Range anxiety is a funny thing. You’d think that with today’s long-range EVs and the reliability of, say, Tesla’s Supercharger DC fast charging network, it would largely be a thing of the past, but it isn’t. In the case of Tesla, that’s partly because real-world driving often doesn’t measure up to the official range claims. So, how do you address something like this? By adjusting range ratings downward to better reflect reality and apologizing to owners? I mean, I would, but not everyone would do the same.
Welcome back to The Morning Dump, where we digest the news that’s often a bit short for standalone pieces but still too important to miss. Today, a report claims that Tesla’s been playing range games with customers, chrome plating might be getting banned in Europe, and a ship carrying cars catches fire with a possible electric cause.
Tesla Reportedly Manipulated Range, Hushed Customer Complaints
How far would you go to sweep complaints under the rug? Probably not as far as Tesla’s alleged to have. A Reuters investigative report claims that Tesla manipulated range readings and created a secret team to quash range complaints.
About a decade ago, Tesla rigged the dashboard readouts in its electric cars to provide “rosy” projections of how far owners can drive before needing to recharge, a source told Reuters. The automaker last year became so inundated with driving-range complaints that it created a special team to cancel owners’ service appointments.
First, let’s unpack those optimistic range estimates. According to the report, these were initially programmed into Model S and Roadster vehicles. Once the charge dropped below 50 percent, realistic range estimates were displayed on the onboard trip computer. Above that threshold? Figures were allegedly inflated. As for who commanded this directive, guess what a Reuters source said?
“Elon wanted to show good range numbers when fully charged,” the person said, adding: “When you buy a car off the lot seeing 350-mile, 400-mile range, it makes you feel good.”
You’d likely expect this approach to not go well, and guess what? It didn’t. As sales figures skyrocketed, so did the number of drivers who reported less driving range than Tesla claimed. Clearly, a solution was needed, but it was allegedly much different from the public apology and software fix you’d expect.
Advisers would normally run remote diagnostics on customers’ cars and try to call them, the people said. They were trained to tell customers that the EPA-approved range estimates were just a prediction, not an actual measurement, and that batteries degrade over time, which can reduce range. Advisors would offer tips on extending range by changing driving habits.
If the remote diagnostics found anything else wrong with the vehicle that was not related to driving range, advisors were instructed not to tell the customer, one of the sources said. Managers told them to close the cases.
Ah, so just sweep things under the rug, pull the old “your mileage may vary,” and keep an eye out for any actual range-related issues. Gotcha. However, Reuters reports that the last bit of that process didn’t last long.
In late 2022, managers aiming to quickly close cases told advisors to stop running remote diagnostic tests on the vehicles of owners who had reported range problems, according to one of the people familiar with the diversion team’s operations.
“Thousands of customers were told there is nothing wrong with their car” by advisors who had never run diagnostics, the person said.
Well, that’s one way to speed through concerns, but it’s not especially, um, good. Without diagnostics, it would be possible for a small number of people who actually needed battery replacement due to degradation to fall through the cracks.
The allegations contained within this report are serious, and perhaps the most damning is that Tesla apparently has a new Utah-based team to deal with customer range complaints. Although some deviation from official range estimates is to be expected, it’s usually standard corporate protocol that if issues pile up, it’s time to admit something’s wrong. Hubris typically doesn’t save face.
The Death Of Chrome Has Been Greatly Exaggerated
If you like your trim pieces particularly shiny, I may have bad news for you. British magazine Autocar reports that Europe is proposing a ban on hexavalent chrome from 2024. Wait, that’s next year! However, the ban isn’t without good reason, as hexavalent chrome used in automotive plating is particularly nasty stuff.
The ban has been proposed as a result of health issues associated with the creation of hexavalent chromium, which is a known carcinogen. In particular, it is a source of chronic lung cancer, with the airborne emissions given off during the plating process said to be 500 times more toxic than diesel.
