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My best friend is a right-leg amputee. He has a Volvo electric truck on order and is also considering a Rivian. He has been using a specially mounted pedal to drive with his right left leg since the operation over 10 years ago.
Since he is getting close to the delivery date for his Volvo, he called the installer he has been using to discuss the new car. He was told that as of now, NO EVs can have the pedal installed due to the proximity of the battery under the floorboards. The installer said they’ve tried to get the state (NJ) to approve various new designs but all have failed strict safety tests. He’s stumped (no pun intended lol) and probably has to cancel the reservation.
This is certainly a unique scenario but not unheard of. His installer performs hundreds of jobs annually, obviously with many repeat customers.
This is something the car companies may have to solve, especially if EV adoption is to become more widespread.
Well, yeah, anything normally bolted through the floor (or screwed through it) won't work when that's the top of the battery. But I don't think the EVs in general should be re-engineered for what is truly an edge case. In fact, I'd day a better solution is modern adhesives, as they can definitely be strong enough to attach something to the prepped floor and stay there forever.
As far as the pedal, which pedal is he needing to have moved? The throttle? Why can't an overhead hinged pedal be used? Does it have to be mounted to the floor? And if it does have to be mounted to the floor, I'd bet a bracket could be used that could use adhesive to attach it to the floor. No screws or bolts going into the battery. AND cheap and doesn't require re-engineering of the entire car by the installer OR the manufacturer.
Mobility modifiers generally wont install anything with a structural requirement unless someone else has green lit the project with an approval they can fall back on if something goes wrong. That sound like where this is now, waiting for some authority to say it's acceptable.
Mobility modifiers generally wont install anything with a structural requirement unless someone else has green lit the project with an approval they can fall back on if something goes wrong. That sound like where this is now, waiting for some authority to say it's acceptable.
Exactly this.
This isn’t something that can be jerry rigged. It has to be inspected and approved by the DMV. It’s done through a specific installer who has been approved for these jobs. It’s not as much of an edge case as one would think either. My buddy’s installer does hundreds every year. It’s not just for amputees people with right leg problems that leave them unable to apply full strength also use them.
It has to be bolted, that’s the problem. This particular installer has tried to gain approval for various other methods, all failed.
This seems like a pretty massive oversight. I don't know anything about this, an I wonder if there's anyone putting institutional weight behind this in order to have politicians move this forward.
This isn’t something that can be jerry rigged. It has to be inspected and approved by the DMV. It’s done through a specific installer who has been approved for these jobs. It’s not as much of an edge case as one would think either. My buddy’s installer does hundreds every year. It’s not just for amputees people with right leg problems that leave them unable to apply full strength also use them.
It has to be bolted, that’s the problem. This particular installer has tried to gain approval for various other methods, all failed.
Why are hand controls not an option? Nothing needs to be jerry rigged nor mounted through the floor pan.
This seems like a pretty massive oversight. I don't know anything about this, an I wonder if there's anyone putting institutional weight behind this in order to have politicians move this forward.
I suggested contacting a handicapped rights organization, at the least for guidance, but he’s currently leaning towards just switching his reservation back to the ice version.
This isn’t something that can be jerry rigged. It has to be inspected and approved by the DMV.
I'm not talking about jerry rigged. I'm talking about a company engineering one that makes it unnecessary for manufacturers to completely redesign their cars to work with what really is a handful of people. We do NOT want EVs to start having batteries high up in the car just so a few customers can bolt something to the floor, when there's a more logical, much less costly, and much less disruptive way of solving the problem. "But this is the way we've always done it and the local DMV isn't smart enough to evolve." Nope, new paradigms require new solutions.
What you are asking is that EVs no longer have low mounted batteries. Maybe in the future when batteries are vastly more energy dense and light, you can put them only in a center tunnel (like the 16kWh battery in the Volt), but a typical 60-100kWh battery simply cannot be designed like that in a passenger car. Nor should they.
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