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Empty e-car causes mega traffic jam

E-cars and car parks have a difficult relationship. A Tesla driver proved this again in a shopping centre in London. In the middle of the driveway of a four-storey car park, his car got stuck halfway up. But what is quickly fixed in an internal combustion car has a completely different dynamic in an electric model.

With an internal combustion car, a simple spare can of the right fuel solves the problem. With an electric vehicle, however, a power socket is needed, and filling up the battery quickly takes a few hours in the best case, but in any case significantly longer than filling up with a canister. A practical power bank would be ideal here, just as it is very useful when travelling with a laptop.

In addition, in this particular case, the driver was not really familiar with the functions and features of a car of the future. The very fact that he continued to drive, although his dashboard must have pointed out the empty battery, shows a lack of foresight. When a tow truck finally arrived, the Tesla driver was not immediately able to set the towing mode and clear the way for the cars behind him that had been waiting for hours.

The city of Kulmbach in Upper Franconia does not like e-cars anyway.  There, e-cars are generally prohibited from entering car parks because it can be difficult to extinguish an e-car that has caught fire. Although e-cars do not catch fire more often than combustion cars, once they do it is much more difficult to extinguish them because the battery is installed deeper in the vehicle. Often the fire brigade or the extinguishing water cannot even reach the battery, so it is better to let the whole vehicle burn down in a controlled manner. In a multi-storey car park, this involves many imponderables and dangers.

As we can see, it is not enough just to have the good will to protect the environment. You always have to keep in mind the differences to the combustion engine and the still lacking charging infrastructure in order to adapt your driving and charging behaviour if necessary.