However, plating with hexavalent chromium isn’t the only way to make car parts shiny. Physical vapor deposition, or PVD, allows part markers to avoid the use of hexavalent chromium and still get comparable shine and hardness. So, how does PVD work? There are a variety of methods that can be used, but it all boils down to one of two processes, the most popular of which is evaporation — a solid (trivalent chrome, in this case) is evaporated into gas while under vacuum, deposited on a surface, and then re-solidifies. Of course, you get some overspray with this method so it isn’t perfect, but it’s far more environmentally sensible than plating, provided the right equipment is used.
The bottom line? Even if this proposal gets through, expect chrome to stick around in some form for quite a while. Although it won’t be quite the same as plating, most people won’t be able to tell the difference, and once UV-coated, PVD chrome plastic pieces shouldn’t have major durability concerns.
Another Ship Full Of Cars Has Caught Fire
With so many cars being transported across the world’s oceans every single day, it shouldn’t be horribly surprising that incidents can happen. Reuters reports that one person has died after a cargo ship transporting 2,857 vehicles including 300 Mercedes-Benzes burst into flames off the Dutch coast on Wednesday, and it may have started around an electric vehicle.
The fire might last for several days, Dutch news agency ANP reported, citing the coastguard. Smoke continued to billow from the vessel near the northern Dutch island of Ameland.
“The fire is most definitely still not controlled. It’s a very hard fire to extinguish, possibly because of the cargo the ship was transporting,” said Edwin Versteeg, a spokesperson for the Dutch Department of Waterways and Public Works.
As for the cause of the fire, it hasn’t been firmly established yet, but reports suggest that it could have something to do with thermal runaway.
The coastguard said on its website the cause of the fire was unknown, but a coastguard spokesperson had earlier told Reuters it began near an electric car. Roughly 25 out of 2,857 vehicles on the ship were electric.
This isn’t the first time that a ship containing electric vehicles has gone up in smoke. Back in early 2022, a ship carrying various cars including EVs caught fire and sank. As NPR reports, the Felicity Ace was carrying 4,000 vehicles, among which included Porsches, Bentleys, and Lamborghinis. While something as simple as flammable material in a heating vent could cause a ship fire, electric vehicles onboard complicate extinguishment as thermal runaway can lead to lithium-ion cells self-igniting days, sometimes weeks, after the initial fire. According to established procedures, electric vehicle fires require huge quantities of water to put out, which may risk destabilizing ships. As it stands, there are no easy answers for dealing with electric vehicle fires on ships.
Your Turn
With all the hubbub about a potential chrome ban, I’d like to do an informal poll: Do you like chrome on cars? Obviously, chrome trim doesn’t work on many cars, but an excess of black trim can simply feel boring. What are your limits when it comes to chrome.
Badges? Trim? Wheels? I’d love to know.
(Photo credits: Tesla, BMW, Mercedes-Benz)
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Chrome on classic cars looks great.
Chrome one newer cars, well, I assume that’s just plated plastic any time I see it.
Tesla (allegedly) using a spin department to allow them to keep overinflating their range figures? Say it ain’t so.
Now that there’s a good body of 3rd party testing (Consumer Reports, Edmunds, Car and Driver, and dozens of independent reviewers like Bjorn Nyland), we can see that Tesla’s range is inflated by about 13%. In other words, a Tesla rated for 300 miles (EPA) gets as much actual range as a typical competitor’s EV rated for 260 miles.
I believe Tesla’s referral code program (which they’ve restarted recently) was just a way to conscript keyboard warriors into being Tesla salesmen who made excuses for underperforming products. The only thing that surprises me about them having a team that silenced complaints is the fact that they had paid employees doing the work.
Tesla doesn’t sell cars, they sell hype.
Are you sure about that? I suspect there are thousands of Elon stans who would do it gratis. 😉
Could we go back to polished nickel or stainless steel instead? Always thought they had a better luster than even chrome plated metal, let alone chrome wrapped plastic that always seems to age terribly.
