Daily Vehicle Mileage And Fuel Report Excel: Fill & Download for Free

I grew up in a mechanic shop and I maintain all my own vehicles and the correct answer is that it all depends on your situation. The most reliable vehicle is usually going to be the newest vehicle you can afford. New vehicles are great but they are expensive. If you are like me, I don't want to owe money on a vehicle, so I set a goal to pay cash. I usually look for vehicles under 10,000$. I could afford to pay more, but usually I pay less. I have a 1998 suburban with 300,000 miles that I paid US 1200$. It is rusty and nearly every mechanical part has been replaced, but it is very very cheap to fix. Does is break down? Yes occasionally, but Chevrolet made millions of vehicles that shared the same parts and they are easy to find and easy to fix. I also have a corolla and it has driven for 170,000 miles without a single breakdown. No troubles what so ever, and that is great, but the minute the transmission is done, I'll sell it for parts and that will be the end of it. The reason is that there are not many 2006 Corolla transmissions on the used market, they are hard to replace, and they are expensive new. When the suburban drops a trans I will pick one up used for 400$ and have it in before lunch. So if you are handy, and enjoy wrenching on your car I would say get a Chevy. If you want a long lasting disposable car, get a Toyota. There is a lot of in between, but this general trend is pretty good. 90's domestic cars are meant to be cheap to fix. 90's Japanese cars are dependable but expensive to fix. After about 2010, they are all a nuclear money bombs. If I wanted cheap trouble free it is hard to beat a corolla. If you need capability buy a Chevy 1500. I have one of each and they both serve me well.Edit: Thanks for all the upvotes. I figured since people were reading this, I should be more thourough. I should clarify that there are a lot of great cars out there and really any car that you don't mind fixing will go for as many miles as you have money to invest. That said, there are some cars that I wouldn't take even if they were free. I really like automobiles in general and sometimes reliability takes a back seat to several types of cool.I have the benefit of working for a company that has a fleet of 8 or so vehicles. We put lots of miles on them and we surplus them at 60k. That would be ridiculous for a private person, but for a business where having a vehicle go down costs lots of profit, it is acceptable and it gives me a chance to drive lots of cars and have some real world experience to share. Besides the many work cars I also drive lots of my own cars that I typically buy broken from someone and fix and drive for a while. Sometimes I fix one for a little profit or a favor for someone. Sometimes I fix one and off-road it on the farm til it dies. My father was a mechanic. My grandfather was an auto body repair guy. So there you go.What I've learned from all this is that computers and wiring are the most fatal problems for a road car. Everything else can be fixed with junkyard parts, a welder and zip ties. If the wiring harness in your car starts having serious problems it is a nightmare. Cars newer than 2005 have a lot more wiring that connects a lot more computers. Imagine buying a smart phone and expecting it to work flawlessly for 25 years. Nobody expects that. Well new cars have micro circuits in increasingly more places and lots of wiring to connect them. They work great for a while and then they start to have gremlins. Evil gremlins.I have a 2008 Toyota Sienna. The ABS acts up on it all the time. It has 5 expensive sensors and it is very picky about tires. I just put new tires on it, but probably the next time it acts up I will pull the fuse and run it without antilock breaks. I'm ok with that, I have driven lots of cars without power breaks and not having anti lock will be fine for me, but some other folks might not tolerate that and have to spend 2000$ replacing sensors and may never figure it out. The more sensors and computers you have on a car, the more it will misbehave.A lot of folks are very concerned with better fuel mileage. It is a great thing for the earth for cars to get better fuel mileage, but it is not a good thing for your wallet. New vehicles add a lot of technology to get marginally better fuel mileage, but some of these technologies are dangerously unreliable in older cars. Turbo chargers, direct injection, stop/start, hybrid, variable valve timing, cylinder deactivation, and many more. These things sound great. You are like "Yeah, my 30,000$ car gets 20% better fuel mileage than a 15,000$ car, I'm gonna be rich". Nope, all that tech is a liability. If you have lots of cash to throw around, by all means please do but the latest tech, it actually does benefit the world by driving some technologies that will one day be useful. For instance, the success of the Prius has done great things for the development of electric cars, but you are not going to save money buying a Prius over a corolla. You will probably spend more money and after all of the accounting for battery life cycle you may not have benefited the environment either. I'm not debating the intricacies of hybrid costs, just pointing out that the original question was about reliability and that added complexity is counter to reliability.So there you go, the most reliable car is probably a low mileage car that was produced just before manifacturers started adding lots of sensors and computers. If you want high mpg you buy the lightest car with the best aerodynamics. There are lots of good choices. If you need more seats or you need to pull something you should look for the car that has a capacity that meets your needs. If you have lots of needs, you should see if your situation allows for you to have two cars. In my situation, I commute 10 miles by myself 5 days a week, but I have 3 kids and a medium size boat. If I had to have one car, I would probably buy a 4 runner, but it would be bad at everything. Overkill to commute in, cramped with all the kids and marginal to pull the boat. Instead I have a corolla that does 80% of my commute and errands and a Suburban that does everything else.It is quite understandable that lots of folks would not want two cars. If that is you, I would recommend a midsize Japanese sedan. The Camry, Accord, Maxima from the 2000–2005 ish period are great. If you need a truck, go rent one or consider a small trailer. If you are tempted to get a Subaru from this era, you should google Subaru head gaskets. I love driving a Subaru. I don't love fixing them. A hatchback is great, but they are not many to choose from and I would stay away from Subaru unless you just love pulling motors out. I've had 4 of them. A Toyota Matrix has always interested my, but I've never had one. If you have to look for a SUV, the 4 runner is hard to beat. I might shy away from one with the 3.0 motor, but all he rest are real winners. If you need pulling power, the Chevy 5.7 and 5.3 are legendary and have lots of aftermarket support.So there you have it, I could keep going, but I bet few made it this far. Good luck with whatever you choose.Edit 2Hello valued readers. It has been a while since I wrote this, so I thought I would add an update. Stated earlier I had ABS issues with my Sienna. I figured since the abs is fairly complicated the dealership would be helpful with diagnosing the issue. Big nope on that one. I took it in twice and they said my tires differed in wear by a couple mm and that was my problem. New tires didn’t help and I was extremely underwhelmed with my perceived incompetence with the dealership mechanics. Maybe just bad luck on my part, but my experience is that there are only a few rockstar mechanics out there and you are lucky if you get one of those guys. Not bashing every mechanic, but I wouldn’t count on every mechanic being overly competent. The real problem turned out to be worn out bushings in the steering rack. This should have been painfully obvious to any mechanic that bothered to check out the steering for a problem directly related to steering activating the ABS at inappropriate times, but I digress. The steering rack was still good but it took me a couple hours to get it out where I could replace the bushings, so given the labor involved, I went ahead and replaced the rack with a remanufactured rack that cost around 280$ or so, but it would have been fine to just put 20$ worth of bushings in it. I have a 2006 Sequoia that needed steering bushings and the design on that truck was such that I could replace the bushings while the rack was still in place. Racing bushings were cheap and made a huge