Why Tesla, GM And Other EV Companies Have A Fire Problem 

You should stick with your plan to buy an EV. According The National Highway Traffic Administration, on a per mile driven basis you are much, much more likely to suffer injury or death by fire driving a gasoline powered car than by driving an EV. This CNBC video is misleading click-bait. The title should be "How EVs are Solving the Fire Problem Caused by Internal Combustion Engines". But then the entire segment would end up being ridiculously short as the narrator simply points to the fact that according to NHTSA data gasoline cars are 10x more likely than EVs to catch fire and, unlike gasoline cars that carry around a tank full of highly explosive gasoline vapor, EVs virtually never explode.

Don't worry, when you fill your car up with petrol you can be safe in the knowledge that of static ignights the fumes, you'll go up in flames. If you have diesel, well a little bit lucky, but they can explode too. Just be glad you don't need hydrogen...

@Ward Fiction Neither petrol nor diesel can explode without being mixed with an oxidant. Both, without an oxidant, will extinguish a spark. It is, in fact, very difficult to ignite diesel in open air if it is cold.

With regard to your "from what I've heard" comment, it is not a matter of opinion, but rather a matter of fact based upon National Highway Traffic Safety Administration data that EVs are 10x less likely to catch fire than gasoline cars. And for Tesla owners the data is even compelling: "From 2012 - 2021, there has been approximately one Tesla vehicle fire for every 210 million miles traveled. By comparison, data from the National Fire Protection Association (NFPA) and U.S. Department of Transportation shows that in the United States there is a vehicle fire for every 19 million miles traveled." It is also a matter of fact, not opinion but fact, that gasoline vapor is explosive while EV batteries, though they can burn at extremely high temperatures, are not. Further, it was only one specific model of EV, the Chevy Bolt, that was at risk of spontaneous combustion and therefore unsafe to park in the garage. The Chevy Bolt was originally equipped with SK batteries that had a design defect that could cause them to catch fire. But all of those old Chevy Bolts are now having their SK batteries replaced and, again, no other model of EV ever had that problem. Meanwhile, it is a myth that gasoline cars can't catch fire unless they are being driven. As with EVs spontaneous gasoline car fires are rare, but gasoline cars absolutely can and sometimes do catch fire when they are turned off and parked in the garage. The usual mechanism is a wiring defect precipitating an electrical short that ignites vapor from a leaky fuel line. In fact, 483,000 cars from the Kia/Hyundai group were just recalled earlier this year to correct a defect that could cause that very problem and there is currently NHTSA safety alert telling Kia/Hyundai owners that their cars are at risk of spontaneously catching fire.

Norway has 80 % ev adoption.. surely they know what they are doing

damn

Don't worry. Its just an EV revolution.

I hope the home owner had home/fire insurance on the home.

@Shikhar Ashish Don't worry, you will never understand how any of this actually works.

@Bobby Insurance is pretty standard on every home in pretty much every country.

Yeah, that is why you check on what type of warehouse. Ammonium nitrate is the main ingredient in fertilizer and highly combustible.

That thing was like a 4KT nuke equivalent. Most shocking explosion I ever saw.

One would have thought the 1947 Texas City explosion would have made ammonium nitrate handling and safety protocols of the utmost importance. Apparently not.

The humankind are pathetic! Rolled up steel or metal sheet, push and force the sheet under the burning car, or has some light forklifting while push the flat metallic sheet under the car. Then rolled out barrier of inflatable walls around the car but not too near it to get burnt, the walls only need to be tall enough to fill up waters to drown the car or submerged it, the base of these walls are either suction cup to the metallic sheet, to prevent leaking of water, spray fast drying concrete foams at the base and corner on the wall. Keep firehosing into the the swimming pool with the burning car inside. This method saves water and drown the burning car. I am baby chatting with you, because you are not worth it! Don’t ask me about other misc small details as how to deliver and prepaid materials to built the immediate swimming pool!

Electric vehicle fires are gradual build up.. this burned alive without realizing it is so far fetched ….

