NEWSINVESTIGATION EVsandpacemakers
Electric cars and pacemak Lack of research around the potential risks of high-powered chargers leaves many heart patients in the dark Bob Murray
WITH sales soaring, the latest batteryelectric cars are increasingly proving the right answer for thousands of UK motorists. But there is one group of people for whom questions over the electric car have never gone away. They are the hundreds of thousands of people around the country fitted with a heart pacemaker or implantable cardioverter defibrillator (ICD). All electrical devices – from kitchen induction hobs to electric cars – emit an electromagnetic field (EMF) which, if strong enough, can affect a pacemaker or ICD, with the potential of causing a life-threatening device malfunction. The NHS doesn’t publish specific advice about electric cars, but does say that anyone with a pacemaker or ICD should “keep at least 60cm (2ft) from an induction hob”. Does it follow that these people should steer completely clear of electric cars? With all new cars having to be battery-electric (or electrified) by 2030, that is going to be increasingly difficult, as Auto Express reader Phillip Evans found. When the ex-electrical engineer set about buying his first electric car, the lack of solid information led him to one conclusion: an electric car was not for him. Mr Evans was looking to buy a Hyundai, which is one company whose handbooks acknowledge that electromagnetic waves generated by a charger “can seriously impact” on implanted heart devices. “There is no warning not to drive the car,” a spokesperson told us, adding that the
OFFICIAL
model is “fully compliant” with all the latest regulations in this regard. A statement from VW went further: “Electric vehicles pose no danger to people with pacemakers or implanted defibrillators, as the electric field generated during operation is very well shielded.” But there is one caveat: when the vehicle is “on”, people with pacemakers should not open the bonnet. The official line from the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders is that owners
“Car companies seem ignorant on the subject, going along with the consensus that it’s ‘probably’ okay to drive an EV”
should follow the advice in the manual and “if concerned, seek guidance from their cardiologist or medical device manufacturer”. However, it appears car companies in general remain ignorant on the subject, going along with the consensus that it is “probably” okay to drive or passenger inside an electric car, but that care should be taken when plugging in, particularly if using one of the latest high-power DC “fast” chargers. Hyundai makes the point that it is not responsible for its cars being charged up at third-party charging points. Such “probabilities” are based on studies, but none of them very recent (see
New TVR to hit the road in 2023
FOLLOWING a problematic period for TVR, not least due to Covid, the British maker has committed to deliver the first examples of its new Griffith sports car in late 2023. While talking to our sister title evo about the early Griffith prototype from 2017, boss Les Edgar said, “If we hadn’t taken a brave step to leapfrog a few stages you would normally go through before you produce a road-going car that you can drive around a track and take up and down the road, had we not done that, we would be in a lot more of a state in terms of timing.” TVR said that it would gain access to its factory in Wales – following a delay due to ownership issues – in the first quarter of this year. There’s no news yet on whether this has happened, but the company is still confident of deliveries beginning next year.
DELAYED
First prototype of new Griffith was shown back in 2017
“TVR said that, after a delay due to ownership issues, it would access its factory in the first quarter of this year”
panel, right). Until new studies using the latest generation of electric cars, with their multiple motors, massive batteries and high-voltage inverters, reveal more, the advice for those with implanted heart devices is that an electric car is “probably” okay – but don’t open the bonnet, and get someone else to plug it in. At a time when EV registrations are exploding in the UK – up by 154 per cent this February – when the cars are getting ever more powerfuland an ageing population means more people than ever are having cardiac devices implanted, the question must be: is that advice good enough?
Fresh-faced 5 Series seen out in the open SPIED
EAGLE-eyed reader Robert Sawyers spotted BMW’s updated 5 Series executive saloon testing on a recent trip to Munich, Germany. This is our best lookyet at the new car, and we can see an even larger grille flanked by slim headlights and what seems to be an M Sport bumper. Robert’s shots show the tail-lights linked by a piece of chrome trim, too.
14 20April2022