Aston-Martin has also used silver for some of their badges, which is actually not all that expensive to do, either
I love chrome! That’s why I daily drive a 62 continental. Newer cars all look like eggs and chrome on a egg just doesn’t cut it.
Mama don’t take my coat of chrome,
Mama don’t take my coat of chrome,
Mama don’t take my coat of chrome away.
The Tesla’s don’t spew a lot of crap into the atmosphere. That’s the difference.
“The Tesla’s don’t spew a lot of crap into the atmosphere.”
Tesla fanbois OTOH…
PRICELESS!
The cars CAN get rated range, if you drive them like the EPA testing procedure.
People who need max range are usually driving much faster than EPA testing procedure (60mph and under), so they often won’t hit that number.
Chrome in moderation is fine for me. I don’t need it to like a design, but there are some where chrome trim adds built-in highlights that show off a design.
Silliest use of chrome I ever encountered is on the top controls of Mini convertibles. Who thought that was a good idea? Those things heat up enough to scald your fingers, top open or closed.
Don’t take my chrome Crager SS wheels away.
I don’t think I’d ever miss chrome. It’s a PITA to take care of and typically the first think to start to look a bit shabby with age.
depends on the era. 50s and 60s, chrome em all. Right now I like the highlights.
Death of Chrome? with all those Escalades out there? 😛
The biggest problem with Chrome is that it’s Google. Firefox is better 😉
The Tesla shit doesn’t surprise me. Elon Musk is known for being childish.
Electrek has a good article debunking alleged media FUD blaming the ship’s fire on an EV: https://electrek.co/2023/07/26/surprise-media-is-misreporting-the-source-of-a-dutch-cargo-ship-fire/
I heard the fire “may have started near a BEV” and that’s good enough for me to think we should ban all BEVs!
There are many solutions which don’t require hexavalent chromium:
https://www.coverbrowser.com/image/popular-mechanics/709-1.jpg
My sick mind is picturing a rally-prepped WRX with bronze wheels and full brass trim and I somehow don’t hate it.
I hate chrome, when I was a kid it was a sign of wealth and class (I guess). It does not have that effect anymore, and its blinding as hell.
My biggest complaint on my Tundra is the chrome on the inside blinding the hell out of me, like why did you do that Toyota?
“Black Chrome” or “Vader” is looking to be a new trend on high end. Just cut it out already I say.
EV burns down ANOTHER boat. Lets see how long Insurance companies keep letting them on those ships. It’s going to be like cali-florida insurance companies..”rats fleeing a sinking ship”
Shiny surfaces on the interior of cars should be banned. My Ram has the same problem and I went so far as to plasti-dip some of the trim to keep it from glaring in my eyes. It’s inexcusable.
My Pontiac Vibe had a SUPER shiny logo in the middle of the steering wheel. Just … what? I would be mid-turn and the sun would hit it just right, blinding me as I drive a 4000-lb hunk of metal through a busy intersection.
Hopefully they find the root cause of the cargo ship fire. Davy Jones claimed the Felicity Ace before any investigation could be done. If an EV started it, I could see a requirements for EVs to have the high voltage battery physically disconnected before the ship goes underway. Most EVs have a relatively simple way to disconnect the battery.
IMHO, EV range claims are still in their infancy. Give it another 10-20 years and tests or adjustment percentages will be developed to better reflect real world usage. My EV is rated at 270 miles. I can get close to 400 in perfect, city driving conditions and 210 at 75MPH in 100°F heat. Maybe they need to separate city/highway on the range estimate with a second winter range estimate.
I think currently they believe a fire started near an EV, not necessarily that an EV started spontaneously combusting on its own.
So the issue with disconnecting a battery, is I were to set an EV with a disconnected battery on fire, you still have a battery fire with the potential for thermal runaway depending on the pack design, battery chemistry, etc.
