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(Elbil24): Out of power, a not uncommon situation for us with electric cars. But the fact is that for us electric motorists out of power is not the same as the fossil fuel people think – that the operating battery is dead.
No, if you talk to one of the many recovery drivers, you will get the truth. Most electric cars that run out of power stand there with a flat 12-volt battery, because even electric cars have a “starting battery” like all petrol and diesel cars have had since early morning.
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As electric cars do not have a large starter that has to be dragged around – even when it is freezing cold – there is no need for a large 12-volt battery. After all, it is only a small computer that needs to be started up, and after this the high-voltage battery takes over.
But the small starter battery can often cause trouble, because the electric cars thus become very vulnerable if something that draws power is left on. The small battery runs out quickly.
An example: A member of the editorial staff has an Opel Ampera-e which has parking lights that come on to the side where you put the turn signal lever, when you get out of the car. It is easy to come across this when you get out of the car, without intending to. The result is that both front and rear parking lights stay on while you are away. These draw power from the 12-volt battery, which is very likely to be empty when you return after the end of the working day.
Cars have different ways of handling such situations, but in most cases you either have to get starting help from others, or from a tow truck.
See pictures of the app:
You get voltage, battery percentage and temperature in real time. In addition, you can choose these three themes given as historical graphs.
You can add more cars to the system.
Elbil24 has been in talks with, among others, the manufacturer CTEK, which makes a number of different equipment for charging batteries for cars, both electric cars and others. They also have a battery bank – a power bank – from which you can start a normal fossil car. In other words, it is so powerful that you can fire up a fossil fuel car with it. That is why it is also expensive. Our advice to CTEK was to make a much smaller version, but which was still suitable for starting up electric cars’ computers. For this you need a power bank that has a much smaller capacity, and which would thus be much cheaper to purchase. Several would simply buy it, and thus be self-salvage. Then it remains to be seen whether CTEK sees the need.
Once we get to CTEK, they also have a smart product they call Battery Sense. This is a gadget that you connect between the plus and minus poles of the 12-volt battery. This reads the status of the 12-volt battery at all times, and then gives you an updated health status of this battery through an app on your phone. The gadget and your phone communicate via Bluetooth.
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Should the gadget see that something is abnormal, you will receive a notification on your phone, thus saving you from something that could become a crisis situation. Unfortunately, there’s no SIM card in the device that monitors the battery, so you have to be within range of Bluetooth to get notifications. But the notifications also come when the battery itself starts to get weak, and you get graphs that show the development of the battery. If you do a lot of short trips, it is not certain that the battery will get the necessary maintenance charge it needs, depending on the car you have, and in that way you can ensure the maintenance in a more controlled manner than being left without power. As is well known, those situations arise when it is the least suitable. Just ask the salvage crew the next time you need help.
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We have now driven around with such a gadget in one of our cars for a while, and it works as intended. Unfortunately, at the time of writing, it has gone out of production, but there are still units available for purchase online. The technology is not advanced either, and there are other devices that do the same job that can be bought, only from a more unknown manufacturer. But, as I said, measuring voltage is not an advanced task, nor is reporting it to an app. It’s just really nice, so you don’t run out of power. The recommended price for the CTEK CTX is NOK 698, but several places are now selling them for NOK 498. Good trip!
2023-09-02 12:06:05
#small #gadget #big #difference