@Kennsdly Alcima one guy did burn alive but he had aftermarket unbreakable windows so the firefighters/whoever was trying to break his windows to get him out of the wreck he caused(drunk i think? memory so forgive mistakes) were unable to break the windows to rescue him. If he had stock windows they'd have been able to save him.

Combine this with many of these new EVs (and frankly new cars in general) coming with fancy electric door handles with weirdly hidden manual emergency releases _cough_ Tesla…

@Dennis_NL yea gradual build up 🤣😂 you yourself just said aside from from smoke it was spontaneous… these packs are made of thousands of cells they don’t all go thermal together.. these issues typically start with 1 single or maybe hand full.. and has a dominoes effect.. your watching videos people put up when things have already gone haywire… And if your driving Tesla battery packs are equipped with temperature emergency warning/shutdown … if it’s about to happen while your driving you will know and have plenty of time because the safety system that observes temperature activates well below the thermal runaway temperature of the battery cells… theres like 100 temperature sensors throughout a Tesla battery pack.. these cell don’t go from working to spontaneously catching fire… they catch fire from getting to hot..before you would even see the smoke your taking about the car safety system would be been triggered

Wow. Thank you for your service

when you figure everything into the picture of EV's. it seems silly when the benefit for straight EV isnt really there.

Strike. Let them reflect on the 3rd degree burns.

I don't Like Electric Car's And You Do A Great Job Fighting Fires

If this problem isn't addressed, I will not only refuse to buy an EV, I will refuse to enter an EV taxi or have anything to do with EVs.

It goes up in flames 🔥 in Seconds NOT Minutes... plus all the Acid Splatters everywhere....

@Toro Montana Goggle, Electric vehicles and busses going up in flames 🔥 you would be surprised, and don't park them in your garage or close to the house...

@Dottie A. what acid??? there is no acid in a lithium battery. still feel smart?

They might burn a hole down to the center of the Earth and release b gates father from Hades itself.

@Mochie bellina lmao man

There isn't going to be an all electric future, at least not anytime soon.

@Matrix Reloaded actually, he was dead serious.

Another big environmental impact of electrification is the scale of "clean energy" sprawl that's still dependent on fossil fuels. I can't feel green while driving through industrial landscapes full of wind turbines and solar lakes. They are dealing a major aesthetic blow to mountaintops and rural ambience.

Yes I would have to say that NOTHING YOU HAVE SAID MAKES ANY SENSE WHATSOEVER!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

@Jimmy Grant , it probably would if he could upload a 3D diagram(s) of what he is attempting to describe verbally.

@Jimmy Grant Lithium Ion batteries have Anodes and Cathodes. It makes perfect sense for those that actually understand how Lithium Ion batteries work.

And it will not change. These companies thrive off the lowest bidder, cheapest parts and the components are built by humans.

All electric car would be limited to a max speed of 60kph, no highway for them!

You don’t remember correctly. Were you allowed to bring your phone with you? How about your laptop? You’re not allowed to put lithium-ion batteries in the cargo area of an airplane. But then again you’re not allowed to put bottles of gasoline there either. Wait for it, to automotive companies have recommended you not park your gasoline car in your garage because of spontaneous fires. Check on current recalls.

@Neil Kurzman When did automotive manufacturers recommend not parking gasoline cars in the garage? Can you cite any press releases? Gasoline engine defects result in a recall and fix. GM did not fix their defect. They just told owners not to park in the garage. The problem is how do you charge your EV without parking in the garage? Gasoline cars don't need to park in the garage overnight in order to refuel.

@Neil Kurzman LOL. Since when people are not allowed to park their gasoline or diesel cars in the garage because of fire risk. You’re just making things up. It’s a garage! It’s purpose is to store cars.

Can't be compared without replacing all ICE

the fire is like many torches not the same as a gas car.

That’s comparing apples and oranges. Lithium ion is a generic name. It’s like saying all cakes are the same. Or cake and bread are the same. Remember if it bleeds it leads. Out of the billions of cellphones, laptops and anything else will a lithium ion battery how many fires were there?