So the solution isn’t necessarily disconnecting the battery packs for transit, but ensuring there’s suitable fire suppression in areas where EVs are, because if a completely unrelated fire starts that spreads to the EVs, the EVs won’t end up doing the usual battery fire thing.
It’s like lithium batteries on cargo planes. Cargo holds got modified and fire suppression/prevention improved to better contain the fires, as I think either some cargo planes were lost (as in, crashed), or were so badly damaged the airframe wasn’t worth repairing.
Good points on the disconnect and battery chemistry. I think ships will be modified for this soon, and somewhere people are already scrambling. Regardless of peoples thoughts electric isn’t going anywhere, and imagine in they finally figure out some sort of hybrid tanker/cargo ship. It is an issue that needs to be addressed.
How long does it take and how bad does it hurt the shipper/producer/customer is the question I suppose.
Gas car range estimates are all over the place as well, it’s just that no one cares because we’re used to the refueling process and range/efficiency is pretty low on the list of criteria.
I assumed Tesla setup their cars to squeeze every mile of range out of them in the EPA test and that seems fine – the fact that they rigged the software to artificially inflate the range is much less fine.
I agree with that on gas cars. One of mine was recalled due to an error in the ‘distance to empty’ estimate. It was still inaccurate after it was reprogrammed. I also never got the EPA rated MPG in that car. Most vehicles I could meet or exceed the MPG, but not that Subaru.
The death of chrome has been greatly exaggerated, but the ugliness of modern BMW’s has not.
Other than badging, chrome looks out of place on many modern designs. An older example, but the 2006 generation Honda Civic came with a body color panel above the license plate. During the mid-cycle refresh it was chromed. It looked out of place and did not improve the appearance at all.
Chrome on classics looks fantastic. I love me some VW towel bar bumpers.
Some chrome accents are fine, though I prefer some of the more satin finishes we see on some cars. Aftermarket chrome accessories, though, those bother me. Like pillar moldings, throws off the look of the vehicle greenhouse. The prior owner of my ’07 Accord had put chromed plastic mirror covers and door handles on, I pulled that off quick.
Chrome has been the default for badging, but I like seeing more black badging out there now. However, newer Honda is inconsistent – the model and trim badges can be both different which doesn’t look great.
When it comes to wheels, though – I don’t want chrome or all-black.
Not sure why Hexavalent Chromium is a new thing. It’s been restricted under ROHS for ages, and many companies simply wouldn’t use it (working with vendors in China, they were prohibited form using it for, what feels like, a decade at least). So many other options are out there that it doesn’t signal an end to anything.
That being said: I seriously dislike automakers use of Chrome to distract us from poor transitions/panel gaps (windows, grille, doors, etc…) or their over-use on pickup trucks (perhaps they know their target markets well?). A spot here or there, sure, but I needn’t have a full chrome surround on all my windows – that’s just lazy and looks cheap to me.
Are we talking real chrome like on the grille or the fake plastic painted stuff GM likes to put all over the car? Even on the dash where it’s great at reflecting sun into your eyes. I’d say if done right a nice chrome grille can look cool, but then you get things like the Outlander and it’s just…outlandish. Ok I’ll show myself out.
Also for the battery cars catching fire on transport, pretty sure gas cars are mostly drained of fuel before transport, maybe EVs need to be better prepped, like high voltage battery disconnects and such, heck maybe even have batteries sold separately kind of deal where the companies have small assembly facilities on shore that marry the cars back to the batteries.
Body color trim as much as possible for me.
Chrome, especially on trucks, is overdone and annoying, and the same can be said for most blackout treatments.
