When I recently took a trip to China to see the world of electric micromobility, I was greeted with a…
Its a 3 wheeled electric utv. We moved away from 3 wheeled designs because theyre dangerous. Basically, china made another cheap dangerous product.
You can buy an 4 wheeled electric UTV at tractor supply and other retailers, and they wont try to flip over and crush your head like a watermelon.
We moved away from 3 wheeled designs because theyre dangerous.
Slingshots are a common sight on American roadways, and they’ve only got three wheels. The difference is that slingshots are designed to end run vehicle regulations, while these appear to still be bound by Chinese regulatory standards.
You can buy an 4 wheeled electric UTV at tractor supply and other retailers, and they wont try to flip over and crush your head like a watermelon.
No shortage of large trucks and SUVs that will flip at high speeds, particularly in the rain or during hard turns.
Those are a reverse trike, and made to sit low, and they have roll bars so it rests on those instead of your head.
China did the opposite of those things.
Low end electric vehicles of this type seem trustworthy, but I would absolutely avoid any of the high end EVs from China. The amount of battery issues (and fires from those) and other structural problems with their more expensive EVs seems like a lot of corners are being cut.
In the US there’s huge tariffs on EV stuff from China anyhow. Hopefully as solid state takes off battery fires become a thing of the past globally.
I would absolutely avoid any of the high end EVs from China
Won’t be an issue, since Chinese EV tariffs and trade restrictions are going to preclude imports entirely.
The amount of battery issues (and fires from those) and other structural problems with their more expensive EVs seems like a lot of corners are being cut.
Are you talking about a particular model? I haven’t heard of any BYD vehicles exploding into flames, like the odd Tesla.
Just general news. Such as these:
https://www.semafor.com/article/02/27/2024/china-ev-battery-safety
Here’s one specifically on a BYD even: https://www.scmp.com/news/hong-kong/society/article/3249963/byd-electric-car-catches-fire-hong-kong-charging-station-expert-says-short-circuit-could-be-cause
There are about 2000 fires in more than 800000 electric vehicle-related enterprises in China every year
Is a 0.000125% rate of vehicle fires considered a serious problem?
Uhhhh, I think you need to check your math there. 2000 out of 800,000 is 0.25% or 1 in 400. And while that’s not high as a generality, when it comes to selling a product, especially an expensive car, that’s pretty high.
For US electric vehicles, yes. And for most other nations, as your article notes. China is the exception, it seems, with much higher rates of fires occurring.
The numbers you provided are lower…
Any amount is a serious problem that should be addressed by improved safety IMO. Hoping that solid state batteries pretty much eliminate fires but I guess we’ll see.
Any amount is a serious problem
An incidence of failure that low can more readily be attributed to human error than manufacture’s defect. The idea that Chinese vehicles are less safe than their American or Japanese counterparts is not born out by your citations.
Could be, but why not engineer against human error too? Seems like a very sensible thing to do: Make your products easy to use safely. No such thing as perfect but it should still be an important factor in engineering/designing anything. It can be tough to compromise between usability and safety but a really good design finds ways to meet both requirements.
In NA, vehicle fires happen at the following rates per 100k sales per year:
Hybrid : 3,474
Gas : 1,523
EV : 25.1
If the proposed 2,000 per 800,000 is accurate that works out to 250/100k per year. Or way lower than everything but EVs in NA.
And you would trust the cheaper vehicles? You think they use better parts in cheap cars?
It’s a shame that anything close to that will never come to the U.S.
You mean a 3 wheeler? Yeah, because they kept killing people. 4 wheeled UTVs are very popular.
I might fuck with a reverse trike though…
If you enjoy looking like a dork sure
Mostly, IDGAF. They look fun and if that bothers someone else, that’s their problem.
It’s for your ranch/ farm. All that being said, my utv is already scary to drive on the trails.
Yeah I’ve already known people who have died on 4 wheel UTVs
I believe it! It’s a lot safer than a trike, though.
Never say never.
Even if they did, they’d never sell. Everyone in America is so batshit insane with the expectation of everything NOW-NOW-NOW that practically no one would tolerate a “truck” that can’t do 120 MPH or 0-60 in 4 seconds.
On the more prosaic side, there is no way in hell these things would pass American crash safety tests nor comply with vehicle equipment and safety regulations without a significant redesign that would add a lot of complexity and cost. Maybe you could get them rammed through as “motorcycles.” They would have the same stigma as motorcycles among the general populace. These things would be absolute litigation machines in the US.
Classify them as some sort of tractor maybe?
Definitely yeah, or they can modify the definition of low speed vehicles they already have. But a lot of states are trying to ban those because m o n e y
We can’t even sell non-V8 trucks to traditional truck drivers yet. 🥹 Can’t coal-roll with an F150 Lightning.
Reminder: If you see someone rolling coal, it’s morally OK to relocate their stem valves.
Plenty of F150s are V6s.
True. I wasn’t being entirely objective. 😅
You mean like a 4 wheeled UTV? They sell them all the time. What are you talking about?
Oh hey a 3-wheeled tip-over-mobile. I guess the real difference is in how stupid they look.
Is that ~10mm rod on the green one the trailing arm?! They look fragile and like they would get stuck really easily. Might be a spooled 2wd but I sort of doubt it.
If the paths are made for them, they would probably work fine but on a western ranch? nope.
The brake actuator?
Oh man, that makes me feel better.
Looks just like an Ape (Italian for Bee). I still see them in front of pizzerias sometimes.
Looks awesome! Jealous of the creater, I’d love to tour China someday.
Hello mister ccp tourism board intern!
You have been banned from r/sino.
Lol
ROFLMAO
