold funds from Texas based on actions or inactions. How some politically can speak out of both sides of their mouth talking about withholding funds from CA is tragic
I find it irritating how you brush off conservative talking points in such a hand-wavey manner. Obviously, there have been, and always will be, dumb ideas and misunderstandings within any group, but usually there is a core truth. For example, the argument about electric vehicles creating more dependency on fragile systems is absolutely a valid concern. It may be exaggerated by some, and it may not fit with your agenda, but it is certainly true. And yes, people can set up a system to recharge at home, but that may be out of reach for some people.
Thanks for mentioning the hurricanes because it's a real problem. Here in South Florida, we get at least one or two hurricane scares every hurricane season, and the first thing everybody does is fill their cars with a full tank of gas. This usually happens a few days before the storm, and there are not enough gas stations and stored fuel to accommodate this. So, before the storm has even hit, most gas stations have already run out of fuel and you've most likely already sat in a line that could be 3 hours or more if you find a gas station that still has fuel. The other problem is that most businesses still make you work until there's a hurricane warning, which is usually a day before the storm. So now, because you drove back and forth to work when the storm hasn't hit yet, and by now, there's no fuel to be had, you don't have that full tank of gas anymore. Weirdly, a lot gas stations in SF don't have generators for some reason. so if they lose power after the storm, even if they're able to truck in fuel, a lot of gas stations can't deliver it to the cars. I've had my EV almost 2 years now and I've already got to miss out on 2 times where the gas stations were backed up and lines were so long It brings a three lane road down two. I do 98% of my charging at home, so having an EV is so much more convenient, especially during storm preparation. While everybody's waiting in gas station lines, I'm doing my food shopping.
Being located in an area heavily affected by wildfires, I feel for all those in SoCal right now. Stay safe. We have 2 EVs and during fire season, I keep them charged a little higher, in case we need the power from the outlets or to bug out.
Everyone should keep a decent amount of miles in reserve, whether gas or electric, just in case of the unexpected. It doesn't take a disaster. Sometimes the power goes out here. If that happens on my way home, and I don't have enough to get to work the next day... not good. Simple solution: I make sure I always return home with enough to make it to work (50+ miles).
I've been through a 4-day power outage in July in Memphis. It was a big relief to catch some A/C for sleeping in my Tesla while in my garage. I was also ready for our huge (for Memphis) winter storm last week. Had we lost power, the Tesla's heat pump could also keep us warm. We surprisingly didn't lose power, but we had no worries about it either.
Texas, we had our first freeze of the year or of the season. This was a a 2-day event and what I mean by this is we received a little bit of snow and sleet and freezing rain but before that weekend which was last weekend and after even till today we've been getting 30° temperatures overnight. So it's been going on 2 weeks now. In a few days to a week or so, the date is around January 20th. They're supposed to be another harsh snowfall and another freeze, which I think it'll be mild. Normally that extreme weather is normally in the middle of February. I will also say my garage during the 32° weather is normally around 56°. And yes I do own an EV
@@ryan6391 Slept on as in unnoticed, rarely do I ever witness any large EV channels cover Chinese eBikes One channel I've stumbled across did an EV conversion on his Land Rover and had more SoC on the vehicle's battery back compared to many other non-EV off-roaders after doing a trail run
@FemboyMotorworks oh, I see. I have a 500 Polaris that with a 5 gallon tank of gas can run all day so would be excellent in an emergency situation. I'd pick a Enduro/dirt bike for sure if roads were totally blocked. Hopefully it never comes to that. I'd just looked at those e dirt bikes but the range is not far enough yet. It's like 1 to 2 hr run time. An electric mountain bike would work to the ones w pedal backup.
Texas does want to be subject to Federal regulations which is why they have avoided connecting to the national grid. The Texas customers are the ones that really get screwed by this lack of competition that results from this system
BEN - the DUMB thing was ALL the Power Poles were all ENERGIZED and were NOT shut off as Neighborhoods burned. the power ONLY was shutoff after the Power Poles burned & Snaped in the 80 mph winds. CA power poles are NOT buried or made of Steel Reinforced Concrete. also MOST CA homes have GAS service and while SOME homeowners shut off the gas at the METER , the gas meters caught FIRE and Exploded causing another Blowtorch. the GAS service was NOT shutoff to the Neighborhoods on fire.
Also one other missed point. ICE vehicles can have their air filters clogged depending on how severe the smoke and ash is and how poorly maintained the vehicle is leading them to stall out. EVs do not need oxygen to run.
I was in long island just after hurricane Sandy and I can tellyou there was only one gas station open on the Veterans Highway and the line up was out of this world so why didn't all these smart people have a jerrycan of gas at home? Nobody keeps gas at home. It gets stale and is not suitable for an engine. I actually bought some bad gas from a gas station and my snowblower would not run on it. So there goes the gas mith.
What I would say about our ev's useless in the Los Angeles fires to be brutally honest. Anything and everything that we own would be useless. Gas powered vehicles, electric vehicles, electricity houses, buildings, trees everything that's around us is useless.
I guess the lines at the gas station when there's a power cut in a national disaster are things of the past for gasoline then. We finally managed to get rid of Price gouging and scalping.
Looking at your user, I think you are talking about Australia and probably it's true. In urban area of USA or in Europe there are usually no generators as gas stations in today are mini shopping centers and with huge power needs @@aussie2uGA
You need to keep your tank at least half full so ready for any disaster, no matter what your tank is. Nobody drives a gas truck towards a fire to refill gas stations so people can fill their cars, and gas pumps are also off when the power is out. However solar can charge an EV but not a gas car
It's been quite horrible to watch the LA fires take place. I can't imagine losing your home like that. I am in Texas and was here in 2021 when everything froze, luckily my mom's house never lost power so I just rode it out over there. We are due for more snow coming soon but luckily for us this is a mild winter (lows in the mid 20s). So we'll be fine, they did do some winterizing on the natural gas lines, although they are far from done. The 2021 temperature lows were around 10 degrees and lower. So mid 20's will be no problem for us. Hopefully LA gets the help it needs to recover as soon as possible.