difference in the steering. Highly recommended. About 1 hr of labor.Since last update my nephew needed a cheap car and I sold him my corolla. My brother needed the suburban for some home renovations and I sold it to him. I replaced them with a 2006 Sequoia. There is a good reason for that. I found a good example with low miles and zero rust from a southern city where it has never seen salt and it spent most of its life on the interstate. I researched this truck a lot and I found this. The first gen sequoia is essentially a land cruiser with some parts from a first gen tundra. It has a great motor, excellent 4wd, seats 8, tows 6500lbs, and due to some general obscurity can be bought for bargain prices. Shhhh, don’t tell anyone, but it is a really really good vehicle. They are known for great reliability and due to sharing parts with several million tundras, parts are acceptably cheap and available. Does it get great gas mileage? Heavens no, but it is better than my suburban and it is a much better platform in many ways. Will I need another commuter car? Eh, maybe. If I find a good deal on a midsize car I might get it. My neighbor has an accord that I have first option on. My mom has a Lexus ES 350 that I absolutely will not pass up if she gets rid of it. Right now due to my short commute the sequoia is fine as a daily driver. I think in a few years I will probably give the sienna to my daughter. Buy my wife a car or suv depending on her preference and keep my eye on electric cars in the used market. She likes the Lexus GX, and I agree they are sweet. Electric cars are the opposite of “easy to fix” but it is possible that their reliability will be great because of simplicity. The jury is still out on that, but by 10 yrs from now it should be pretty obvious. If there is a bombproof electric awd light suv on the market in the near future I will start paying attention. During that time the sequoia is a vehicle that fills enough niches for me that it will likely remain in the stable to pull stuff and tote the whole family on vacation. Anyway, long story short. For me, for the near future I plan to stick with used Toyota/Lexus until there is a used electric vehicle that meets my expectations for cost and capability. The exact choice will continue to be based on my individual needs at the time, and if my needs change I will sell and rebuy what works. I’ll also keep learning how to replace parts as needed to keep costs down. Thanks again for all the upvotes. I’ll continue to update periodically. Cheers.Edit 3 September 18, 2020Greetings to my fellow brothers and sisters all over the world. I have been keeping an eye on this answer and I am humbled and proud that this answer has received over 1000 upvotes and over 200k views. Due to the present Covid 19 crisis and the resulting soaring of used vehicle prices, I thought I could add some words that may help people further with their choices of an automobile, a choice that for many is a quite substantial life decision. I have observed locally that the market for used cars has less inventory and the prices are higher. That could be a local thing. I am located in North Carolina, USA, but I think this is likely to be more widespread.My hypothesis is that this is multifold with only a portion to blame on the unease over the pandemic. Let me explain. I have personally observed a shift away from using Craigslist as a primary way for individuals to seek out used cars and more toward Facebook Marketplace. Facebook uses a targeted marketing algorithm to show you listings it thinks you might be interested in. It doesn’t seem to care if it shows me a car 300 miles away, as long as it can shove paid advertising in my face. Craigslist was very simple in its approach and one had to intentionally look afar to see listings for a specific vehicle. I am not making a judgement on this shift necessarily, but I liked the Craigslist format better. The shift to facebook is likely driving up the prices of vehicles by creating a wider market and intentionally blasting people with the same type vehicle over and over again. If I click on a jeep wrangler, it will relentlessly show me wranglers at what I consider overpriced, but just like any advertising, the repetition of high priced wranglers makes me think that is the normal market price, and perhaps it is now, but it has done away with some of the regional pricing structure of used vehicles.Second, and probably most important, many people, me included are sitting on the fence to see what the electric car market will do. As of the time of this writing, Ford has just announced the electric F-150. GM recently announced a partnership with an electric truck company. The Tesla truck will be in production soon. These are technologies that absolutely will replace internal combustion, but whether they do it soon or later is a matter of how quickly solid state battery technology matures, the maturation of economy of scale, and how quickly the distribution of quick charging develops. I think for me personally, the convergence of these necessities will be in the 5–10 year timeframe, but from a vehicle perspective, that is quite a large difference in time. I think many people will try to hold on to their existing vehicle as long as possible to see which of these scenarios plays out. (Caveat: Of course there are lots of people that will continue to buy new combustion cars, but that is not the intended audience of this writing. Remember the question is reliability and ease of maintenance, to me meaning best choices for financially prudent individuals.) The waiting on existing used car inventory is going to reduce supply of used vehicles and drive up prices.Third, Covid is making people more financially conscious. I have always been financially conscious, but in the past I would consider having 3 used cars in the driveway and I would trade more often. I am blessed that I can afford to still do this, but I am not at the present. As a matter of financial discipline, I have been paying myself a car payment for a decade. I have not borrowed money for any vehicle in this time, but the account for vehicles continues to accumulate money so that I can pay cash for my next vehicle. Due to the global financial uncertainty, I am holding on to this funding more tightly. I think that other people are probably consciously or unconsciously doing the same thing. The result is lower inventory on the used car market.I am sure there are other reasons for this change in used car market, but I see these three as the primary factors. Ok, now on to more about vehicles. Due to the above factors, you may decide to hold on to your own car longer. That may be a wise choice, or it may not. I will offer some pointers, but every situation is unique, so you may have to take a risk at times. Firstly, you probably should not spend more on a vehicle than it is worth, but maybe you should, it depends. If your vehicle is very good except one major problem it may be worth it. A co worker recently asked for my opinion. She had a early 2000s honda accord that burned oil like a 2 stroke. Was it worth an engine rebuild, eh, I didn’t think so. She upgraded to a very nice lightly used car. The honda hull was just not worth the rebuild cost. Another friend had a relatively low mileage subaru with its infamous oil burning problem. Was it worth rebuilding, absolutely yes, but the rebuild would be the same flawed design and would eventually develop the oil burn again. She traded it to the dealership for a reasonable amount and upgraded. My neighbor has an 18 year old son who was rear ended. He has a 2005 toyota corolla with less than 100k miles. The vehicle was totaled and she asked me if it was worth buying the vehicle and having it fixed. This is a tough one. The vehicle is good except the body work and it would be hard to find a car that was reliable for the insurance pay out. What would I do? Probably not bother, but there is an option of only fixing it enough to be safe and seal up the trunk. It would be kind of mad max style but in my early days I crashed a car I couldnt afford to replace and I drove it with miminal fix for several years and the money I saved over that time was enough to buy a used truck later. I am cool in plenty of other ways that I didnt really care if my car was bashed up. I beat them up anyway having fun with them. If your drive train (motor, transmission, axels) are in verifiably good shape it may be worth taking a risk on an expensive fix, especially if you really like the car. I love my sequioa, so I would spend more money on it than my Sienna, which is a very good car, but I dont have an emotional attachment to it and so any 3000$ fix is probably not