@RCdiy the science is clearly the same, so not sure where your apples and oranges comparison comes in. Perhaps you’d like to elaborate on that?

@Jazza It clearly isn't the same as there isn't a single type of Lithium Ion batteries. Lithium Ion is an umbrella term of the battery technology, kind of like jets. There are different types, sizes and functions for jets. They are not all the same. Same applies to Lithium Ion. NCA batteries are different from NMC batteries, you have cylinder type and pouch type cells, 800V and 400V batteries, Lithium Polymer, Lithium Air, Sodium, Solid State, Lithium Iron, etc. etc. Certain types catch fire when punctured, others do not. It depends on chemistry, cell type, energy density, packaging, etc. etc. So, no. The science is not "clearly the same". There are substantial differences between current cell types and chemistry.

​@Red Baron I don't think you've demonstrated a substantial difference in the fundamental science of Lithium-Ion technology, rather rattled off a list of materials, packaging methods, voltage applications etc... that have occurred as the technology has advanced and manufactures adapt the batteries to their particular application. Fundamentally they all have a flammable electrolyte and are a risk for overheating, thermal runaway, explosions, etc... And this isn't old news. There are plenty of examples of recalls from tech (Apple and Samsung), through to Aviation (Boeing) through to the automotive industry for these type of challenges, and they all use types of batteries across this Lithium-Ion spectrum you mention....

Seeing as one needs a spark and the right mixture of o2 and fuel fumes, it's difficult

@Bert I agree. any viable tech or invention does not need government subsidies or propaganda. Cars, cell phones and everything in between did not happen because of government involvement. If something is economically viable the public will support it with their wallets.

more kia and hyundai cars and suv have caught fire than all of the EVs combined. FACTS.

fire in an electric car battery is a chemical fire and does not require oxygen to burn

@ujjal shill why not ban cities?

@Bad Player yes

@Bad Player we should ban cities

as a mechanic I discuss the problems with electric vehicles in depth on my home page vid.

they can be punctured by any loose road object

And it can spread to neighboring houses .. It is not good

Internal combustion engines catch fire spontaneously too, but nobody would read an article about that -- too boring.

Gas xplosions are much better .. 🎉

The same way you sleep with your laptop, phone even modems have lithium backups in them

people are gonna just read the title and run with it to fuel anti EV bs, CNBS needs to be more responsible with their choice of words

@Danie Bello It's to get people to watch it. If it bleeds it leads. The story itself is fine it is people taking out of it what they want but not what actually is said. You yourself had a preconceived notion because you called the CNBS and didn't like the title. If you are an educated person you get all the facts vs just being a headline chaser. Story brought out true facts and true concerns regarding EV's and as a consumer of EV's you should want these issues addressed both for your safety and the success of EV's. You fight everything instead of fixing issues then you will never have anyone on your side other then the extremists.

so you are anti-EV. got it. jk jk

I think you are correct. I am an EV fan and I believe fires are a risk to their adoption. The thing that people are probably worried about is that people will think EV fires are common and it is important that people realize that EV fires are much rarer than gasoline fires.

It cannot be solved in that particular battery chemistry and form factor. It does not mean it is not a problem that new technology is capable of resolving. IE BYD's LFP Blade batteries cannot catch fire at all. Even if you drive a spike through them. And they are cranking out a million+ of those cars in China now and will be exporting them to all major markets in the next two years.

Use lead.