People have gone way too far with this blackout batman aesthetic. I swear FB groups and reddit are nothing but a sea of “anyone done chrome delete? how to do or cost?” questions. I’m not saying I’m a fan of chrome, especially on new cars, but people are getting black cars and plasti-dipping, powdercoating and wrapping every single detail of the car down to the badges. You end up with a car shaped blob. Zero detail, nothing catches your eye, no lines to follow. The wheels and tires blend together with the wheelwell. It’s friggin ugly. I would love a set of RS5 rotors for my car, but it seems like every set that comes up for sale has been powder coated black.
I’m not going to deny that some cars look good all blacked out.
I will say I’ve yet to see a wrap or matte black that looks good, ever.
Chrome:in moderation. Both full blackout and full chrome end up looking cheap/gaudy.
“Black chrome” can bridge the gap, but again moderation is key. I’ve seen it well done is small sections like replacing the chrome around windows
Minimal chrome used to look good, these days companies are going overboard, Wagoneer is the worst these days. I am ok with a chrome ban, not like it’s real chrome on metal anyways, todays “chrome” looks like shit. I have not wanted chrome in over 20yrs, gimme body color pieces or blackout.
The Tesla millage issue is kind of a head scratcher. I am surrounded by Teslas (there are 7 people on my street who have one) and I have never heard of anybody complaining about range. I know that the spec says 290 miles, but that is just an average, when you drive on the freeway the range gets reduced. If only Tesla had a PR department to send out that message.
I mean, lower range in highway cruising is both counterintuitive to 100 years of driver experience, and also when it would be most apparent and annoying.
like my pedal assist Specialized bike, if I leave it at 1 helper I get 50+miles. Go to 3 and I’m down to 30ish. Speed = electron usage.
I think the people reporting issues are likely looking at the sudden change from showing an “optimistic” estimate to a “realistic” one. I think that is where this problem lies, not the overall projected range.
Probably driving down the freeway showing 200 miles of range, then it goes to 150 or something, so they figure something is wrong with the car or the display.
They go in for service and are told that EPA estimates are an average, their battery may be degraded, and here’s some efficient driving tips.
At least that’s how I read this.
In most gas or hybrid cars (and probably most other EVs), the remaining range estimate is updating based on driving patterns all the time, so a switch at 50% would seem really off-putting.
What’s funny is they could probably get away with it if range was shown with a needle rather than a digital display.
After all, gas gauges notoriously fall faster from 1/2 – E than from F – 1/2
Yes, I was thinking the same thing. I can drive halfway to visit my folks up North without the needle moving off full, but the tank is empty when I get back home. The range number is pretty accurate, but the needle not so much.
While I agree with you in theory
A major difference with evs is that your expected range on any single charge has a lot more variability to it based on how you drive.
For example. Say you charged your standard range Tesla model Y to 100% giving you roughly 270 miles of epa reported range) and you then took a 120 mile trip and your set speed was only 55 mph (slow for most of the US for sure, though more common in many parts of the UK/Europe (not sure about China and other places)…
So when your trip is over you may have 150 miles of range remaining. If the remainder of that charge was at lower local surface street speeds (say 30-50 mph) you are likely to be able to go at least another 150 miles as expected & maybe more.
The challenge is that in the US 55 mph any more is slow & if you’re going on any sort of a trip, you’re more likely to be traveling 65-85 mph, which greatly impacts range on any single charge.
If you were to take the same 120 mile trip at 75 mph, I would expect you’d be lucky to have 100 miles of range left.
Correct, because what an EV is energy-wise is a gas car that gets 100 mpg but has a 2-3 gallon gas tank on board.
Small differences in energy use equate to large swings in range simply because of the efficient but not dense nature of the beast.
The gas gauge often does just that, but the range estimate generally doesn’t. And I believe they have a battery gauge in addition to the range estimate. It likely indicates the percentage of usable battery accurately, which would further cause someone concern when they see that their range suddenly drops off at 50% battery.
If they’re going down the PVD rabbit hole then there are far better options than chrome look
If they ban chrome, that means I have to use FF?
They could also switch back to using stainless steal, right?