Whenever there is a risk of power failure(severe weather, freezing rain planned outages) I charge my EV6 just in case. For power backup at home I have an EcoFlow running critical loads in my house. It can last 6-8 hours. Anything longer I can charge the EcoFlow with my EV6. Other than my initial testing(probably should test again) I have only needed the EcoFlow to keep things going.
Americans may be unfamiliar with the term "whinging pom" which is an English man(pom) who complains about everything. MGUY is the classic whinging pom best avoided or ignored.
💯 I would prefer an EV in an emergency for many of the reasons you pointed out. However, a gas station can just run a gas generator to keep the pumps working. That doesn't all of a sudden make gas better or anything, but let's keep it real and not omit obvious counter points, as it might be perceived as dishonesty, which is the opposite of what your intentions are. Otherwise great video, thx! 🙏
One time when I had to evacuate from an incoming hurricane and still drove a gas car, I had trouble getting gas for the trip 2 or 3 days in advance of the predicted landfall. However, the electricity was still on.
They always find a way to make it look like green energy is the worst and at fault. You've mentiond the "big freez" in Texas that was caused by a network that wasn't "winterized" and the lack of connection too other states electric grids but they falsely blaimed wind turbines and solar panneles when the main problem was methane gas infrastructure.
I annoyed a colleague when I pointed out that a mate who charged his EV from his solar panels started every day with a full "tank", but my colleague had to drive 20 miles for fuel, so had used some fuel by the time he got home, and never had a full tank. (yeah - semantics, I know)
BTW - my old home was Victorian and had Deep Cycle marine batteries for backup for Emergencies , charged by the grid. installed in the 1950's using used batteries. we later switched to AGM/Gel cells.
There was a report yesterday that Tesla have provided a number of Cybertrucks for locals needing to charge devices, and Semi's to provide power for the emergency services. Also they are providing starlink internet free to enable public to connect. Not sure on the truth of this, but a great option.
Viewing the damage on the news from this side of the pond I could not help being struck by fact that these houses were all burnt down except for their chimney stacks. It appears to me that cheap constructtion using mostly wood and lax building standards will have contributed greatly to these fires. If these homes had been constructed properly using bricks, stone and concrete the fires wouild have spread far more slowly. houses in he US may be bigger and look more luxurious than those in the UK but in reality they are crap.
We were hit by Hurricane Sandy and it took out most of the gasoline infrastructure one way or another. What few gas stations had manged to get generators hooked up to stay in business were of course clogged with long lines or out of fuel to sell because the fuel depots where the delivery trucks get it were also in bad shape. My office never lost power, if I had been driving an EV at the time I could have use an L1 charge there for 4-6 hours a day and brought that juice home to keep the fridge running at least.
An EV with a heat pump that could last 6 days would have saved people in Texas a few years back. People could (and did) sleep in their EV during the blackout.
The solar generators are a great idea. Gas goes bad but more often, the carburettor on generators get clogged. So, even with good gas, they won't run.Free power is always a good thing!
With all the talk about how in a theoretical disaster with massive power failures, why do so many people immediately forget that gas pumps run on electricity?
A channel Frozen Tesla did a video about leaving a tesla keep warm in extreme cold in Canada overnight to show how much it used per hour to keep the temperature inside at comfortable temperature in extreme cold 12 hour long test. Spoiler (end result spoiler its about 3% of his battery per hour in -20 to -28 C)
Great work Ben. It's not just about Gas stations pumps running on electricity. During North Carolina Floods Fuel Supply was cut off due to the road network being a total mess. Flooded roads obviously, downed trees and electrical wires but also roads just washed away. These massive Fuel Tanks can't exactly go Off Roading. Meanwhile Electric Grid maintenance crews literally have vehicles purposely designed to go off-roading (Merc UNIMOG service truck with crane). Replacement parts can also be stored locally in preparation for a storm event. Individual Private property can also just generate their own electricity from renewables like VAWT, Solar PV and even micro hydro turbine. Especially with a Decentralized Electric Grid it is far more resilient and faster to recover from disaster. Relying on Crude Oil fuel supply chain is Energy Insecurity.
Speaking of ECOFLOW, i use the 1kw Delta 2 on road trips to power my peripherals. I just did research on it powering my model S- with the grounding adaptor, it'll power a level 1 portable charger! I already carry solar panels on trips, as it fits perfectly on the privacy panel over the trunk. With 2 panels, and 2 delta 2 batteries piggybacking-i can get out of almost any emergency situation when there's sunlight. I already can plug into any 3 prong outlet with my level 1 cord. I can draw from any building- even lampposts if i need to. Even easier- with something like the upcoming Gosun roof mount solar panel, u can unfold, and power any ev with up to 30 miles a day! Ev power options are hard to beat!
I agree with basically everything you say except the idling part. To be fair, in California it's probably true but where I live an EV would use a lot of power to heat in a Trafic jam if it occurs in winter at -20°C or below. On the other hand, if you idle a modern diesel car for hours you will get into a lot of troubles with particles filter and stuff, it will take a toll on the engine. Also modern diesel doesn't give much heat while idling so hopefully you got a diesel heater installed. This is to some extent also true for a petrol car.
Well Done, thx! Additionally, my 2022 Model Y has an HVAC system Standard, with a BIOHAZARD DEFENSE FILTRATION system using a HEPA filter so that you can escape in the Smoky fire zones with clean fresh air inside!
You actually can keep a "Jerry can" of electricity in your EV. Ben did it. Funny how the guy said you can keep a Jerry can of fuel in your garage, but you have to keep one in your EV.
