Photo above of the school bus battery pack
More EVs and More First-Responder Training
The EV club got its first request a couple of years ago from the Westport fire department asking if the club could have some owners bring their EVs to a training session. Since then, the requests have become more frequent. EVs are a lot more visible now but not widespread enough that help wrangling them isn’t needed. The club has supported trainings in Westport, Wilton, Fairfield, Northvale, Enfield, and now New Haven. This particular New Haven session was organized by Greater New Haven Clean Cities.
Participation
The EV Club greatly appreciates the EV owners who have brought their vehicles to these trainings to support our first-responders. If readers of this blog are interested in participating in future requests – and there will be some, we just don’t know when or where – please reach out to the EV Club using our webform or at info@evclubct.com
Firefighters See Several EVs and Electric Schoolbus
EVs present unique challenges in a serious accident. People may need to be extricated and firefighters must learn where the cable connections are and how to de-power the vehicle (assuming the vehicle hasn’t already done so on its own, which many are programmed to do). And in the event of a fire, special procedures must be employed.
This was a particularly well-attended session with approximately 60 first-responders in attendance.
EVs present were a Kia Niro, Tesla Model Y, Chevy Bolt, Chevy Volt, Ford F-150 Lightning, and an electric school bus. CT has received a federal grant for 50 electric school buses, so the presence of a bus was timely.
The bus has a 317 kWh battery and gets 200 miles of range. It is equipped for bi-directional charging, though it hasn’t been enabled. One of the issues for bi-directional is that there is still a lot to be learned about how the battery will hold up with numerous additional cycles and who is responsible if it needs to be replaced prematurely. In some places, the utility owns the battery and takes responsibility, but that kind of arrangement is not in effect in CT.
