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Volvo Smashing Electric Cars To Test Next Gen Safety
Volvo Jumps On Plug-In Hybrid Bandwagon
Volvo To Supplant V8s With Diesel Electric Hybrids By 2012

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skitter
09/23/09

In reply to Volvo Smashing Electric Cars To Test Next Gen Safety
I always thought Blade Runner was lessened with every new cut; more shock twist! Deckard is a replicant!, less haunting flight as 'It's a pity she won't live' hangs in the air. We have seen today that cars of our cult are as mortal as ourselves, if not more. Ashes to ashes, rust to rust. But the gray tide of hopelessness will be kept at bay, forever in our eyes, if we choose, if we continue the passion that brought us here in the first place. Into Jalopnik we pour our hopes and our hell, and forge solidarity in our own corner of the landscape. Our culture is preserved by our living it.

And in your sad machines,
you'll forever stay.
Burning up in speed
and lost inside the truth.
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jodark
09/23/09

In reply to Volvo Smashing Electric Cars To Test Next Gen Safety
So how do they keep the battery acid from completely eating away the crash test dummies?

Also, if that shit starts arcing, you going to see peoples' body parts welded to the chassis.
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Prawo Jazdy and The Velocity Trumpets promoted this comment Edited by jodark at 09/23/09 4:35 PM jodark was starred jodark was unstarred

P161911 probably shoudn't have
09/23/09

In reply to Volvo Smashing Electric Cars To Test Next Gen Safety
The other big problem with electric/hybrid car crashes is the fire department/first responders need to know where the high voltage lines run. Cutting a live main power wire with the jaws of life would be a very bad thing.
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lilwillie
09/23/09

@P161911:

Sadly, it was just this year our local FD and EMT's went for Hybrid and EV training. I had the chance to talk to a fire fighter and mentioned him taking the class. When I referred to anything Orange for cables and wiring being high voltage he had a deer in the head light stare.
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brc is never late, because of his v8
09/23/09

@P161911: I'm guessing that the power storage units (battery packs) have electronic smarts in them to stop supplying current in the event of an accident. For example, the Tesla battery pack encases each individual cell in steel, and the whole pack is cased in alumnium. There are multiple on-board processors which constantly monitor for faults, and include a crash sensor to disconnect the pack in the event of an accident. The sensors measure lateral g (impact) orientation (eg rollover) smoke (fire), humidity and moisture (drove into a river). The pack by default does not produce any current, and will only do so if commanded to by the vehicle on board electronics. In other words, there will only be high voltage flowing out of the pack if the car is not smashed, upright, not under water and the driver is pressing on the accelerator.

Compare that to a plastic container with gallons of highly volatile fuel and I think you're overstating the risk. Any emergency personell can be equipped with a $15 voltage detector that electricians use. You just wave it over the wire, and if it beeps, there's current.
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P161911 promoted this comment

P161911 probably shoudn't have
09/23/09

@brc is never late, because of his v8: You are assuming they would think to check the door sill, B-pillar, dash, etc. for wires before they start cutting.
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brc is never late, because of his v8
09/23/09

@P161911: well, for (1) the wires will not be live in 99.99% of the cases, unless there is a serious malfunction and (2) I'm going to assume that they don't run high voltage lines down door sills and in the dash. I'm going to assume that they are underneath the car, shielded in some heavy duty insulation, and bright orange and marked 'high voltage'. Nobody runs fuel lines down the side, roof or interior of a car, so why would high voltage lines be any different?

The engineers building these things aren't backyard idiots. I'm certain they think about these issues well ahead.
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lilwillie
09/23/09

In reply to Volvo Smashing Electric Cars To Test Next Gen Safety
I see a '59 Chevy wrecked and I scream out in pain. I see a EV decimated and giggle like a school girl.