gonna happen.Second, consider finding a very qualified vehicle consultant. This goes beyond just a mechanic. I have a shop that is local to where I live. They are perhaps the most expensive shop in my area. Why would I choose them? I have found that the high price is paying for exceptional integrity and competence. Especially when you are low on money it if very tempting to go to the cheaper shop. There are times when I might do this too. For instance I needed a steering gear replaced in my truck. It was very clear what the problem was. The independent guy down the street was absolutely fine for that job. On other time I had an intermittent electrical problem that was hard to diagnose. The expensive shop worked on it 4 times and it was expensive, but they went over the vehicle with a fine tooth comb. The eventually figured it out and I was happy with the outcome. I have been very very dissatisfied with bargain mechanics in similar situations. My favored shop would rather take a loss than lose me as a customer, and that really matters to me. In these times of holding on to used vehicles longer, it would pay to find a place like this. The reason I called them consultants, is that we have developed a good relationship. They will give me advice on used cars pros and cons, and I can bring a car i’m considering to them for a full shake down. It costs me 80$, but I am happy to pay this for peace of mind. If they say don’t buy it, I absolutely will not consider it.Third, if you want to hold on to your car you must spend the money on preventive maintenance. If you don’t want to keep it, you shouldnt skimp on safety items, but you can let some other things slide. On my Sequoia, I am doing partial changes on the transmission fluid. It is a sealed transmission that is not supposed to need fluid for the life of the vehicle, but I want the life of the transmission to be 300k miles and not 150k miles. The fluid is 10$ per quart, and the engineers made it very hard for me to change it myself, but I am doing it because I really believe it will extend the life of the vehicle. Sienna, It has 160K and I am not going out of my way to baby it. Yes, I am maintaining it safely, but i’m not going the extra mile. My daughter will be driving soon and there is a 50/50 chance she gets into a fender bender and its not worth fixing. It just doesnt have any resale value and I can replace it pretty easy so its just not super high priority to try and make it go 300k miles. (Although, there is a solid chance it will do that even without perfect maintenance, its just a risk i’m willing to take.) If you want your car to last, find the right vehicle consultant (mechanic) and use them to evaluate what you should and maybe should not focus on. It will cost you money, but it will probably save you money in the long run.Last, use the internet. There is an unbelievable amount of vehicle knowledge on the internet. If you are considering a used car, scour the earth looking for known problems. At work I drive a Chevy Colorado with an 8 speed transmission. After mine started having problems at 23k miles, I looked and it was well known that these transmissions were not holding up. I would not buy a vehicle with a problem like that. My brother got rid of a very servicable Nissan Maxima, because the CVT transmission was a known problem that was eventually going to cause problems. I have spoken about Subarus and oil burning/head gaskets. I wouldn’t risk it personally if a vehicle has lots of reports of fatal problems. Look for cars known for their longevity. My previous 2006 corolla had almost no systemic problems and it was one of the most reliable cars ive ever had. I sold it at a premium because mine was well cared for and was a very good pedigree. When you are looking for a car, you should probably consider paying more for a model considered to be problem free or at least ones that have problems you can afford to fix. If a car has known problems with the AC, I might risk it. If it has known problems with engine or transmission, dont dont dont risk it. My old 1998 chevy pickup had notoriously weak brakes. As a consequence the front brake rotors and pads needed to be replaced at least twice as often as a normal car. Eh, I can replace rotors pretty easy, but if it is more serious than that, you should weigh the risk and ask your vehicle consultant.I truly hope that this writing helps you in your life.Peace to all.

“The benefits of a fleet management system – Veturilo”“A fleet management system manages commercial fleets of vehicles, such as cars, vans or trucks … or even heavy equipment … to ensure they’re utilized safely, efficiently and professionally, while making sure they’re well maintained and high-performing.Benefits outlinedDependent on the type of fleet management system, it may include functionality to:-Improve fleet safety and working conditionsImprove the behaviour and performance of drivers and beat unsafe drivingSchedule shifts and work hoursLeverage driver retentionTrack vehicles, assets or professional equipment (even trailers and containers)Schedule routine maintenanceManage fuel efficiencyKeep track of malfunctionsTrack mileage and manage deductible expensesProduce individualized reports for all parties involvedSpecific benefits to clientThe most prominent benefits of a fleet management system include, but are not limited to the following :-1. The entire fleet on a single screen, in real timeEven though a fleet management system is typically different from a GPS tracking system, it provides vehicle tracking capabilities. That is to say, the inability of a fleet operator to know the location and status of their fleet and drivers can give way to a variety of different problems. Granted that, poor productivity, fleet inefficiency and delayed deliveries and shipments are only a few of them. Surely, these issues, given the right circumstances, can seriously hurt business reputation and customer retention.A fleet management system offers full fleet visibility on a single screen. Fleet managers get all sorts of information, such as:Location and status of vehicles and driversTrip logs and events, routes followed, delays causedProductivity, efficiency and performance levels of vehicles and staffTimely notifications regarding malfunctions and delaysIn general, fleet managers and operators enjoy better insights that lead to better customer service.2. Vehicle status, readily availableEven the slightest problem in a vehicle’s engine may eventually lead to severe damage and breakdowns. To a fleet manager, there is nothing like being notified about any issue, any indication of malfunction and any sign that a driver forgot to check oil and fuel levels, lights and indicators and tire pressure before they left the lot. Even more so when there is a malfunction that just happened, brewing into some serious breakdown. In brief, all this information will be readily available to the fleet manager, per vehicle. A historical report of all incidents throughout a season will indicate whether a vehicle is due to be replaced, improving overall fleet performance.3. Driver and vehicle safety and reliabilityDriver safetyStatistically speaking, a motor vehicle crash happens approximately every 5 seconds. Peak hours in a busy rural area won’t make things easier. Fleet managers need to know how to educate drivers on safe driving practices. And having a driving behaviour report, or a driver scorecard helps identify the behaviours that need to be addressed. In many countries, it is the law that all vehicles are also equipped with an on-board camera that will record all types of incidents for future reference.Vehicle safety and reliabilityAdditionally, a fleet of well-maintained vehicles has proven to play a very important role in safe driving, improving overall fleet safety and reliability. And, it’s only logical that poorly maintained vehicles can endanger drivers, passengers and bystanders on the road. Rightly so, alerts and notifications on any possible malfunction, non-compliance with regulations or reminders to stay ahead of normal wear and tear are uniquely useful to a fleet manager; at least, one that aims to keep the fleet well maintained and the staff well informed and professional.4. Improved fuel efficiency, minimized fuel fraudFuel efficiencyEconomies change and the prices of repairs, routine maintenance or even fuel, can change in an instant. In truth, fuel price is not the only factor to affect fuel efficiency. To explain, fuel consumption is the most usual culprit in cases of inefficiency. And, since fuel expenses are nearly 20% of the operating costs for a fleet, managing fuel consumption will serve its purpose.Reducing speeding