Are After Market Conversion Kits a Good Idea?
Recently, hybrid conversion kits have been in the news quite a bit. Even here, we have talked about conversion kits and those who have taken conversion into their own hands. While converting a vehicle often leads to great results, it is also important for people to remember the dangers associated with hybrid conversion kits. Right now, the sales of after market kits are on the rise, and accidents have been reported. As hybrid conversion kits are still a relatively new thing, it is not yet known how safe these kits are.
After market conversion kits allow vehicles to replace some of the fuel that they normally use with electricity. There are many different manufacturers of these kits, and they range greatly in price. Some people get the kits installed for them, while other people take more of a hands on approach in converting their vehicle.
Two accidents with hybrid conversion kits have made headlines, and those accidents bring us back to the sobering reality of the dangers of converting a vehicle. Hybrids Plus converted a Toyota Prius, and the Prius eventually caught on fire. While no one was injured in the fire, the situation could have ended up being much worse. The fire was blamed on the conversion of the Prius to a plug in.
CalCars was blamed for another incident in a hybrid conversion. The conversion caused a failure that resulted in a meltdown of the original battery. Again, no one was hurt, but that was more from luck than anything else.
With the news of these accidents, many people are left wondering if the plug in vehicle is actually going to be a reality. Will it be too dangerous to go any further? Plug in vehicles are expected to be here in full force by 2010, but already the safety of the technology is being questioned.
No one doubts that we have a long way to go before we can begin to put plug in hybrids on the road in a safe manner. With the safety regulations, it might be more difficult that automakers ever imagined to get the plug ins mass produced and on the roads.
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We’re definitely concerned — we urge readers to look at what we say at our posting, “Fire Incident Raises Conversion Safety Issues; Batteries Not Cause at http://www.calcars.org/calcars-news/963.html . No one is questioning the safety of the technology, when done right by large carmakers that have far more resources to make them safe, and we’re all concerned that conversions be done carefully.
Meanwhile, that’s quite a photo you use to illustrate the story — I’d lay odds that we’re looking at a vehicle’s gasoline tank fire. As we talk about in our posting, the numbers put the issue in context:
In 2006, vehicle fires totalled 250,00, with 445 civilian deaths, 1,075 civilian injuries and $982,000,000 in direct property damage.
– Felix Kramer,Founder, CalCars.org
“No one doubts that we have a long way to go before we can begin to put plug in hybrids on the road in a safe manner.”
Wrong, Thankfully. What an alarmist/sensationalist article about plug-in vehicles citing (2), TWO, vehicle fires. And the picture of the wrecked vehicle on fire certainly looks like a conventional GASOLINE fueled car.