Yup, priorities still in the right place for me.
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Edited by lilwillie at 09/23/09 4:14 PM lilwillie was starred lilwillie was unstarred

Alfisted
09/23/09

In reply to Volvo Smashing Electric Cars To Test Next Gen Safety
As long as they're smashing them, I don't really care why.
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Syrax
09/23/09

In reply to Volvo Smashing Electric Cars To Test Next Gen Safety
They sure don't dream of electric death.
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Plecostomus [Tyrrell]
06/01/09

In reply to Volvo Jumps On Plug-In Hybrid Bandwagon
Volvo has been talking about plug in hybrids and plug in EVs for several years now, that is by no means "jumping on the bandwagon".
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Bentoboxx, My Tank is full of it
06/01/09

In reply to Volvo Jumps On Plug-In Hybrid Bandwagon
I guess to many hippies complained that the new Volvo wagons were not square and slow like the old ones
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Novaload
06/01/09

In reply to Volvo Jumps On Plug-In Hybrid Bandwagon
Too little too late, Volvo.

According to the Mayan Calendar, the world as we know it will end on Dec. 21, 2012.
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Elhigh
06/01/09

@Novaload Misses Murilee: Has anybody besides me ever considered that maybe, just maybe...

...funding for the Mayan Ultimate Calendar simply ran out, or the poor tired soothsayer just got tired of counting? Maybe he just predicted the world would end on the winter solstice Thus-And-Such Year and who's going to give him shit about it? He's been dead for a mighty long time.
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Flathead Smith
06/01/09

In reply to Volvo Jumps On Plug-In Hybrid Bandwagon
"MARKET LEADER IN PLUG-IN HYBRID TECHNO...."

I thought that was Telsa Motors.
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Alfisted
06/01/09

@Flathead Smith: You are correct. Tesla is half electric, half hot air.
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pauljones
06/01/09

@Alfisted: And two-thirds cocaine.
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Bullitt417
06/01/09

@pauljones: I didn't know John Delorean had a stake in the company....
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wrx-tyrannosaurusWrx
06/01/09

@Bullitt417: Dude. Low blow.
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pauljones
06/01/09

@Bullitt417: Haven't you heard?

Elon Musk is the new John Delorean is the new Preston Tucker.
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Jo Schmo
06/01/09

In reply to Volvo Jumps On Plug-In Hybrid Bandwagon
A Volvo with zero emissions? These will only be driven by douchebags.
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Elhigh
06/01/09

In reply to Volvo Jumps On Plug-In Hybrid Bandwagon
Back in the 90s Volvo had a concept that looked competely baked and ready to serve, a series hybrid with a 58hp turbine burning...well, pretty much anything...and all the necessary power conditioning hardware and motors peppered throughout the chassis as necessary.

58hp may not sound like much beans to you, and it isn't, but 90% of the time you don't need much gumption. Cruising at 60, I don't think I need more than 20hp in my non-aero-enhanced truck. Stash a little back for passing and hillclimbing and 58hp is plenty.

Why not do that? They've hd 10 years to work on it.
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Bullitt417
06/01/09

@Elhigh: The problem isn't cruising at 60mph but rather getting to 60mph. Besides, who cruises at 60?
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Elhigh
06/01/09

@Bullitt417: See, that's where I said "stash a little back," supercaps or high-power batteries for the surges when you need them.

I cruise at 60. We're getting speed cameras around here now, so one of my freedoms, the one that lets me roll dice with speed-enhanced Death, is being taken away.

Besides, 60 gets me fabulous fuel mileage and I still get to work on time.
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engineerd
06/01/09

In reply to Volvo Jumps On Plug-In Hybrid Bandwagon
The ePRS (US Patent No. c11077983) translated the press release to this:

Volvo is working on a plug in hybrid electric vehicle that will run on biofuels.

LOOk HOw GREEn We ARe!
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SirNotAppearing
06/01/09

In reply to Volvo Jumps On Plug-In Hybrid Bandwagon
DRIVel Towards Zero
/sTUPID aRBITRARY cAPITALIZATION
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Syrax
06/01/09

In reply to Volvo Jumps On Plug-In Hybrid Bandwagon
Only PHEV? Pfft.
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pauljones
06/01/09

@Syrax: Mine's a GHZL.
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