"...you can't keep a jerry-can full of electricity for your EV." Uhhh... I keep about 40 kWh of electricity stored in my garage that gets continuously replenished every day by my solar panels.
Hehehe. Like me seems You couldn't handle more than a cpl minutes of that guy either. 😂. Thank you for addressing more misinformation. Flat out lies. it’s kind of upsetting to see some of the misinformation out there and to think what AI could enable people like that to do. Not just in the electric vehicle world..
A point not discussed is that EV owners are encouraged to plug in while at home. Therefore most BEVs after being home a few hours, have recouped the days use and are fully charge (80% charged). My BEV spends most of its parked time at home fully charged and ready to take me 250+ miles if need be without stopping. My gas pickup, in contrast, seldom has more than a half tank or 150 miles range, since it never gets a full tank at the cost of gas and it's low usage.
If it was a Tesla (which doesn't have keys as far as I am aware), what would you leave in the car so that someone could move (or steal) it? The RFID card that opens the door? I don't know enough about Teslas, but does that allow the car to be driven as well? But how about this? Could the smart summons be used to move the car remotely if the owner saw there was a problem?
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Bleach Blonde bad built Butch body.
Hey Ben, firstly I'm loving your videos. Just a question about the EcoFlow portable products. Is there anything that could be kept in an EV (like a jerry can with petrol), incase you needed an emergency top up?
Technically yes, EcoFlows OG Delta Pro Has ~3kWhs of storage built in, but only a 30A 120V output. You're probably stuck with level 1 charging and only going to get 2-10 miles of range from that depending on your EV and the situation. Not quite like a Jerry can. But if you're not in an emergency and/or you're able to wait you could bring some solar panels with you and recharge. Look up EV canon ball run, that was pretty neat, and the guy was a mechanical engineer(I'm an EE and jealous "we" didn't do it first 😅😂)
Thank you, Ben. Great content and research for the issue I proposed earlier.
Who told drivers to ABANDONED their cars ???
Last week our electricity was shut off for 48hours because of the winds here in Murrieta, we ran our internet, 2 refrigerators, lights, TVs from my f150 lightning with a loss of only 10% battery per day.
Amazing! Did you plug in directly or do you have the ford backup system?
We don’t lose power often so I was not prepared- ran extension chords to everything, I’m going to look into a generator inlet with transfer switch which is about 800 dollars, then i can power my whole house including powering my solar panels so they can help. The Ford solution for this is way too expensive, I’ve read several thousand dollars, the generator inlet with switch is under 1k.
❤
wow impressive
Nice! My next EV will be able to do that. Adios Tesla!
In Florida wasnt it the gas stations that ran out of fuel but all the EV chargers were still up and running. Power can be restored faster than fuel can be delivered
After Hurricane Helene, it all went down. Gas stations with generators could repower and supposedly any superchargers on "the hospital grid" came up within a day. I think what needs to happen for predictable power recovery is DC fast chargers should be placed on the "critical infrastructure" category, akin to hospitals.
You are funny ... Power grids will always be the most vulnerable during natural disasters ... and time consuming to restore it ..
oftentimes is is prioritized as some homes depend on power to heat their homes.
How many cars full of gas and gas stations exploding added to the fires burning ..
except in LA , there were NO powerpoles left standing.
During the 2017 fires that wiped out neighborhoods in Santa Rosa, were woken up at 2 am by firefighters yelling at us we had 10 minutes to leave. We put clothes on, and ran to the back yard to hook up our travel trailer to a Tesla Model X. We also had a Toyota Highlander. We drove both to the property of friends that were out of harm’s way. Within hours all gas stations in a wide area had either ran out of gas or if they still had some, they had very long lines of gas cars waiting. The next day you couldn’t get gas within a 20 mile radius. We were very glad to be able to keep using our Model X as a means of transportation. We kept it charged by connecting to a 2 phase wall plug our friends happened to have. Many with gas cars were not able to move them at all.
Thanks for sharing!
So you had a 1 mile per hour charging opportunity? Awesome
@@daveblock It's going to be at least 4 miles per hour charging in a Model X at 120V.
If the friends have a 240 outlet, such as for their washer/dryer, you can plug into that for a faster charge.
@@ziploc2000 IF if if.
Nope ...nope ...nope .... You can always store a couple of jerrycan full of diesel fuel in your garage to anticipate evacuation order due to natural disasters ... EVs are deadweights during floods .. hurrycan ... long traffic jam ...snow storms .. etc
I live in Thousand Oaks in a "Fire Adjacent" area. Our solar/battery setup in our detached garage provided us very welcome backup power during the intermittent power outages. And it provided off-grid power to keep our Tesla charged. My wife helped out her friend who had to evacuate in Encino, using our Tesla to re-visit her home so she could pick up a few things she had forgotten. I feel much better during these disasters with such a setup.
I had this conversation with some of my former coworkers pretty often. With solar and battery backup and an EV you could last much longer with more modern conveniences than most people.
Yeah ... battery backup power system are much cheaper and reliable that storing jerrycans of diesel fuel in garage .. LOLLLLL ...
@@kebeleteeek4227 considering that solar and battery backup systems are incredibly reliable and have the potential to pay for themselves and will last longer then a couple of cans of fuel and also can't be spilled, ruined with ambient moisture in the air or easily stolen when others might be looking for resources in an emergency I'd say so.
I want an off-grid solarsystem too, prefer not to deal with SCE
@kebeleteeek4227 I think his point is that a household can sustain with sunlight. Once the petroleum is spent from your can. That can last a day or so. Then you are stuck purchasing gas or diesel from a fuel station with no power. And then you are only hopeful there is still fuel in the storage tank.
