It seems that every time a Tesla or other EV catches on fire, you hear about it on the news. Gasoline cars catch on fire all the time and you never hear about it. I have come across many. Just yesterday I was passing a gas station and it looked like every cop and firefighter in the city was there. Apparently a car had caught on fire at the gas pump and had just been put out when I passed by. I wouldn’t have known about this had I not been driving by. It looks like no damager was done to the gas station although it was sitting right next the pumps refueling when it caught fire. Of course this could have ended up worse.
It sounds like electric cars are not so easily put out when they catch on fire. Of course it likely wouldn’t have been sitting right next to the gas pumps either but I guess these can be a real bad deal if they catch on fire in parking garages or other enclosed structures.
I see memes on Facebook of the “Tesla 2024 Calendar” with 12 different images of a Tesla burning in different ways. Just a quick look found these for sale.
Seriously, anyone have stats on how often these things catch on fire compared to gasoline cars?
It looks like even Dewalt recently got to join in the fun with showing off the hottest new mower on the market. The guy who recorded this actually runs a mowing service where I live and seems to always be in the right spot to catch police chases, shootouts, etc. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mxhFbKqoGmU
Yes, apparently it is a big deal with an EV catches on fire but how common is it really?
Usually, for any vehicle fire to make the news, someone has to die.
As local printed news paper continue to shrink staff or go out of business, including those owned by major publishers, much never makes it to the paper.
EVs catch fire much less than ICEs… but, you can put out an ICE fire easily. An EV fire can be catastrophic because you can’t just squirt some water to put it out. If it burns out, it can catch nearby cars on fire and entire structures can be destroyed. Not to mention EV fire fumes are very toxic.
We don’t have any electric cars here in town. There might be one that I see around. Still any car fires usually hit the news. I have witnessed same and it is a news worthy sight to behold. Luckily I knew the back roads to be able to by pass the road block. Last winter though we did have two house fires caused by lithium batteries. A small percentage statistics wise but still worth reporting on. The fact that there are so few of them percentage wise though really doesn’t mean the overall risk isn’t higher and something to aware of.
I’m sure there are fewer traffic deaths in electrics too simply because there are fewer of them. Maybe off topic but I continue to be against church buses carrying 30 kids because of the consequences of an accident, rare as they might be. I also support never having your whole executive staff on the same airplane for the same reason. Statistics have a way of biting you in the part that goes over the fence last.
Battery manufacturers are working hard to replace current high power density batteries with a different technology that doesn’t use a highly flammable electrolyte. A lot of the battery fires are not cars but other devices that don’t have the thermal monitoring and cooling systems. The heat pump in my Tesla turns on whenever temperatures exceed the factory set limits. I’ve gotten out of the car in the garage and then the heat pump activates. I don’t check while it’s charging in the middle of the night but I wouldn’t be surprised if the heat pump runs then too.
I understand that alternate battery technologies are in the works, but like so much of the EV story, the solution is in the future.
What do we do about the hundreds of thousands of EVs with the old technology?
A sprinkler system in a parking garage can douse an ICE car fire, but is hopeless to extinguish an EV fire which can start a chain reaction to every car parked nearby. Even worse if the EVs are clustered at chargers in a single spot.
Temporary solution, always park your EV on a slope that leads to a swimming pool, retention pond, river, or lake. Up north, in the winter, park it on a late😀
As I said before, the chances of a fatal car accident in a compact like a Bolt is something like sevenal times higher than the car catching on fire over its 100k mile life. So what are your priorities? Some news gets people’s attention a lot more than other news.
There is one destroyed roll on ship and another badly damaged that say otherwise. Same for a parking garage in Luton U.K. with millions in damages. Highly unlikely events that had very expensive damage as a result.
As these cars age and accumulate structural fatigue it is reasonable to assume the incidence of internal shorts increases, isn’t it?
Highly unlikely, maybe but when an EV ignites, things get really, really bad really quickly.
Combined with having the battery pack drop from below the car during a fire. It would have wheels on it to roll out and in to the pool!
Why not have the battery in many different small isolated banks. If one catches fire, it would drop out of the pack and the fire would not spread to the rest of the pack. Something like a load bolt would hold them in. The bolt would melt during a fire and that bank would drop down.
Oh boy, here we go. How about a tank of helium so in case of a fire the helium fills a giant balloon to lift the car in the air until it burns out. Come up with a silly idea in the first place and all kinds of ideas to deal with the silly idea instead of just forgetting the whole idea as silly in the first place.
But then as said saving one ounce of gas is a victory for the environment. Except when considering the mining, recycling, plastering wind mills and glass panels all over destroying the land, and not to mention slave and child labor costs. But never let a bad idea go to waste when we can throw more money at it. China smiles.
Were those EVs damaged in a way that would lead to fires? If so, someone was negligent in putting those cars into a dangerous situation. Maybe someday we will know how those fires started. I’m not concerned about my undamaged car charging in my garage in a low power 120VAC line. That’s what I control and what I really care about.
It is difficult to do forensic analysis on a puddle.
The 2 ships were destroyed by new cars. Whether started by an EV or ICE is in question but the result is the same…fire suppression did not work once the fire got started. We know fire suppression of an ICE fire is easy compared to an EV.
A house fire in Orlando was caused by a Mercedes EV loaner the homeowner was driving. New car, not charging, spontaneously burst into flames and completely destroyed the home.
The Luton garage fire appears to have been started by a diesel 2014 Land Rover… but a hybrid diesel with a LiIon battery. Video of the SUV clearly shows the fire erupting from the battery. Any damage to the battery could be simply fatigue from normal driving rather than an accident. Totally unknown to the owner or driver.
So it sounds like the odds of an EV car fire are lower but the consequences higher which all makes sense. Hopefully improved battery tech will reduce the problem and make it more manageable if it does happen. I have seen plenty of ICE car fires and no EV fires but of course there are more of them and they have been around much longer.
I do think EV tech still has lots of room to improve and current EVs are not all so great for the environment. I do not feel the power grid or buyers are ready for all the EVs and their current limitations. The good news is that they can charge with off-peak power at night when demand from other users is much less. Yes, China is also getting rich off them as well and we need to reduce reliance on them before I would feel good about buying one.
I don’t know much about the upcoming solid state batts but they could be a game changer.
I’ve seen ONE hybrid fire. Took the FD a lot longer to put it out then a ICE fire.
I know battery technology is changing fast. But it’s going to take time to reach the real world. Manufacturing startup costs are extremely high. Some of these new batteries may not even be able to be made cheap enough for an EV vehicle.
There’s BILLIONS being invested every year. A viable replacement battery is going to be a gamechanger.