and aggressive driving behaviours will definitely reduce fuel consumption. Additionally, eliminating idling and taking more efficient routes will also help. But, properly maintaining fleet vehicles will make the most difference in the long run. Keeping air, fuel and oil filters clean, keeping the tires in good condition and nominally inflated and the braking system well maintained will make all the difference in fuel efficiency — not to mention safety.To that end, a fleet management system provides trip information such as fast acceleration, hard turning, harsh braking, speeding and idling. Therefore, this type of information helps identify what needs to be addressed and how, on two different levels; driving behaviour and vehicle maintenance.No more fuel fraudAt some point, a fleet manager will be faced with a situation where, sometimes, drivers will be charging fuel and using it for their own benefit; fuel fraud. Sadly, it’s a quite common practice across industries. Especially since automated fuel dispensers have become available. It becomes worse when drivers use fuel cards.Functionality like mileage reports and fuel consumption management help deduce the amount of fuel that should be used, as opposed to what was purchased. That alone, should be enough to help reduce or minimize the amount of fuel fraud happening in the fleet.5. Improved lifespan for vehicles and equipmentIncreased fuel consumption and bad mileage are dead giveaways for a low-performing vehicle; frequent malfunctions is another. Specifically, what all these things have in common is that they clearly indicate a poorly maintained vehicle. In a fleet, where a vehicle should be an asset, this is a cause for all sorts of trouble. And it can, in fact, range from damages and losses, to unsatisfied customers.Mileage tracking in a trip log, fuel consumption tracking, diagnostic trouble code (DTC) alerts and notifications about bad driving behaviour are bits of functionality that can help a fleet operator identify what needs to be dealt with and opt for repairs that are, in fact, required. Such functionality eliminates guesswork and allows fleet managers and operators to optimize their maintenance budget. Especially if they cannot afford an in-house repair shop.6. Better reporting on driver behaviour, work hours and vehicle performanceAutomated reportsThere are so many aspects of business a fleet manager needs to keep tabs on. To that end, a fleet management system can help tidy up their standard operating procedures by offering them meaningful, normalized insights. Additionally, automated, personalized reports can be made available to different people in the company, summarizing the information they actually need to improve their workflows and help grow the business.A fleet management system can offer a range of automated reports including, but not limited to:Vehicle status reports (per vehicle)Trip log / Mileage reports / Historical data (per vehicle or piece of equipment)Driver scorecards (per driver)Shifts & Work hours reports (per shift or per driver)Safe driving reports (per driver)Driving behaviour recommendations report (per driver or per vehicle)Fuel consumption reports (per vehicle)Diagnostic trouble codes reports (per vehicle)Routine inspections / maintenance timeliness reportsMaintenance log reports (per vehicle)Route deviation reports (per driver or per vehicle)Asset performance reports (ROI — per vehicle or piece of equipment)Employee accountability and improved driving behaviourWith a small, medium or larger fleet on the road, it becomes more and more difficult to track any and all issues that arise from human error. To enumerate, fatigue, dissatisfaction, ignorance or plain, downright indifference or self-interest can cause people to forget their professionalism. And, in truth, they usually fail to err on the side of caution. This can also happen to fleet drivers, of course. But, there is a way for a fleet manager to hold them accountable for their actions.From bad driving behaviour, such as speeding and getting tickets for it, to fuel fraud, increasing operational costs, and delayed deliveries costing the business its customers, fleet managers can use a fleet management system to produce helpful information that will help them reduce or eliminate such phenomena. Features such as vehicle tracking, real-time fleet monitoring and automated reports for driving behaviours and fuel efficiency can change the game of fleet management entirely; setting new rules that make the business viable and set it on the path for growth. That is, streamlining fleet operations in the process.No more questionable timesheetsOf course, the most subtle and nearly undetectable type of fraud is timesheet fraud. A driver can leave the lot on time, but fail to show up at his destination in time. Perhaps a 25 minute stop at their favourite coffee shop doesn’t seem like it’s worth the fuss. Or, perhaps a 45 minute respite seems reasonable after two hours in traffic. But, if more than one hour is lost daily, that’s actually almost a full workday, per week. And it’s a type of cost that can, in time, become unbearable. It can cause problems, such as:Increased labour costsIncreased fuel consumption (when idling to avoid detection)Unwarranted depreciation of the vehicleIncreased maintenance costsDelayed deliveriesDissatisfied customers / loss of businessDiminishing returnsAnd, all in a good day’s work and because of a seemingly innocent, extended break, it can cause frustration and turmoil throughout the business. Of course, the problem becomes even worse if the timesheets are handwritten, where the fleet operator has to take the driver’s word for it.Fleet managers are now able to use a fleet management system to track trips down to the time the engine started or stopped, the time it took for the trip to be completed, the route taken and how much fuel was consumed. To that end, timesheets can be automatically produced using real time events provided by the ECU on each vehicle, even with minimal or no idling. Questionable timesheets can be a thing of the past.7. Reduced maintenance and labour costsReduced maintenance costsTimely and preventative maintenance have not only proven to extend the lifespan of a vehicle or piece of equipment. They have also proven a valuable strategy in reducing maintenance costs. Routine maintenance according to the specifications laid out by the manufacturer of each vehicle or piece of equipment is probably the only way — at least the most effective one — to keep fleet assets from malfunctioning or breaking down. Various statistics have shown that a well-maintained fleet can last up to 80% more than one that is not. Therefore, in reducing maintenance costs and the headache of unscheduled replacement of vehicles, this is not a number to be taken lightly. Especially in small fleets, it may make the difference between making or breaking the business.Reduced labour costsFrom fuel fraud and falsified timesheets, to bad driving behaviour and poor communication over maintenance, to unexpected vehicle downtime and lost labour, these are all potential candidates to serve in increasing labour costs. And these are all issues that can be mitigated or entirely avoided.Automated, personalized reports of all sorts, driver scorecards, DTC alerts and other notifications and mileage tracking with scheduled maintenance to go with it, can help fleet managers drastically reduce labour costs by reducing wasted effort and optimizing standard operating procedures for performance. In fact, a fleet management system can help do all these, at a fraction of the time and cost.8. Tax deduction and insurance benefitsDeductible expensesWhen the time comes for a fleet manager to do the taxes for their fleet, they do have their work cut out for them. Extracting information about trips and mileage, and indicating which trips were made for business purposes is one of the greatest causes of headache for a fleet manager. Above all, it takes time and effort and it draws their attention from the more important things at hand.A fleet management system already has all the information required collected. Gathering, then, all that information in a comprehensive report that complies with the IRS guidelines is actually quite easy. In fact, the fleet manager can make quick work of it, sending a well structured Excel file to their accountant in just a matter of minutes. Granted that, they can turn their attention to managing their fleet without disrupting their workflow. And, of course, their accountant can do the work for their deductible expenses, knowing there are no errors in the provided information.Lower insurance ratesEmploying a fleet management system