When electricity is out, you can't pump gas near me. The owner of a station told me it's not because of pumping. They have backup pumps that can run off gas. It's because they can't connect the pumps to the internet. They can't sell gas without an approved credit card and even if you have cash, the system won't work. They can't override the credit card system on the pump without an internet connection.
EV's can be used as backup power in case of a power disruption. Japanese Gov't has ordered a lot of EV's from
BYD for uses In Hospitals & Emergency Services.
Holy Moly. that's crazy. I never (or anyone else for that matter) never thought about that piece of the puzzle. so the Gas pumps will be inoperable in an event of power loss as well?
but wouldn't their backup generators power the entire station which would also include the debit machines?
During Helene, here in Asheville gas trucks couldn't deliver fuel to gas stations and many stations had no power to run the pumps. A Rivian owner down the street trailered water daily to the neighborhood. Folks with EVs could run supplies around. EVs are lifesavers in a disaster.
They can do it for a day then they can't recharge.
Gas can... literally with a gas can.
@@Robert-cu9bm But if someone has solar and a battery backup system in their house, they can recharge that EV. Sure, not everyone has that, but not everyone has a gas generator hooked up to their house either.
EVs have no chance at stalling due to lack of oxygen passing through heavy smoke unlike ICE vehicles.
Or filters getting clogged
No but without oxygen the driver will suffocate.
@@ElMistroFeroz Not for a long time. Teslas have very effective pressurized biohazard modes to keep them isolated. Turn on air recirculation and you'll be good for hours.
@@ElMistroFeroz Car cabins can be pretty airtight. Setting the air circulation to recirculation should keep the occupants safe for quite some time.
Ty I did not know that.
The sheer magnitude of the fire and the wind is incomprehensible to most people. Many years ago i worked a wildfire outside of Ellensburg Washington, and the wind was blowing 40+ Mph. It switch direction and caught me, burned over me so quick i couldn't get completely covered, so suffered burns on my lower legs. That fire was a tiny fraction of the size of LA fires.
Not sure if you're aware of this but here in the midwest we are still paying for that "2021 weather event" in Texas. Because of Texas' mismanagement of their grid, it caused a huge spike in natural gas prices. So, the natural gas companies managed to pass a fee onto our monthly natural gas bills for each and every person that is a customer of the gas company until they make up for the losses. It is actually a line item on the bill "2021 weather event." Ironically, our gas supplier is based in....Austin, Texas.
Damn, sorry to here..
My CyberTruck powered my house after Milton. It was amazing
Yep, bi-directional charging is key. I remember when they first talked of this, they wanted users to let the power company grab your battery energy when they needed it and promise to give it back to you later. I think having it sitting full and unplugged is a much better solution for grid down scenarios.
What is your set up. I didn’t think that home to vehicle integration was possible with Tesla. I’ve been waiting for Tesla to roll it out.
@ my foundation series, cyber beast, came with the power, share hardware and an installation credit.
MGuy appears to have forgotten that gas pumps need electricity to pump gas.
If the power has gone out, it doesn't matter how much gasoline is still stored in that underground -bomb- tank.
You are funny .. Have you heard portable engine/ICE generator ?? ... or hand cranked fuel pump ??? ... LOLLL ....
@@kebeleteeek4227 any idea of how many gas stations have backup generators or hand cranks? I'm guessing the number approaches 0. I'm also sure the one station with a generator would be out of fuel in no time...leaving them in the same situation as not having a generator.
random GUY forgets that ALL ICE cars are combustible.
@@kebeleteeek4227good luck with trying that one at a Petrol station.
@kebeleteeek4227 I imagine an EV powering the pumps so that the ICE age cars can escape 😂
lol, I guess gas stations are immune to natural disasters right? I very clearly remember having to spend hours looking for a gas station that was open let alone without massive lines after our last hurricane. Not to mention a lot of gas stations ran out of gas or were rationing it before the hurricane even hit. At least my car is fully charged every morning and I have plenty of range to get out of the area if I need to as well as having backup power when the grid goes out. We also have solar which was a god send when we lost power for almost 3 weeks.
Emergency delivery of fuel by helicopters .. air drops .. to disaster area is a big relief ... Can you do that with battery based power system ..???? LOL ..
So they are going to drop in enough fuel to support city sized areas? I'm"sure" this happens. @@kebeleteeek4227
@@kebeleteeek4227 I get my power from the sun. I don't need airdrops. You have to rely on a massive supply chain. I don't. I also don't have to worry about gas prices and availability constantly fluctuating depending on whats going on in the world.
@@kebeleteeek4227 Yes they have portable power stations that are fueled by portable solar panels that they can ship in and have shipped in these situations.
Moral of the story for any type of car: Just make sure you return home each day with enough in the tank to get out if you need to. Pretty simple 🤷♂
You didn't mention a few years back in a mountain region of Pakistan where a road got snowed in while people were evacuating in their ICE cars and many asphyxiated from the fumes while running the engines to try to stay warm. Deadly stuff that gas.
As an Australian, I am embarrassed by MGUY - but just know he is absolutely aware of your points, he has a history of cherry picking and is ultimately appealing to a base to generate revenue.
Australia is very experienced with disasters, recent flood events saw communities cut off withour fuel and no way trucks could resupply. The EVs were all operational.
When the power went out in SEQLD for a week, EVs ran homes including medical equipment. A recent outage in Canberra saw the EV V2G trial kick in and all the EVs on the trial supplied power to the grid. Australia is set to be the first country to fully enable V2G... cant wait to see MGUYs response.
And a geni can run homes for months.
It's much easier to store huge amounts of energy in a liquid form.
And far cheaper
@jasonhutcheon5991 in the Canberra black outs about 250,000 houses lost the interconnector to nsw and Vic. There were about 15 evs connected to the grid. That accounted for 1 or two seconds more of power for all the house holders. Plus when they went to drive those evs, the battery was flat. That is a great example of the system.
