Motivated by Dala's new video (good job!)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WMMEooP3AZ0
Hi humans!
TL;DR: I wonder if you have concerns about insurance and government after upgrading your battery.
I mean, if you have an insurance, which "pays when it's your fault your own car got broken" (vollkasko = comprehensive cover?), they need to know you raised its value so they can properly replace it. Do you tell them?
Here in Germany, the same insurance company will also sell you the mandatory "we pay the things belonging to other people that you broke" (liability?) insurance. I am afraid that if something goes wrong, they will not pay, since I replaced the huge chunk with the angry pixies in it. Worst case would be a battery fire in a car-park, 10 cars and the floor burnt, and they find out I swapped my car to a different battery... I would not want to pay for that damage out of my own pocket
And as for government: my car's papers say 24kwh. Messing with essential car-bits will quickly void your car's operating license, getting you in huge trouble with the police. (Even putting in the wrong lightbulbs might be an "Eingriff in die Beleuchtungsanalge" and void your car's license and driving with a non-conforming car is super bad. Let alone having accidents with them.
I asked the local TÜV people. TÜV is like the UK's MOT I guess. While they simply do the mandatory bi-yearly technical checks, their engineers have the power to add addendums to your car's papers. Making modifications official is easy, if the part comes with a "general operating license" for your type of car (e.g. adding fog-lights to a Golf), but gets complicated if the modification is a one-off. They said, that it would require (among other tests) a electro-magnetic compatibility measurement which would put the whole car into a measuring-laboratory box and see if sends out EM-frequencies or is offended by anything sent at it. Insta 4-figures bill. Crazy.
So swapping in the same battery would probably be considered a replacement. No problem. but 24 kwh is meh.
Swapping in a bigger battery than came from the factory is therefore considered a major modification, which needs to be written into the car's papers by test-engineers after expensive tests. and then reported to the insurance.
Any Germans here, who already did it?
How's this done outside of Germany?
How are your customers doing it, Dala, Muxan?
Cheers!
chris
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WMMEooP3AZ0
Hi humans!
TL;DR: I wonder if you have concerns about insurance and government after upgrading your battery.
I mean, if you have an insurance, which "pays when it's your fault your own car got broken" (vollkasko = comprehensive cover?), they need to know you raised its value so they can properly replace it. Do you tell them?
Here in Germany, the same insurance company will also sell you the mandatory "we pay the things belonging to other people that you broke" (liability?) insurance. I am afraid that if something goes wrong, they will not pay, since I replaced the huge chunk with the angry pixies in it. Worst case would be a battery fire in a car-park, 10 cars and the floor burnt, and they find out I swapped my car to a different battery... I would not want to pay for that damage out of my own pocket
And as for government: my car's papers say 24kwh. Messing with essential car-bits will quickly void your car's operating license, getting you in huge trouble with the police. (Even putting in the wrong lightbulbs might be an "Eingriff in die Beleuchtungsanalge" and void your car's license and driving with a non-conforming car is super bad. Let alone having accidents with them.
I asked the local TÜV people. TÜV is like the UK's MOT I guess. While they simply do the mandatory bi-yearly technical checks, their engineers have the power to add addendums to your car's papers. Making modifications official is easy, if the part comes with a "general operating license" for your type of car (e.g. adding fog-lights to a Golf), but gets complicated if the modification is a one-off. They said, that it would require (among other tests) a electro-magnetic compatibility measurement which would put the whole car into a measuring-laboratory box and see if sends out EM-frequencies or is offended by anything sent at it. Insta 4-figures bill. Crazy.
So swapping in the same battery would probably be considered a replacement. No problem. but 24 kwh is meh.
Swapping in a bigger battery than came from the factory is therefore considered a major modification, which needs to be written into the car's papers by test-engineers after expensive tests. and then reported to the insurance.
Any Germans here, who already did it?
How's this done outside of Germany?
How are your customers doing it, Dala, Muxan?
Cheers!
chris