can also produce a few happy side effects. For example, one of them is the potential to enjoy lower insurance rates.A well managed, well-maintained fleet can considerably reduce road accidents due to some mechanical failure. In like fashion, monitoring driver behaviour can help managers provide the training required for their drivers to improve their driving style. In fact, there are plenty of safe driving courses available. At least some of them are state certified. Also, employing drivers that are state-certified for safe driving has its own benefits. Several insurance companies will lower insurance rates for a fleet that has this type of certification.9. Improved capacity, more growthManaging a fleet at a fraction of the cost and time it used to take is one of the greatest benefits a company can reap from using a fleet management system. Service capacity that has improved at least twofold invites growth like nothing else.Optimizing cost centres, reducing waste and maintenance or labour costs can keep a fleet in order, but doubling its capacity invites new business and keeps customer retention to a maximum. Of course, a fleet management system can do just that.10. Driver satisfaction and retentionOf course, a business that runs well, can bring some extra benefits to staff and stakeholders. Keeping drivers happy is always great news for business.Using a fleet management system comes with some extra perks toward keeping drivers happy. To that end, fleet managers can ensure sufficient motivation just by using driver scorecards. Better-performing drivers can enjoy a reward, such as an annual bonus or earn “best employee” status. Perhaps even get a standard raise or promotion when certain goals are reached.Driver satisfaction is of paramount importance to driver retention. Not only does it serve towards better collaboration and smoother operations; it can also help towards improved customer relationships, customer retention and satisfaction, as well as growth in business.11. Better customer service, happier customersBetter customer serviceMaking sure every aspect of the fleet is in perfect working order means a minimal amount of things that can go wrong. That is an advantage that helps build a good reputation for the company, improve deal flow and welcome new business without worrying about the quality of customer service.Acting on the results and recommendations from the automated reports a fleet management system has to offer in time, can help preserve and further improve reputation. At the same time, when a fleet is known for its efficiency and high-quality service, it will attract more new customers; and probably the best talent available in the market, to help staff the growing parts of the business.Customer retentionA happy customer can bring a double advantage. On one hand lies customer retention; on the other hand we have word-of-mouth recommendations. At any rate, for a fleet manager to gain this kind of advantage, they need to be able to track customer satisfaction. Besides crew evaluation functionality on the system, a trip log can offer insights on delays and route optimization, as well as driving events, such as speeding, which would indicate less than ideal time management or irritation on the driver’s side. Besides, as mentioned, happy drivers and crew play a great role in keeping customers happy. And, surely, these valuable insights can help reach that goal; that is, retaining your customers and bringing new business, daily.Business scopeA fleet management system can prove useful to nearly any business that uses a fleet. This includes, but is not limited to:ContractorsDelivery fleets (last mile delivery)Supply chain / perishable goods fleets (cargo)Taxis, Limos and VIP vehiclesFacility trucksAll light duty vehiclesHeavy duty vehicles and mining equipmentShipping containers / maritime transportBackhauling fleetsMoving trucksHearsesGrey or white fleetsRental/Leased vehiclesSchool busesPrivate vehiclesAccreditationFleet management for your vehicles – Veturilo”.

Ok, here are some tips and tricks for someone contemplating the jump to electric power. Just stuff I have managed to pick up over the 4 years we have had no use for gasoline. Yea, it’s long, I expect to make a faq out of it someday. (Edit to add even more details)Some basics.You should choose a car with a range at least 50% longer than your round trip daily commute. Makes sure you can run some errands, or it’s real cold or hot, and you have the heat or AC on full blast, etc. This isn’t hard to find these days, since the average US driver does 13,000 miles a year, or less than 40 a day, and even the cheap, small battery models have 130 or more mile range.You should have a place for daily charging. For almost all of us, that’s at home in our driveway or garage. For apartment dwellers, or on street parkers, this could be at the office. If you don’t have either option it is possible to get by with public charging, but it is annoying. This should be solved eventually, around here apartment buildings are adding chargers, even including them in the amenities listed on the “now leasing” banner.Some cities, and an entire Canadian province have required all new residential construction to be charger ready, (an open space in the breaker panel, and a wire good for 50 amps pulled to a parking space). For cities, there are some schemes under test that add charging points to streetlights, another that adds it to parking meters.You don’t need a garage to charge in. You can safely plug in the charging cable even in driving rain. You could drop the cord into the puddle you are standing in, and not get shocked. (I wouldn’t, but the system is designed to cope). Basically when you grab the plug, off the hanger, there is only low voltage in the cable. Only after the box determines that the plug is fully seated in an actual car, and that you let go of the latching button, will you hear the clunk that is line voltage getting applied to the cable.I admit that charging when it’s snowing is annoying. When you are finished charging, you may need to dig snow out from around the socket in order to close the flap, and if you drop the plug, the end is deeply recessed, and can pack full of snow.Ok, some details on charging.First, there are chargers built into the car. There is a box hanging on the wall, or built into a kiosk. That actually isn’t a charger, it’s actually the safety system alluded to above. It’s official name is an EVSE They have two jobs, tell the car how big a fuse they are connected to, and to turn on the power when it’s safe to do so. It’s the chargers job to only draw the amount of power the box says to.The chargers built into the car vary in size, and are rated in kw. Typical sizes are 3kw on a few base models, and on plug in hybrids, 6 and 7.2 kw on the mid priced. The standard Tesla has a 10kw charger, there is an option for the model S to have a second one installed. To calculate an approximate from empty charge time, divide the battery capacity by the charger size. So your 30 kWh Leaf with its 6 kw charger, takes 5 hours. My 24 kWh eGolf with its 7.2 kw charger takes 3.4 hours. That P85D Tesla will need 8.5 hours.EVSE come in 3 strengths.Level 1 is an ordinary wall outlet. The cord comes with the car. It can add 5 miles of range for each hour you are plugged in. If you are in Europe, your outlets charge 2.5 times faster than ours. I used to carry an extension cord, I don’t bother any more.Level 2 is a dryer or electric stove amount of power. It will have you charging at speeds between 25 and 40 miles an hour. Most public charging kiosks are at this level. All cars sold will be able to use them. If you have a Tesla, it will come with an adapter. These will refill an empty battery (unless huge) in under 8 hours. If you need or want one for home, they start at $300, the cost of getting power to them will vary depending on what needs to be done, but figure $250 at the low end, with 5–600 more typical. You can even buy an open source board and controller for $100 that will let you make your own. Some places will insist the box be hard wired (especially if you mount it outside), others allow outlets. A few of the cords that come with the car will also work with a stove circuit, or other versions of 220 volt outlets, with adapters. The Tesla cord can do this, and comes with the adapter for stove circuits.The standard plug on level 1 and 2 chargers is the J-1772. All cars can be charged with one. Tesla uses its own plug, but includes an adapter. There are a few Tesla specific level 2 chargers in the wild, Tesla had a program that would supply them to hotels. There isn’t an adapter to use Tesla specific chargers on other cars (that I know of). The J-1772 includes a latch. Some cars can use this to lock the plug in place, requiring you to have the key fob to disconnect. We live down the street from a middle school. I am sure a 5th grader passing by would consider unplugging the car to be a funny and most original prank. (Our driveway is very short, Our chargers cable is bright orange, it’s not subtle). Our car came with a lock.Level 3 is what you will be using to top up on a long trip. They are very. fast, with speeds ranging from a low of 100 mph, to a high over 600 mph. They are a lot more expensive than a level 2, and even the mere 100 mph version is $10,000, and it takes as much power as your whole house. 