@@jasonhutcheon5991 unless you pay extra to have your house wired up to allow electricity to run from your connected ev to the house, it doesn't happen. Most ev home chargers will not do this.
@@Guvament_bs you make a great argument for mass EV adoption! well done.
@@Guvament_bs it might actually be worth the small cost, eh?
Yes, I forgot. I do always have my battery totally depleted and the next working socket is 100km away.
😅😅
Yep, my thoughts exactly.
You can be miles away while Mguy is still pouring petrol into his car from his jerrycan.
You’ll notice that the more EVs gain traction, the more desperate and laughable Mguys arguments become.
I’m so used to the Luddites saying stupid things about EVs. It’s so tiring trying to fight back.
ITs a constant fight against so much misinformation about everything these days. Its really becoming hard to keep fighting. I am at the point where I know what is and isnt true for the most part and just giving up trying to explain things to others
The frustration goes away when you understand the absurdity of it all. You’re eating ribeye steak but getting upset because of people who believe a peanut butter sandwich is better.
You're too nice. They're Troglodytes. 😂
@ truth. Those of us with EVs know the truth.
I don't own an EV yet but my thinking is that every time someone gets an EV, they will influence their friends even if they are hard core anti-EV.
Ben you forgot to point out one other clear benefits of certain EVs during wild fires. The woman being interviewed mentioned that the smoke was getting so bad that she could not wait for the road to clear of the abandoned cars blocking the traffic. If one is in an X or an S model Tesla, the Bio-hazard mode can filter out quite the bit of it to a point when even that gets clogged out after hours of thick abuse. Not a solution for every situating but sure as hell helps a lot when driving through a natural catastrophe involving harmful particles for humans to inhale.
I wanted to be agnostic of brand here, but you're right!
also Y + cybertruck
One of the things that people may not realize is that each house has a single power company but as an example there are at least 4 power companies within ten minute drive from my house. Friends of mine that live two miles from me have a different power company and the nearest public EV charger (about 5 miles from me) is on a completely different power company. That is one reason I feel like if my power went out I could definitly get my vehicle charged up if I needed to.
That’s pretty awesome, but admittedly not the case everywhere. Here in Ontario Canada we have a single electricity provider - Hydro One. Every municipality’s electric company buys their electricity from them. Admittedly, I don’t recall many times where entire cities here went dark for prolonged periods other than that one time. Even with some of our ice storms the power outages weren’t always so complete. With power outage maps it’s pretty easy to confirm just how far the outage goes and know where you can still go to charge up.
100% - people not familiar with this area don't realize how ginormous LA is and how easily you can drive 10 miles and be in a totally different area completely unaffected. For example if 100K people lose power in LA that is only around 3% of people.
Somebody should do a video showing how far your EV can drive at 25mph or lower. I bet it's an insanely far distance. The less you're moving the less energy you're using so they are ideal for situations where there is slow traffic. Plus you have many with hepa filters that help keep your air clean while you wait.
Low speed reduces energy wasted due to having to move air out of the way. otherwise it makes very little difference.
@@gregbailey45 how far did you get is the question
While I agree with your sentiment on leaving keys in car, when you are told by a policeman to walk out or die, not too many people will take the time to take their car keys off the ring.
As for EVs being useless in an emergency, I'll take my CyberTruck over any other vehicle first like so many others I have my CT charging whenever I'm home so it's full, the ICE is usually 1/2 empty. Also if grid electricity goes out the CT has power available.
I'm wondering what you put on the insurance claim if your car is stolen with the keys inside.
We were in TX during the freeze and power outages. Periods of time power was out. We will didn't run a generator. People died running engines in their garage. We warmed up in the Tesla until the power came on. It was a godsend.
I had to add another comment about when we lost our power for just over two weeks, in the winter. A large ice storm took out power over a wide area, nothing no power. Our area, every power pole, for miles had been knocked over, along with power lines being over weighted by ice. Nobody was pumping gas, no power. They had to ship in large generators, truck loads of them, to gas stations, grocery stores etc. I don't have an EV yet, but my Subaru is getting long in the tooth and expect to replace it in the next few years, so i'll definitely charging at home, and setup to power my home as well.
Gas pumps also need electricity to work. 🙂
Yup, during the Texas freeze, lots of pumps were not with power
Have you heard hand cranked fuel pump technology ????? ... or portable ICE generator ??? .. These are the latest invention ... LOLLLL
@@kebeleteeek4227 Not sure if you are being sarcastic or not but no one is going allow you to hand pump gas out the storage tank. How do you plan to plug in that portable generator? Take a walk around the build, you won't find an extension cords sticking out of the back. A gas station needs to be pre-wired for a generator with an isolation/cut-off switch so energy is not sent to the grid and injuring a line worker. While some are pre-wired, most are not and many of those that are do not have generators on site.
@ or solar panels and batteries (last a longer and can be used all the time at no extra cost) 🙂
@ Are you kidding me ???
I own a Tesla, and also have Solar with Tesla Powerwalls. Don't really care about what anybody thinks or say. But this is one of the best decision I have made for myself.
For a local emergency, EV's are fine. For a *regional* emergency? I would have concerns. If you don't, you aren't thinking clearly. Even gas can become an issue...
Fantastic review on the current situation, and how EVs are a solution, not a problem. I heard that Tesla lent some Cyber Trucks out to help the emergency services with critical electronic device charging, so it seems clear, EVs are defo great in these difficult times. Oh also I think in Japan they use specially equipped Nissan leaf’s for emergency use.
Thanks Ben- right on the money! As an Aussie 🇦🇺my heart goes out to all those affected. 😢
I’m so glad we have a home battery AND solar. If the grid went down, nothing would change here for us, except we might run an extension lead over the fence for our neighbours to run their fridge.