Except of course, your claim that this "can't be prevented in any way" is categorically false. There are multiple ways this can be addressed: " A team at the University of Michigan designed a barrier that suppresses dendrite growth not just by physically blocking them, but also by altering the conditions around dendrite tips where growth is concentrated. The material is a soft polymer film that is polarized and piezoelectric-meaning it generates a voltage when the film is deformed. The film sits on top of the battery’s anode. And when a lithium dendrite presses on the film, the voltage repels more lithium ions from piling up at that spot. This prevents the lithium from forming sharp tips that can penetrate the barrier. " "At the Toyota Research Institute of North America, researchers recently demonstrated a battery with a lithium metal anode, solid lithium thiophosphate electrolyte, and sulfur cathode. Sulfur is another high-storage-capacity electrode material and-bonus-it’s cheap. As for the battery’s ability to resist dendrites, the Toyota researchers noted a relationship between dendrite growth and the electrolyte’s ability to conduct ions." "For example, as a battery charges, lithium ions can deposit irregularly on the anode, forming spiky structures called dendrites that can grow long enough to reach the other electrode and short-circuit the battery, potentially causing a fire. This is a bigger problem for lithium metal than for other anode materials like graphite." You DO know that most Lithium Ion batteries in cars have Graphite Anode's right?

@Dave Froman It actually CAN be solved. Several labs have already found solutions to it.

Gasoline pumps generally don’t work too well without electricity either

So Does that DATA analysis mean the long distant driving by EV cars prone to be much stabilized than fossil oil cars??? I don't think so Vise versa I would say. Should have a radiothermo check the heat on each car after having the same long run in the same period of time. A simple mobile phone is non stopping using for 4 hours, the mobile heat is very high and even stun the mobile electro function. In the same way the EV car might have the similar cumulative heat after long hours of driving compared with the conventional fossil oil driven car. Well, it is really hard to define whether EV lithium battery is much stable than fossil oil. From the example of the current luxurious cars on the burning cargo vessel. This is a very interesting case to study the fire cause. Again battery???

You can’t compare that data. Huge variance in the number of EV cars and gasoline powered vehicles. So of course there will be less fires per miles driven in this case.

@Anthony Griffin It’s “per miles driven” so the data is relevant

Well, the difference is complicated. The data should be broken down by manufacturer and by years since manufacture. Fuel powered cars probably experience various mortality spikes from birth to death, depending on design flaws and maintenance errors. Grid powered cars probably have an infant mortality spike do to a manufacturing defect, followed by low probability of immolation that rises as the car ages.

Busses are back in service and it appears, or the rumor has it that some engineer connected the cooling system the wrong way and caused the battery pack to overheat. Other rumor is that they used the wrong type of charging cable and it overheated causing the fire. More diesel busses catches fire then electric. At potters bar, only one electric bus caught fire, while the remaining 4 diesels blew the rest up easily.

Correct as there is no thermal runaway issue with LFP batteries. CNBC is constantly behind the curve in reporting in the EV space.

EV fire numbers will only increase as more vehicles are added

@Nicholas Dante McGee True. However, the percentage of EVs that catch on fire is much lower than ICE cars. It's new and unusual, so it gets more reported. ("Man bites dog.") Remember the Ford pickup trucks that spontaneously caught on fire because of faulty cruise control design?

@Nicholas Dante McGee *Percentage* %

Cool, what is the source for your statement that the number of fires are lower per capita for EVs? Would like to refer to that should I ever consider an EV for purchase.

dont spew youre logic on here, thats not the narraritive

Problem is LFP works terribly in the winter so it won't work in northern countries

@Benemone True that LFP is vulnerable in low temp operations. But battery packs in modern EVs have thermal management, certainly better that the little cooling fan inside my i-MiEV pack. Early Nissan Leafs had nothing at all and that was a problem for those cars a decade ago. Also . . . don't all you folks up near the Arctic Circle have 120V outlets all over the place to heat up engine blocks to prevent freezing? You already have the cold weather infrastructure.

I also heard it is ok to fully charge,or leave it empty the battery will just fine..

martin stone Off topic, everyone has their own differences and stereotypes are not facts. You used the stereotype that Asians are smart but that is not necessarily true. Not very bright Martin.......

@Kevin Nguyen No they can not, Cars that run on Petroleum, diesel or what ever else require ignition sources to start burning, EV's that use lithium in their batteries if the Lithium is exposed to too much moisture.

@Kevin Nguyen Those were not self starting, or spontaneous the batteries in the cars were ignition sources for the oil that leaked. The oil can not ignite on its own.