100 amps, 240 volts. The rest want the sort of voltage and current that you might find at a smaller manufacturing plant. They can be hard on your batteries, as keeping them in balance at those speeds is difficult.Of course there are annoying complications. There are three different plugs for high speed connections, Japanese, the rest of the world, and Tesla. A public charger will usually support both of the public standards, and Tesla chargers are their own world. If you find one at a car dealer, it will only support a single standard, whatever that brand supports. You find them next to interstates, and most have food or at least coffee available. Tesla has a 5 year head start on building their network, and has the fastest chargers for now.On some cars the ability to use a level 3 charger is standard, others make it optional, or dependent on which trim level you purchase. A few models don’t have it, even as an option. If you are even just thinking you might want to take a longer trip someday, and it’s optional, get it. We have only used fast charging a few times, but it made the difference between a routine dinner stop, and a delay.To tell them apart, or tell if your car is equipped to use one, if it is a Tesla, it uses the same plug as their slower chargers. In the case of a Leaf, the Chademo standard uses a completely separate and noticeably larger plug, the socket is next to the normal plug under the door. In the rest of the cars, SAE/CCS is two additional pins just outside of , and at the bottom of the standard J-1772 socket. Most have a cover over the pins when not in use.The best way to find chargers is Plugshare (phone app or web page). It’s crowdsourced, so it shows all chargers no matter who is providing them. It also assigns a rating to them, showing how often you could actually charge, or that you always find them ICEed, (conventional car parked) or a victim of their own popularity and with someone already plugged in. It can filter out chargers that don’t apply to your car, and it has a system for people to offer up their home charger to a passing traveler in need. One thing really in its favor, they include detailed directions on where the thing is located.If your average daily mileage is under 40, you can do pretty well with just overnight wall outlet charging. It will use less than $1 in electricity to do this. We ordered a level 2 charger when we bought our car, but it was more than a year before I installed it. Remember, since you can easily plug in every day, your charging time will reflect how far you drove, not how long it takes from empty.Tip: if you are renting the place, and park in a spot next to the house, look around for an outlet on the outside (the one they plug hedge clippers into) and buy a heavy duty extension cord. When my brother bought his Volt, until he got around to installing an outdoor outlet, they ran an extension cord out a window. In my case, it took me close to a year to get around to wiring and mounting the charger, and the outlet on the front of the house served.Check with your power company. In some places they offer a plan with off peak pricing, so your evening fill up will be half or more off. The car and possibly the charger will have timers that will make it easy to delay charging for when rates are cheap.If you are staying at a campground, the RV hookup will be an electric stove outlet, that will run a level 2. At a farm? Do they have a welder in the barn? The voltages are correct, but the outlet is an older 3 pin sort, rather than the modern stove plug that level 2 chargers use. Adapters aren’t hard to make, and you might be able to buy one at a place that has RV supplies. (For the roll your own sorts, welders use 6–50 plugs and sockets, stoves use 14–50)Wintertime. Batteries don’t work as well when very cold. Some cars will warm the batteries to an optimal temperature if you are plugged into the grid. The other problem is heat. A gas powered car throws away 75% or more of the energy in the fuel, as heat out the tailpipe and radiator. It doesn’t change your gas mileage to divert some of it from the radiator in front, to one inside the cabin.In an EV, 90% of the energy goes toward motion, which doesn’t leave enough to warm the cabin with. So to get a warm cabin you have to spend some of the energy in the battery. There are two ways this happens, using the air conditioning “backwards” as a heat pump, or by using the same sort of resistive heater that you aren’t supposed to have under your desk at the office. The heat pump is the more efficient system. Both do have the advantage that warm air happens quickly, no waiting for an engine to warm up.There is another way, that is great in cool but not frigid weather. You want the heated seats. They will keep you comfortably warm when it’s 40F out, without affecting range.One thing about heating and air conditioning in an EV that will make conventional car owners jealous, the car has timers that can start the heat, air conditioning or the defroster, and if plugged in, they will use grid power for this. You go out in the morning, and the car will be already warm, and the windshield clear. You get back to the car that has spent all day in the August sun, and when you open the door, you aren’t hit with the waves of heat that feel like you are standing in front of a blast furnace. You can sit down, wearing shorts, and the back of your thighs won’t get branded with the upholstery’s stitching pattern. A number of them have the ability to also turn on the heat, etc. from a phone app. When the meeting finally is winding up, you poke the phone, and the car starts whirring all by itself.One other weather related thing: the batteries can freeze. If it gets below -20F -27C, and stays there for days, the batteries can freeze. Supposedly they aren’t harmed by this, as long as you don’t try to charge them. Just move the car into a warmer space, and let them thaw. The manufacturers build a heater into the pack, to prevent this. If connected to outside power, it will keep them safe, till mud season. If it isn’t plugged in, it will use the batteries themselves. Even a small pack will keep them safe for more than a week. So if you live in someplace like frostbite falls, or Barrow, be sure to plug it in when you leave it for a few days. Wall outlets are more than sufficient.Range anxiety and charging times, the usual elephants in the room. You get over it. Most of us charge at home, while we are sleeping. As far as we are concerned the car takes 30 seconds or less a day to charge, 10 seconds to plug in, 20 to unplug and hang the cord up. It’s like charging your phone, you don’t know how long it takes, you just plug it in before bed, and it’s full when you wake up.The real change in outlook happens after a month or so. Imagine there were pixies that came around every night, and topped up your tank. Every day you get in, and the “tank” is always full, you just stop worrying about range or charging. Gone is the arriving late to something, because you forgot to stop the night before, and had to make an unplanned pit stop on the way. (Or your teenaged kid borrowed it last night, and left it a needles width above empty.) And no more making a side trip, and spending 10 minutes in the rain, heat or cold, pumping fuel. If it’s alwas full in the morning, often would you think about your gas gauge? Would you really choose filling up yourself.Now I get range anxiety when I wind up driving a conventional car. Refueling requires a conscious effort, I have to notice that I need some, and figure out where I can get it. (if I am driving a gas car, it means that it is a rental, I got off a plane, and I am in an unfamiliar city). After a while driving electric, you will stop noticing gas stations, and won’t know what a gallon of the stuff costs anymore. The last habit to go, seeing a station, and glancing at the “gas” gauge.We have never sat around waiting for a charge. Even when we made trips further than a full charge would take us. Yes it took a