P.S. It’s high time ALL Teslas had V2L, not just the Cybertruck.
Eco-Flow: the Jerry can for your EV.
I actually have a video of this exact use case
ICE Owners: EVs catch on fire all the time and burn down your house.
Also ICE Owners: Keep a 20 gallon jerry can of gasoline in your garage in case of wildfires.
Two years ago I was in the Pacific island nation of Vanuatu when twin category 4 tropical cyclones hit us. It was a frightening experience but thankfully our house had solar and batteries. While the rest of the island was without grid power for weeks, the lights in our house never so much as flickered.
"You can't have a jerry can of electricity"
My honest reaction: *edit of an electric generator here*
One of the coolest things about an EV is that it can be fueled by any fuel source, not just electricity. Diesel or gas generator, solar, wind, water, grid, gravity... Makes it a great tool for emergency situations.
When people just use their phones as a keys can be problematic for emergency responders to move their cars.
Actually I think in dire situations, they'll just push the cars off the road using their trucks.
Tesla has black cards, but they can be a real pain to use.
You should always have your key-card as a backup, in case something happens to your phone. That could be left. Though, as Aussie said, I's be surprised if emergency responders take the time to check and drive cars in the way, vs just plowing them out of the way.
What’s interesting is very few if any politically we’re calling to withhold funds from Texas based on actions or inactions. How some politically can speak out of both sides of their mouth talking about withholding funds from CA is tragic
It’s evil and unAmerican.
Damn, haven’t seen Steve Guttenberg in a long time. Weird that this is the way I see him again. Loved the Police Academy movies.
he got fat.
I find it irritating how you brush off conservative talking points in such a hand-wavey manner. Obviously, there have been, and always will be, dumb ideas and misunderstandings within any group, but usually there is a core truth.
For example, the argument about electric vehicles creating more dependency on fragile systems is absolutely a valid concern. It may be exaggerated by some, and it may not fit with your agenda, but it is certainly true. And yes, people can set up a system to recharge at home, but that may be out of reach for some people.
Thanks for mentioning the hurricanes because it's a real problem. Here in South Florida, we get at least one or two hurricane scares every hurricane season, and the first thing everybody does is fill their cars with a full tank of gas. This usually happens a few days before the storm, and there are not enough gas stations and stored fuel to accommodate this. So, before the storm has even hit, most gas stations have already run out of fuel and you've most likely already sat in a line that could be 3 hours or more if you find a gas station that still has fuel. The other problem is that most businesses still make you work until there's a hurricane warning, which is usually a day before the storm. So now, because you drove back and forth to work when the storm hasn't hit yet, and by now, there's no fuel to be had, you don't have that full tank of gas anymore. Weirdly, a lot gas stations in SF don't have generators for some reason. so if they lose power after the storm, even if they're able to truck in fuel, a lot of gas stations can't deliver it to the cars. I've had my EV almost 2 years now and I've already got to miss out on 2 times where the gas stations were backed up and lines were so long It brings a three lane road down two. I do 98% of my charging at home, so having an EV is so much more convenient, especially during storm preparation. While everybody's waiting in gas station lines, I'm doing my food shopping.
Being located in an area heavily affected by wildfires, I feel for all those in SoCal right now. Stay safe.
We have 2 EVs and during fire season, I keep them charged a little higher, in case we need the power from the outlets or to bug out.
Same, my Rivian is fueled up 100% every night ready to head south if needed
Everyone should keep a decent amount of miles in reserve, whether gas or electric, just in case of the unexpected. It doesn't take a disaster. Sometimes the power goes out here. If that happens on my way home, and I don't have enough to get to work the next day... not good. Simple solution: I make sure I always return home with enough to make it to work (50+ miles).
I've been through a 4-day power outage in July in Memphis. It was a big relief to catch some A/C for sleeping in my Tesla while in my garage. I was also ready for our huge (for Memphis) winter storm last week. Had we lost power, the Tesla's heat pump could also keep us warm. We surprisingly didn't lose power, but we had no worries about it either.
Texas, we had our first freeze of the year or of the season. This was a a 2-day event and what I mean by this is we received a little bit of snow and sleet and freezing rain but before that weekend which was last weekend and after even till today we've been getting 30° temperatures overnight. So it's been going on 2 weeks now. In a few days to a week or so, the date is around January 20th. They're supposed to be another harsh snowfall and another freeze, which I think it'll be mild. Normally that extreme weather is normally in the middle of February. I will also say my garage during the 32° weather is normally around 56°. And yes I do own an EV
Solid Rogan / Gates logic. 👍
A can of Petroleum in the Garage is very helpful, when the fire needs food
I was itching for you to get at this Mguy
Off road motorcycle is best evacuation vehicle.
Agreed or a good 4x4 quad w a winch.
Off-road EV's are really slept on from what I've seen
@FemboyMotorworks what?
@@ryan6391 Slept on as in unnoticed, rarely do I ever witness any large EV channels cover Chinese eBikes
One channel I've stumbled across did an EV conversion on his Land Rover and had more SoC on the vehicle's battery back compared to many other non-EV off-roaders after doing a trail run
@FemboyMotorworks oh, I see. I have a 500 Polaris that with a 5 gallon tank of gas can run all day so would be excellent in an emergency situation. I'd pick a Enduro/dirt bike for sure if roads were totally blocked. Hopefully it never comes to that. I'd just looked at those e dirt bikes but the range is not far enough yet. It's like 1 to 2 hr run time. An electric mountain bike would work to the ones w pedal backup.
If a big fire is within so many feet to miles the gas stations lock down to where we can't get gas
Texas does want to be subject to Federal regulations which is why they have avoided connecting to the national grid. The Texas customers are the ones that really get screwed by this lack of competition that results from this system
its a NO BRAINER in 2024 for Commerical & Business to have ROOF Solar & Powerwalls or Megapack.