@legoscout roblox You are right and I already knew some things that you described, I was just angry at that other person for insulting me. At least you were much nicer to me unlike the other person.

But phones and electric car fires are exceptionally rare. Over 60x less likely than combustion engine cars. Because of that, the rate of fires would never be statistically significant enough to be even relevant to fire risk at your house.

😂

Remembers me of the infamous Ford Pinto...

Really?!

Too little data to comment right now and I totally see your point that EVs are far safer than ICE engine cars.The idea behind this was not to discourage EVs but rather ensure that other things change with EVs to cope up with the tech shift.We need better roads( I am coming from a developing nation,so you might have different standards for a good road),we need better equipped emergency services to handle hazards and people need to learn to use their stuff properly.I mean,ICE engine cars have been out there for decades,they are time tested,and most their issues resolved,they are more or less built to handle rough use n abuse but compared to that EVs are still in their infancy so we just need to fund emergency services enough to keep up the pace and keep everyone safe.

@Ankur Actually, at no time did I say or imply that EVs are safer than ICE vehicles. EVs can be dangerous, that's been well-established. The question is, are they more or less dangerous than ICE vehicles on a per capita basis? But your point is well-taken that we may not have enough data yet to make that determination. Modern EV technology with lithium batteries is, after all, relatively new.

Yeah, totally agree with you.

The whole point is that EVs arent as perfect as people think they are.

There is simply not enough data to draw any meaningful conclusions here: - While most EVs are fairly new, there are millions of 10, 15 or 20+ year old ICE cars on the road and a most of them experienced a lot of wear and tear that could eventually lead to fires or increase the risk thereof. - There are far more ICE cars than there are EVs, meaning that the number of potential scenarios that could cause fires is greatly reduced for EVs. - There are fewer different EV models and most of them are "premium cars" (or at least more expensive than comparable ICE cars), so we don't have a large enough sample size of different engineering approaches and don't know how large scale, optimized (=cheaper) production affects fire risk. - While ICEs and their fuel management generally don't change much, the (battery) technology in EVs is rapidly evolving: different chemicals used, higher energy density, changing manufacturing practices, faster ways of charging and so on can greatly affect fire risk. If you combine all of those factors, it gets impossible to assess the risk properly and answer your question. All we know at the moment is, that once EVs start burning for whatever reason, the fire is way more dangerous and harder to put out than it is with bruning ICE cars. Also: since you can't see into the battery cells or the package as a whole, the assessment of the health of your battery entirely depends on sensor readings and an "educated guess". With an ICE car, you can see most parts that pose a fire risk like the gas tank, fuel lines and connections, so (mandatory) regular safety inspections can better help in reducing the risk.

Agreed thanks for sensationalizing the problem CNBC…

there are more than 900k vehicle fires in America each year, most are ICEV.

@Mace Moneta exactly.. so adding more radiation is not smart

which is why german firefighters just put EVs in a big tank, where they can reignite as often as they want.

Get liquid cooling like EVs

“an attack by oil companies” he says. I don’t think do.

I know nothing about this, but arent EV fires handled like an electric/metallic fire?

An NMC lithium ion battery is self sustaining. It does not need external oxygen. A LiFePO4 battery does not catch fire and does not experience thermal run away. Lithium batteries do not explode with water. There was a time in the RC community that LiPo batteries were put in a bucket of water at end of life to completely discharge them. Silly in hind sight but anyway the point is not explosive reactions.

@RCdiy thats why i love this job, you learn every day lol

I took rusty lithium cells from old laptop battery and wanted so see if the cell has high resistance due to age. So I set multimeter to 10 amps and shorted the cell. My eyeballs popped. Even old, this little cell gives so much current. Now imagine all the cells in your When-Someone-Packs-A-Van-With-ANFO-He-Counts-As-A-Terrorist-But-When-We-Pack-A-Car-With-An-Incendiary-Bomb-We-Dont-Count-As-Terrorists-Tesla short at the same time in parallel. By the way, did you know the name of the Stanford University contains the word ANFO? StANFOrd.