bit of planning, it was long enough ago that high speed chargers were still limited in availability. We just picked a high speed charger at a shopping mall next to the interstate , and had dinner while it charged. It finished charging before we finished eating.Right now the only time you will make use of a high speed charger, is on a trip that today would have you buying gas more than once in one day. You may even not need it for trips where you fill up two days in a row. (You pick a hotel that has level 2 charging available, and the car is full by the time you finish breakfast)One reading of the name of the Japanese high speed standard (Chademo) is vaguely “a cup of tea”. The implication is that you would stop, brew a cup of tea, and drink. The car would be mostly recharged, and you could continue.If you are the sort of driver that packs sandwiches to eat on the way, and tells the kids “if you aren’t back from the bathroom by the time I am done filling the tank, we’re leaving you here”, using an EV will make your trip take longer.For a more typical trip to the in-laws, you pull into the rest area, find an open charger, wave your phone or RFID card at the box bolted to the concrete pad, and plug in. In the time it takes to herd the kids thru the toilet, wait in line for to-go at deathburger, get back to the car, and get them strapped back in, a good charger will have added enough range to drive for 3 hours, or about mean time to meltdown for siblings under 10. If you are being all adult, and actually sit down for a meal that is brought to you and you don’t have to unwrap before eating, you will get the charge complete text before you get the check.Time to finish charging isn’t linear. As the pack gets full, they slow the charging down so the batteries don’t overheat. If it takes X time to charge to 50%, going from 50 to 75% might take that long again. And the last 25% might take 3X to spoon in.What this means is on long trips, is that you start thinking like a transport pilot, you take on only enough fuel to get you to your next stop plus a reserve. In EV terms, it means you try to stay on the fast end of the curve, and you don’t stick around for the battery to fully charge. Pick the charger 3/4ths of the way, instead of half way, so you are down to 10%. Then if by leaving with only 60% you will get there with 30 miles range in reserve, you leave then rather than wait as long again for 80%. If you have a Tesla, the navigation system will actually do the calculations for you, saying you need to stop at charger Q for at least 12 minutes to reach your destination.One last comment on range. High speeds on the highway make a more noticeable difference with EV than with a conventional car. Since other losses are low, aerodynamic drags contribution is more prominent. A long way of saying you will get a lot further at 65 than you will at 85.Other random things….Check your tire pressure. If it’s low, rolling restance takes a disproportionate jump, and I have found that the warning system wants you to be 20% low before it lights up. I have a compressor at home, so I just check them on the first Saturday of the month. (Unless it’s raining or snowing). A tire delays the airs escape, it can’t keep it confined forever. Plus when the temperatures drop, so does the pressure in your tire.Regenerative braking. This is where the car starts to recharge the battery as a way of slowing down. It will happen when you hit the brakes, it’s why the brake pads last so long. On an EV you can also get it to happen by just lifting your foot off the accelerator. On some cars it is the default, on others you have to tell the car you want it. it’s wonderful, it reminds me of engine braking with a manual transmission. I really notice its absence when I get back into an IC car. You can drive in city traffic, just using the accelerator. You only hit the brake pedal when you need to hold on a hill.Parking lots. Pedestrians walk 3 abreast down the middle of the lane, unless they hear an engine behind them. Engine noise, and they go single file at the edge of the lane. We learned this 20 years ago driving hybrids. Just a heads up, so it doesn’t surprise you.Since the horn is overkill in this situation, some cars come with a “growler” fake engine noise that comes on automatically below 10 mph or so, to warn people. At one point it was going to be required, don’t know if it happened. Our car is so equipped, even tho it wasn’t required that year.I find it annoying, I like the silent glide. At least it shuts up when you are stopped. I suppose I wouldn’t mind it so much if I got a choice of sounds. (A poll was taken on the VW EV forum, some of the nominees included Italian V12, Mack truck, big V8, air cooled VW, Harley, turbo 4 cylinder with blowoff noise, and a chainsaw, but the winner was the noise that the Jetsons cartoon flying car made). One solution for cars sans growler, that some proposed was to briefly turn on the air conditioning, as the compressor makes a similar noise to an engine. A wag on the Chevy Volt forum said “my car has a pedestrian warning system, 4 of them, they were made by Goodyear”. Apparently the factory low rolling resistance tires weren’t the quietest.Adressing some of the other “facts” that are routinely brought up by people that haven’t been in the same zip code as an EV.“Your electricity comes from coal, it pollutes more than a gas engine….” A couple of “facts”. with this one.. First, because EV are so energy efficient, the equivalent of over 100 mpg in a gas car, even if you had 100% coal fired electricity, (true in some parts of West Virginia, near the coal fields) it would still result in less pollution than a normal car.The second point, coal is only 30% of US generation, and dropping as fast as the utilities can get their hands on the hardware to convert to combined cycle natural gas, which halves the fuel costs, and carbon footprint. Predictions say that coal firing will essentially end by 2030. Some places like the New England states, it’s already gone. Carbon neutral generation is at 31% nationwide, last I checked, And any new generation built these days will be a renewable source. A lot more solar, especially household arrays, and for utility scale the current cheapest per kWh to construct and operate are wind turbines. (And that includes the generators that burn stuff) So your car is green already, and it gets greener without you doing anything. A gas burner doesn’t get better with time. (And you can make your car very green quickly if you have the ability to buy your power from carbon neutral sources only).“They are all slow”. This one is best dispelled by stuffing them in the passenger seat and demontrating. If a P100D is available, it should take under 3 seconds to convince them, but even more modest examples should suffice. Besides the torque curve everyone mentions, they don’t have a flywheel. It was an old rule of thumb with the drag racing crowd, that taking a pound off the flywheel was like taking a hundred pounds off the car.“The batteries only last 3–5 years, and cost more than the car is worth to replace”. We don’t know yet how long a set of batteries will last, we haven’t been using them long enough to wear many of them out. A car owner doesn’t have that much to worry about, the EPA requires that the batteries be warranted for 8 years/80,000 miles, if you live in a state that adopted CARB rules, the warranty jumps to 10 years/150,000 miles. As they are emissions equipment, they are transferable.Ok, some actual data instead of speculation. Some brands collect data from their cars when they are in for regularly scheduled inspections (there is essentially no regular maintenance on an EV) To get down to 70% of original capacity looks like it will take nearly 20 years. Faster in hot climates, slower in more temperate ones. There are already some cars running around with more than 250,000 miles on their original batteries. Should a pack loose enough capacity to be not useful for transportation, they can be rebuilt, which thanks to volume lowering battery prices, will be fairly cheap to do. Yes the first few years of the Leaf did have a battery life issue, they had air cooled packs, and didn’t use a particularly heat tolerant battery chemistry, the LA crowd did have issues with reduced capacity. After the outcry, Nissan switched to what got nicknamed “lizard” batteries. The companies that water cooled their packs didn’t have a problem.