Another reason to hate electric vehicles?

[Tigger]

A ship in Europe is on fire with 3,000 vehicles on it. The article I read says that one of the 25 electric vehicles caught on fire and the crew could not put it out. If true, that’s a bit scary.

edit: and I avoided adding a link because I read the story in several places and some were oddly biased ; but the one @ScareCrow provided below is good

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[jkeaton]

I don't "hate" them, I hate the fact the government is hell bent on transitioning to them no matter what. Let the market decide. Government needs to get out of the free market.

 

[ScareCrow]

A ship in Europe is on fire with 3,000 vehicles on it. The article I read says that one of the 25 electric vehicles caught on fire and the crew could not put it out. If true, that’s a bit scary.

Here is a link for that story........

https://www.thedrive.com/news/cargo-ship-carrying-3000-cars-is-ablaze-in-north-sea-ev-suspected-as-cause

 

[CableXJ]

EVs are not going away. Are they ready to replace gas/diesel vehicles completely? No. If you live and drive exclusively in the city, they make sense. As do hybrids. Rurally, hybrids are more expensive to drive than ICE’s. I see a lot of Teslas out here but there is definitely a shortage of charging stations in rural Canada. I know of one Lightning that was sold last summer (I saw it in the showroom when it was being picked up.) and when the cold weather arrived, he was a very, very unhappy camper. His travel range dropped by half in the winter.

In short, battery technology has a long way to go until EVs can replace regular vehicles.

 

[thekingprawn]

Metal fire is a special kind of fire. There's a reason ships just flood the pyro locker if it lights off.

 

[Bucko]

EVs are not going away. Are they ready to replace gas/diesel vehicles completely? No. If you live and drive exclusively in the city, they make sense. As do hybrids. Rurally, hybrids are more expensive to drive than ICE’s. I see a lot of Teslas out here but there is definitely a shortage of charging stations in rural Canada. I know of one Lightning that was sold last summer (I saw it in the showroom when it was being picked up.) and when the cold weather arrived, he was a very, very unhappy camper. His travel range dropped by half in the winter.

In short, battery technology has a long way to go until EVs can replace regular vehicles.

Hmmm. An EV that catches fire in a city can do a whole lot more damage I'd think.

 

[Dude]

Interesting post title…

studies show the risk of fire in EVs isn't higher than that of gas cars but haven’t seen a post with the title Another reason to hate gas vehicles.

However … the majority of car fires occur with older model cars. There aren't many older EVs on the road (yet). So maybe it’s a good thing the EVs battery pack doesn’t last long

Also this is interesting:

 

[Mark S.]

Hybrid vehicles pose--by far--the highest fire risk. EVs are a distant third behind ICE vehicles.

Propulsion​	Fires per 100k vehicles​	Total number of fires​
Hybrid​	3474.5​	16,051​
Gas​	1529.9​	199,533​
Electric​	25.1​	52​

There are a lot of car fires annually here in America.

 

[CableXJ]

Hybrid vehicles pose--by far--the highest fire risk. EVs are a distant third behind ICE vehicles.

Propulsion​	Fires per 100k vehicles​	Total number of fires​
Hybrid​	3474.5​	16,051​
Gas​	1529.9​	199,533​
Electric​	25.1​	52​

There are a lot of car fires annually here in America.

That makes sense to me. Hybrids have double the systems that can fail. EVs are no where near as numerous as either gas or hybrids.

 

[Dude]

Hybrid vehicles pose--by far--the highest fire risk. EVs are a distant third behind ICE vehicles.

Propulsion​	Fires per 100k vehicles​	Total number of fires​
Hybrid​	3474.5​	16,051​
Gas​	1529.9​	199,533​
Electric​	25.1​	52​

There are a lot of car fires annually here in America.

Yep same info I saw. My immediate thought it was the gas engine in the Hybrids

 

[Meanderthal]

Hybrid vehicles pose--by far--the highest fire risk. EVs are a distant third behind ICE vehicles.

Propulsion​	Fires per 100k vehicles​	Total number of fires​
Hybrid​	3474.5​	16,051​
Gas​	1529.9​	199,533​
Electric​	25.1​	52​

There are a lot of car fires annually here in America.

I don't think the issue is the number of fires in electric vehicles, it's the "runaway" nature of the fires that do occur. Once a lithium battery catches fire, it burns very quickly and very hot. We have managed to design around the dangers of carrying roughly 15 gallons (or more) of liquid fuel and maintain a fairly low death and/or damage rate from ICE fires. So far, we have not done that for lithium batteries.

 

[Dude]

I don't think the issue is the number of fires in electric vehicles, it's the "runaway" nature of the fires that do occur. Once a lithium battery catches fire, it burns very quickly and very hot. We have managed to design around the dangers of carrying roughly 15 gallons (or more) of liquid fuel and maintain a fairly low death and/or damage rate from ICE fires. So far, we have not done that for lithium batteries.

Yep it’s taken decades including for auto racing to design for safety in carrying gasoline and EVs are essentially in their infancy so should be relatively quick design changes coming. Solid-state batteries are thought to be safer in cases of external heating (fires) but remain susceptible to short circuits and can catch fire just as easily as lithium-ion batteries. Blue hydrogen fuel cells seem attractive but many issues remain to be solved. Maybe a breakthrough in safe dependable nuclear powered vehicles will bring that to neighborhoods near you.

 

[Dantanman]

A ship in Europe is on fire with 3,000 vehicles on it. The article I read says that one of the 25 electric vehicles caught on fire and the crew could not put it out. If true, that’s a bit scary.

edit: and I avoided adding a link because I read the story in several places and some were oddly biased ; but the one @ScareCrow provided below is good

I think that's why Ford chose the Mustang Mach E name instead of Pinto. The ice mustang has to be in running condition to hurt people

 

[Foad]

Yes but an EV requires at least 8000 gallons of water to put it out.

 

[Mark S.]

I don't think the issue is the number of fires in electric vehicles, it's the "runaway" nature of the fires that do occur. Once a lithium battery catches fire, it burns very quickly and very hot. We have managed to design around the dangers of carrying roughly 15 gallons (or more) of liquid fuel and maintain a fairly low death and/or damage rate from ICE fires. So far, we have not done that for lithium batteries.

I agree lithium ion battery fires are definitely more difficult to extinguish, but you seem to also imply deaths occur more frequently with EV fires than with ICE/hybrid vehicle fires. I haven't seen stats on this. Have you?

So far, we have not done that for lithium batteries.

Many EV manufacturers are switching from lithium ion to lithium iron phosphate batteries, in part due to their greater thermal stability and resistance to thermal runaway.

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