Why don’t EVs have standard diagnostic ports—and when will that change? | OBD-II was implemented to monitor emissions, but EVs don’t have tailpipes.::OBD-II was implemented to monitor emissions, but EVs don’t have tailpipes.
What would they diagnose?
Combustion Engine? Don’t have one. Transmission? Don’t have one. Emission Control System? Don’t have emissions. Spark Plugs? Nope. Fuel System? No. Exhaust? No. Alternator? No. Battery charger? you can see that on the dashboard. Starter motor? Nope. Battery Status? Also on the dashboard. Vehicle speed… on the dash. Engine idle… no. Air Flow Sensor? No air flow. Intake Manifold Pressure… no intake. Throttle position… only really relevant if you have a clutch or torque converter which EVs don’t have (you would notice, very quickly, if the throttle position detected pressing the pedal when you’re not pressing it in an EV…
That’s the list of standard ODB-II diagnostics. Some cars do more than that, but those are the ones they have to do. And none of them are relevant.
Reporting error codes for specific parts of the battery, errors in the coolant system, error codes for specific sensors throughout the vehicle, etc
Or considering basically all EVs I’ve seen have some big screens rather than gauges perhaps having the ability to put the vehicle in a diagnostic mode that will display error codes and allow you to check on specific sensors (like read the heath of each individual battery cell for example) without the need for an external device to check
Basically having the ability to fix something that we bought ourselves rather than having to go to the dealership to get it fixed and hope that they’ll still service a vehicle of whatever age I bring in
This is also a important example of how much less crap there is in a electric vs ICE vehicle.
Yes the battery materials are mined (so are many other things) but the sheer subtraction of these various mechanisms from a electric vehicle greatly reduces the environment impact not to mention a great reduction in fluids required.
Dealers hate this one hack as the service requirements are fairly low too.
There are also idiots claiming we should ban electric vehicles because they charge on an unclean grid
I actually saw a petition for this is my country’s local government website
This is like closing a shop to prevent robbers.
Surely the solution is to make the grid they charge off of sustainable then???
OBDII has standard info that’s the same from one brand to another but it also transfers proprietary info that depends on the reader having the ability to interpret it.
My OBDII Bluetooth dongle lets me get diagnostic codes for much more than emission systems (using Car Scanner app where you choose the type of car you’re diagnosing) and it also allows me to reprogram car features with the right app (ex adding an Europe only feature to a Canadian BMW i3 with Bimmercode). It would be perfectly adapted as an EV diagnostic port.
My OBDII Bluetooth dongle lets me get diagnostic codes
Hell I just use mine to collect data in general. Torque (https://torque-bhp.com/) is effectively my second dashboard for all the information that the normal dash doesn’t show. I have a hybrid… Half of my dials are related to the hybrid system. Anyone that says that OBD is only related to combustion engines are ignorant.
Yep, so much info we don’t get on the OEM dashboard anymore… Oil temp (heck, coolant temp in some cases!), voltage, oil pressure…
This is kinda a weird question. What happens when a car has an extra sensor most other cars don’t have? The system adapts. Not to mention, most cars put out some unique info regardless, which is why you need to enter (or auto scan for) the make and model before all values are properly readable.
This is what someone with absolutely no knowledge of info you can bed from those ports is.
So just to name a few:
Battery temp, cell resistance, charge level of each cell, throttle position, abs info, wheel rpm, blendor actuator position, ac activation, heater power draw, “and more”.
Imagine having a computer you could never run diagnostics of any kind on, or even get to check into what you thought was wrong. That’s half of what an EV is.
