Are parking garages STRONG ENOUGH for EVs? | MGUY Australia
In this video we’re going to look at an interesting side effect of the push for electrification one of the many that governments have not really considered in any detail as well as all of the huge infrastructure requirements that EVS need in terms of grid upgrades charging stations Etc there’s also the issue of
Weight the batteries of EVS are extremely heavy much more than the weight saved by the engine or fuel tank meaning that as the percentage of EVS on the road increases the average vehicle weight will increase as well and the question is now whether existing structures such as roadways Bridges and
Particularly car Parks can deal with this increase if you’re after EV and Net Zero sanity you’ve come to the right place welcome to mguy British engineer and lawyer now Sydney YouTuber if you like my videos and content please be sure to like share and subscribe hit the notification Bell and drop a comment
Down below one of my viewers kindly sent me a copy of an article published in the January 2024 edition of structure magazine a journal of Structural Engineering in the United States which deals with this exact problem as it states the excitement about Sleek powerful and futuristic EVS has overshadowed the fundamental fact that
EVS weigh significantly more than an equivalent Siz combustion engine vehicle while EVS have much smaller and lighter Motors than their internal combustion engine counterparts engines they typically use heavy lithium ion batteries that add substantial weight to an ev’s drivetrain the average combustion engine weighs between 300 and 700 lb while the
Battery for EVS weighs around 1,000 in fact the battery of GMC’s Hummer EV truck weighs nearly 3,000 or the weight of an entire Honda Civic here are a couple of charts firstly this one showing how passenger EVS are on average about 1,400 or over 600 kg heavier than a
Standard Toyota Camry and this one showing how EV trucks are on average about 2,000 or over 900 kg heavier than a standard Ford F-150 truck truck it seems as if this problem might be considerably more of an issue than it first sounds at least in the US this is
Because in 2002 before anyone thought that heavy EVS might become a thing in 20 years the American Society of civil engineers reduced the minimum load rating for passenger vehicle garage floors from 50 per square foot to 40 at the same time the American Concrete Institute reduced the load factor which
Is the ratio of failure load to work load from 1.7 to 1.6 I.E a slightly lower margin of safety these changes were no doubt a result of improved designs and materials and to balance risk against costs of using excessive materials in a building all very sensible at the time I’m
Sure however with the increased weight of EVS these loads are getting worryingly close to the design limits of existing structures we converted the gross vehicle weight rating of the vehicles to area loads in a parking garage to compare the manufacturer’s data to the code requirements we used a
Standard parking space dimension of 9 ft by 18 ft as a simple representation of the space occupied per vehicle then we compared uniform area loads of EV and internal combustion engine vehicles to the code specified minimum design live load over time the average unfactored
Load for an EV truck is 52 per square ft 12 psf higher than gas powered Ford F-150 and the average EV sedan is 37 psf 8 psf higher than the bestselling IC sedan when considering the current heaviest EV vehicle the GMC Hummer EV pickup truck the unfactored EV load in a
9 ft by 18 ft parking space could be as high as 65b per square foot this puts the Hummer EV above even the failure load under the current regulations but it’s not just risk of failure that’s an issue here it’s also the wear and tear
That increase loads from EVS put on a a structure over a period of time the American Association of State Highway officials road test in the 1950s resulted in the law of the fourth power which postulates that increased axle weight increases road damage by the ratio of the increased weight to the
Fourth power for example a 30% increase in axle load is likely to increase repair cost by 185% nearly tripled a similar theorem could be applied to the supported decks of a parking garage how however without the support of a road base parking decks are likely to be even more vulnerable to
Deterioration due to increased axle loads this basically means that a small increase in axle weight 1.3 times can have an enormous effect 1.3 to the power 4 when it comes to damage to the decks of a parking garage the article also mentions that other infrastructure such as safety barriers will need considerable
Strengthening to deal with the increased weight of EVS the article recommends that EV access might be limited to particular areas of a parking garage less vulnerable to load effects and the EV parking spaces be distributed to reduce load intensity and concludes the disparity between growing loads and reduced design requirements is reducing
The margin of safety increasing the likelihood of structural failure and will exponentially increase maintenance costs for code compliant parking structures for non-compliant parking structures the consequences could be even more severe consequentially it is possible that the risk of catastrophic structural failures in the future could jeopardize the viability of EV
Technology as part of national efforts to reduce carbon emissions it’s a fascinating article but also one which shows the sheer number of unintended consequences which this rush to full electrification is throwing up Each of which may cost the global economy potentially billions of dollars to fix that’s it for this video thanks very
Much for watching I hope you enjoyed it drop a comment down below and let me know what you think if you have any tips or stories you can hit me up on Instagram or by email and I look forward to seeing you in the next one bye for now
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Link to Structure journal: https://m-g.uy/b0x (page 38 onwards – numbered page 36 in printed edition)
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