BEN - the DUMB thing was ALL the Power Poles were all ENERGIZED and were NOT shut off as Neighborhoods burned.
the power ONLY was shutoff after the Power Poles burned & Snaped in the 80 mph winds.
CA power poles are NOT buried or made of Steel Reinforced Concrete.
also MOST CA homes have GAS service and while SOME homeowners shut off the gas at the METER , the gas meters caught FIRE and Exploded causing another Blowtorch.
the GAS service was NOT shutoff to the Neighborhoods on fire.
Also one other missed point. ICE vehicles can have their air filters clogged depending on how severe the smoke and ash is and how poorly maintained the vehicle is leading them to stall out. EVs do not need oxygen to run.
BEN my family survived BOTH the Berkeley hill fire & Oakland hills fire.
BTW the 1923 Berkeley fire , burned all way to the bay. (similar to LA).
I was in long island just after hurricane Sandy and I can tellyou there was only one gas station open on the Veterans Highway and the line up was out of this world so why didn't all these smart people have a jerrycan of gas at home?
Nobody keeps gas at home. It gets stale and is not suitable for an engine. I actually bought some bad gas from a gas station and my snowblower would not run on it. So there goes the gas mith.
What I would say about our ev's useless in the Los Angeles fires to be brutally honest. Anything and everything that we own would be useless. Gas powered vehicles, electric vehicles, electricity houses, buildings, trees everything that's around us is useless.
I guess the lines at the gas station when there's a power cut in a national disaster are things of the past for gasoline then. We finally managed to get rid of Price gouging and scalping.
Didn't know gas pumps could work without electricity. Wow, what an amazing technology!
Most have generators. It doesn't take much juice to turn the pumps and register back on.
Looking at your user, I think you are talking about Australia and probably it's true. In urban area of USA or in Europe there are usually no generators as gas stations in today are mini shopping centers and with huge power needs @@aussie2uGA
Have you hear the latest invention called hand cranked fuel pump ..????? .. LOLLLLLL ...
You need to keep your tank at least half full so ready for any disaster, no matter what your tank is. Nobody drives a gas truck towards a fire to refill gas stations so people can fill their cars, and gas pumps are also off when the power is out. However solar can charge an EV but not a gas car
It's been quite horrible to watch the LA fires take place. I can't imagine losing your home like that. I am in Texas and was here in 2021 when everything froze, luckily my mom's house never lost power so I just rode it out over there. We are due for more snow coming soon but luckily for us this is a mild winter (lows in the mid 20s). So we'll be fine, they did do some winterizing on the natural gas lines, although they are far from done. The 2021 temperature lows were around 10 degrees and lower. So mid 20's will be no problem for us. Hopefully LA gets the help it needs to recover as soon as possible.
Whenever there is a risk of power failure(severe weather, freezing rain planned outages) I charge my EV6 just in case. For power backup at home I have an EcoFlow running critical loads in my house. It can last 6-8 hours. Anything longer I can charge the EcoFlow with my EV6. Other than my initial testing(probably should test again) I have only needed the EcoFlow to keep things going.
PSA: just because a person has a British accent doesn’t mean they are not dumb as bricks.
😂
except for Clarkson, and Peter Rawlinson, BOTH Dumb.
Here in Thousand Oaks everything was overrun from the nearby fires. Gas stations, hotels, even Jack in the box.
Americans may be unfamiliar with the term "whinging pom" which is an English man(pom) who complains about everything. MGUY is the classic whinging pom best avoided or ignored.
#POMGuy
💯 I would prefer an EV in an emergency for many of the reasons you pointed out. However, a gas station can just run a gas generator to keep the pumps working. That doesn't all of a sudden make gas better or anything, but let's keep it real and not omit obvious counter points, as it might be perceived as dishonesty, which is the opposite of what your intentions are. Otherwise great video, thx! 🙏
By the time there's an EV in every garage, there will be a "petrol can" of standby battery charging in every garage as well.
One time when I had to evacuate from an incoming hurricane and still drove a gas car, I had trouble getting gas for the trip 2 or 3 days in advance of the predicted landfall. However, the electricity was still on.
They always find a way to make it look like green energy is the worst and at fault.
You've mentiond the "big freez" in Texas that was caused by a network that wasn't "winterized" and the lack of connection too other states electric grids but they falsely blaimed wind turbines and solar panneles when the main problem was methane gas infrastructure.
Everyone knows how useful a jerrycan of petrol is in a fire…
I annoyed a colleague when I pointed out that a mate who charged his EV from his solar panels started every day with a full "tank", but my colleague had to drive 20 miles for fuel, so had used some fuel by the time he got home, and never had a full tank. (yeah - semantics, I know)
He can use solar panels at night?
BTW - my old home was Victorian and had Deep Cycle marine batteries for backup for Emergencies , charged by the grid.
installed in the 1950's using used batteries. we later switched to AGM/Gel cells.
Baby steps.
There was a report yesterday that Tesla have provided a number of Cybertrucks for locals needing to charge devices, and Semi's to provide power for the emergency services.
Also they are providing starlink internet free to enable public to connect.
Not sure on the truth of this, but a great option.
It is true.... And Gavin Newsom is specifically ordering all CalFire not to use it or allow the Cybertruck on their staging grounds.....
Viewing the damage on the news from this side of the pond I could not help being struck by fact that these houses were all burnt down except for their chimney stacks. It appears to me that cheap constructtion using mostly wood and lax building standards will have contributed greatly to these fires. If these homes had been constructed properly using bricks, stone and concrete the fires wouild have spread far more slowly. houses in he US may be bigger and look more luxurious than those in the UK but in reality they are crap.
Chimneys have a big enough foot print to be self supporting. We see it a lot.
so was your comment.