“But toxic batteries in the landfill”. First, most (but not all) aren’t toxic waste. The stuff inside is harmless should it wind up in the trash, and is legal to toss into a landfill. But landing in the trash is just Not going to happen, for a number of reasons. First, they are on a car. We do an excellent job with cars, something like 98% of them get recycled when they are dead. What that means is that if a battery is part of a car, it will not get dumped.The batteries are excellent candidates for recycling, they come in a handy easily isolated container, they are marked as to what chemistry they use, the metals inside are valuable, some as much as $10/lb, and there could be a half a ton of them.But most of them won’t get recycled, instead they will get reused. Space and weight are limited on a car, so you want the batteries at their best. But transportation isn’t the only thing that wants mass quantities of batteries, and some are a bit less fussy. Stationary power banks to pick the most likely. People and utilities use them to even out load on a power system. You have a fine solar array, but your peak demand is at 6 PM, nearly sunset. So you take a bunch of these batteries. You get them cheap because they are reclaimed. So you have to use 25% more of them, they are less than half the price of new, space under the array isn’t being used for anything else, it’s a little big, so what.Yes this is already happening. The junkyard owners learned long ago that there is real money at the end of those fat orange wires. When a car with a traction battery gets dragged into the yard, it is immediately stuck up on a stand, and they drop the battery out first thing. They are by their standards gentle, (wrenches not torches, and they won’t let it fall more than a couple of inches. They might even include a pallet to cushion the landing, and not just the unadorned forklift blades), and they move it to a shelf indoors.The owner knows there is a ready market, and its not just owners of that make. If you damage it, he will be pissed. (If the secret junkyard cabal finds out that a yard owner sold scrap for less than they could have gotten, they will swoop in, switch the office coffee for decaf, the donuts for bran muffins, and replace their pit bull with an equal weight of toy poodles, yorkies, and other tiny yapping breeds)The people buying the packs are doing or updating an EV conversion, rebuilding traction batteries, some live off grid, and are building a storage facility for their solar array, etc. GM has contracted with a third party to buy the batteries that are replaced under the emissions system warranty. The off grid folks are particularly keen customers. Lithium is a whole lot lighter than lead. So a pack of lithium cells while a bit more complicated to build, is a whole lot easier on your back than half the capacity of deep cycle lead acid. Even better you don’t have to make weekly rounds with the distilled water, checking that they aren’t low.The motorhead community has been wrong about battery life before. When we bought a hybrid the same short life was predicted. Well for those we actually can speak from experience. We bought a Prius in 2000. 14.5 years later, it was facing repairs to the internal combustion side of things that had a parts cost greater than the current value. As part of the decision that led to us trading it in, I checked the health of the original, unmolested, traction battery. It was just over 90% of its original capacity, and the cell to cell balance was good. The hybrid, where I know the owner, with the highest mileage was a first US generation Prius with 350,000 miles on it when a teen ran a stop sign and T boned it. There are reports of ones in taxi service with double that on the original pack.I think the reputation for short EV battery life is from the early homebrew lead acid conversions. Use of any sort of cell level battery balancing was unheard of. Charging could best be described as having a bit of a brute force approach. They didn’t limit discharge depth, which unchecked actually leads to some cells getting a reverse charge, when they hit 0 before their neighbors. All combine to leave them with a very weakened battery.If you have a lithium pack, you must have an active battery management system, especially since you the manufacturer are on the hook for 8 years.“But but they catch fire…. We read about that one in the news”. Yea, you don’t here much about regular cars catching fire. That’s because it happens so often, that it isn’t news. Try 171,500 times a year or about every 3 minutes in the US alone. Once a day, the event is fatal. 4 times a day someone is injured enough to need treatment. The fires only get reported if the car belonged to someone prominent, or it happened someplace that it was particularly disruptive, like a tunnel. Conventional cars have many ways that collision or parts failure can set things alight.There are two things that can get a lithium pack to self ignite, mechanical damage, and incompetent battery management. Those hoverboards that got recalled were because they did the battery management wrong. Every cell did have a protection chip, but they used the ones designed for a single cell, and not the ones with the extra circuits to deal with multiple cells in series.Mechanical damage fires start more slowly, than a fuel fire, the batteries smolder and vent smoke for a while before flames happen. You have more time to get away. And the battery fire doesn’t spread anywhere near as fast as you will see with a gas tank leaking it’s contents downhill.Remember, in most gas powered cars, the bottom of the fuel tank is at or at times below the floor pan. Random obstacles on the road can tear them open. Some are even made of rotary molded plastic. While some metal gas tanks are sturdy, a lot of them will collect a substantial dent if an adult were to jump up, and land on them with both feet.I helped a friend that bought a wrecked Leaf for its battery pack, to salvage the cells for some electric motorcycles he had built. The battery comes in a very sturdy can, that is mounted under the floor. Yes if you jumped and hit the center, it would deflect. At an edge or the corner, not so much. They are pretty well protected. Tesla goes one better, armoring the bottom and front edge with a substantial titanium plate. They also fill the space between the cells with a fire extinguishing gel.But cars can set themselves alight in other ways, ones that don’t even require a collision as a trigger. Conventional cars have fuel running 10 feet or more from the tank to the engine, in a steel tube at the bottom of the car. In fuel injected cars, this line is pressurized to 4 bar (50–60 psi) by a pump in the tank. At various places, there are sections of rubber hose connecting things.There is a guy on YouTube that rebuilds salvage vehicles, and records the process. He just finished recovering a Lamborghini that had a cracked fitting lead to a fire when refueling. He just started on a Ferrari where a rubber line rubbed against the worm drive hose clamp securing its neighbor, wore through, and sprayed the engine compartment with 50 psi fuel, and the exhaust manifold made certain that the failure of that cheap bit of hose did terminal amounts of damage. (The channel is Tavarish if you want to check it out)Last one, I promise.“Look at the damage mining the materials for the batteries makes” this is always accompanied by a distant view of a large open pit mine, or a detail view of excavation machines working on the ramp sides typical of open pit mining. This is a clear attempt at disinformation. Neither photo is a lithium mine. The distant view has been identified as a Russian copper mine. No identification on the close view that I have seen, but what they are mining appears to be coal or oil shale.A lithium mine and refinery looks like a bunch of man made shallow ponds, in the middle of an alkaline salt flat. It makes things a lot easier when what you want to extract is water soluble. If you have flown over the southern edge of the bay south of San Francisco, you would have seen some rectangular ponds that are somewhat unusual colors. This is a “mine” for sea salt. They just use sun and wind to evaporate the water, and the salt eventually crystallizes out.If you flew over a lithium mine, the ponds would look similar, but surrounded by the white sand of the desert, instead of the ocean. The primary source for lithium is the Atacama desert high in the Andes mountains. It is one of the most inhospitable places on the planet. Nothing lives there. It hasn’t rained there in recorded history. They used it to test the signs of life instruments used in Martian exploration.Anyhow you “mine” lithium, by rinsing the alkaline sand, leaving cleaner sand and some brine. You pump the brine into the ponds. After a while the lithium will crystallize on the surface, and you skim it off. Further refining is done electrically.