2:30 a jerry can full of gasoline in your garage is definitely a great way to save your home during a fire. 🤔
Gas pumps don't use electricy to work?
We were hit by Hurricane Sandy and it took out most of the gasoline infrastructure one way or another. What few gas stations had manged to get generators hooked up to stay in business were of course clogged with long lines or out of fuel to sell because the fuel depots where the delivery trucks get it were also in bad shape.
My office never lost power, if I had been driving an EV at the time I could have use an L1 charge there for 4-6 hours a day and brought that juice home to keep the fridge running at least.
Yeah, what I would really want in my garage if fire was impending, is a 5 gallon Jerry can full of gasoline. What could possibly go wrong?
The purpose of the can is to take it with you when you leave the house.
An EV with a heat pump that could last 6 days would have saved people in Texas a few years back. People could (and did) sleep in their EV during the blackout.
The solar generators are a great idea. Gas goes bad but more often, the carburettor on generators get clogged. So, even with good gas, they won't run.Free power is always a good thing!
With all the talk about how in a theoretical disaster with massive power failures, why do so many people immediately forget that gas pumps run on electricity?
A channel Frozen Tesla did a video about leaving a tesla keep warm in extreme cold in Canada overnight to show how much it used per hour to keep the temperature inside at comfortable temperature in extreme cold 12 hour long test.
Spoiler
(end result spoiler its about 3% of his battery per hour in -20 to -28 C)
Great work Ben. It's not just about Gas stations pumps running on electricity. During North Carolina Floods Fuel Supply was cut off due to the road network being a total mess. Flooded roads obviously, downed trees and electrical wires but also roads just washed away.
These massive Fuel Tanks can't exactly go Off Roading. Meanwhile Electric Grid maintenance crews literally have vehicles purposely designed to go off-roading (Merc UNIMOG service truck with crane). Replacement parts can also be stored locally in preparation for a storm event. Individual Private property can also just generate their own electricity from renewables like VAWT, Solar PV and even micro hydro turbine. Especially with a Decentralized Electric Grid it is far more resilient and faster to recover from disaster. Relying on Crude Oil fuel supply chain is Energy Insecurity.
Speaking of ECOFLOW, i use the 1kw Delta 2 on road trips to power my peripherals. I just did research on it powering my model S- with the grounding adaptor, it'll power a level 1 portable charger! I already carry solar panels on trips, as it fits perfectly on the privacy panel over the trunk. With 2 panels, and 2 delta 2 batteries piggybacking-i can get out of almost any emergency situation when there's sunlight.
I already can plug into any 3 prong outlet with my level 1 cord. I can draw from any building- even lampposts if i need to.
Even easier- with something like the upcoming Gosun roof mount solar panel, u can unfold, and power any ev with up to 30 miles a day!
Ev power options are hard to beat!
It's funny, I'm watching this and right next to it is Autotrader vid "Revealed: Why They're "Forcing" Electric Cars on Us" 116K views so far.
I agree with basically everything you say except the idling part. To be fair, in California it's probably true but where I live an EV would use a lot of power to heat in a Trafic jam if it occurs in winter at -20°C or below. On the other hand, if you idle a modern diesel car for hours you will get into a lot of troubles with particles filter and stuff, it will take a toll on the engine. Also modern diesel doesn't give much heat while idling so hopefully you got a diesel heater installed. This is to some extent also true for a petrol car.
A friend of mine works at a gas station. They told me the station has a backup generator.
Everything is useful and has its use case. When someone says one thing is all bad and the other isn’t, that tells you all you need to know about them.
You know what? You can't collect a jerry can full of petrol from the solar pannels on your roof. But you can charge your BEV from them.
Well Done, thx! Additionally, my 2022 Model Y has an HVAC system Standard, with a BIOHAZARD DEFENSE FILTRATION system using a HEPA filter so that you can escape in the Smoky fire zones with clean fresh air inside!
Great video as always
Please keep up the good work from Scotland
You actually can keep a "Jerry can" of electricity in your EV. Ben did it. Funny how the guy said you can keep a Jerry can of fuel in your garage, but you have to keep one in your EV.
Water is dependent on electricity. , it’s pumped
Check salvage yards and see where they park the EV's
Love your videos and the relentless assault on FUD.
I foresee no issues with storing gasoline in my garage during a fire, thanks mguy
😅😅
I have a Delta 2 and a River 3 they work great.
Delta 2 runs my home furnace for a little bit in case of emergencies
I am surprised they have not blamed every fire on electric cars.
I think Tesla was the first company to use a heat pump. Why did you state that they finally got around to it/
"...you can't keep a jerry-can full of electricity for your EV." Uhhh... I keep about 40 kWh of electricity stored in my garage that gets continuously replenished every day by my solar panels.
Hehehe. Like me seems You couldn't handle more than a cpl minutes of that guy either. 😂. Thank you for addressing more misinformation. Flat out lies. it’s kind of upsetting to see some of the misinformation out there and to think what AI could enable people like that to do. Not just in the electric vehicle world..
Some EVs also have hepa filters which help with filtering out the smoke while trying to escape the fires.
A point not discussed is that EV owners are encouraged to plug in while at home. Therefore most BEVs after being home a few hours, have recouped the days use and are fully charge (80% charged). My BEV spends most of its parked time at home fully charged and ready to take me 250+ miles if need be without stopping. My gas pickup, in contrast, seldom has more than a half tank or 150 miles range, since it never gets a full tank at the cost of gas and it's low usage.
If it was a Tesla (which doesn't have keys as far as I am aware), what would you leave in the car so that someone could move (or steal) it? The RFID card that opens the door? I don't know enough about Teslas, but does that allow the car to be driven as well? But how about this? Could the smart summons be used to move the car remotely if the owner saw there was a problem?