Yawn. Are you people literally INCAPABLE of doing actual research? "On April 29, a fire broke out on a Bluebus 5SE electric bus on line 71 in the 13th arrondissement of Paris, close to the French capital's national library. The driver immediately evacuated the passengers and no injuries were reported." Yet again proving, that even with a bus full of passengers catching fire, the driver evacuated the bus safely and there were NO injuries, completely destroying your drama theory.

@Red Baron Must be a different bus. The news video for the fire that I watched involved a bus that was very definitely NOT IN SERVICE and had this (in French naturally) written up on the sign thingy above the front windscreen. It was also empty and the engine switched off. The first sign something was wrong was when the lights - all the lights - flashed on and off a couple of times and then there were flames and smoke everywhere shorted joined by raining molten metal. The report did mention that it wasn't the first fire involving a bus in Paris and it also briefly mentioned a couple of fires in other countries as well including the UK.

Perhaps it is possible to make an internal fire suppression system. The main problem is that a lithium fire produces it's own oxidizer meaning it doesn't need outside air in order to burn. The batteries are on a sealed metal box which makes getting water or foam directly on the batteries nearly impossible.

@Ruben Velez Maybe you could make them so that they don't lock you inside when they're on fire. Silly idea, I know.

The chances of an EV fire are astronomically low, so there wouldn't be a reason to do this.

Oops! How you're okay.

@Seattle Karim i am! thanks for asking. although the car was totaled, i only got whiplash. i was very lucky.

​@kat yup, gas line couplers fail. Glad you're ok !!

The difference is that your Hyundai had a problem that was overlooked when made, then fixed through recalls. Electric vehicles cannot be "fixed" to not catch fire. Electric vehicles will all burn after the wear and tear of driving eventually causes a failure that leads to a fire.

@kat That was a gasoline car..right. You should keep in mind a lithium fire burns so fast...if you are in a car accident and the battery is comprised and catches fire...Your entire car will be engulfed in flames within seconds. You have no chance to get out. You should consider yourself lucky you were in a gasoline car.

Yeah, but nonsense

The accidents about EV fires have to be reported. GM and Hyundai have massive recalls of their EV's from EV fires to the tunes of $Billions, and GM hardly sell any EV since the last year. These are important matters. Please open your eyes and see the truth.

Electric vehicles are a terrible alternative, every way you look at it.

@Mr Nobody I'll be honest never been a fan we should stick to electric go carts and mopeds

Hey! What do you mean? EVs are so environmentally friendly!! How dare you! :P

@EXCESS-WRX There's a ton of emerging evidence that they're even worse for the environment. It's just in a different way.

Close to?

The issue is those cars were faulty and recalled. These are issues with EVs functioning as they should until a minor crash with a barrier, etc. EV market share is minimal, yet they are over represented with fires recently - obviously from a numbers perspective there are so many ICE vehicles out there that they make up most fires. We only can fairly tell when EVs are as popular as ICE cars but that is when it’s too late. I love the idea of EVs but this worries me - looking forward to blade battery tech.

@User the risk of fire is estimated to be around 10 and 60 times lower, I remember you that there are out there at least 2 million Tesla and another 2 million other cars, so the number compared are still low but statistically significant, so if statistics are off and they are an order of magnitude higher EV goes on par or it will be 6 times better than ICE. I give you a personal anecdote, I had a second hand car, a petrol one, I drove really slow on a wet side road, the wheel slipped and the car went down the ditch, I pulled it out and everything seemed ok not even a scratch, two days later I realized that the radiator was damaged, by the car steaming everywhere while I was driving, just a small nick and I throw out a petrol car, so bad days happen for everyone!

@ujjal shill one step at a time, not everyone likes really drastic changes

We fought a fire on a Honda CRX that had the magnesium rotary engine. We eventually sprayed enough shell foam to smother it so that it would not burn any more asphalt shoulder than it already had.. We had to have an all night fire watch. The next morning a rollback picked up what was left of the car. It had to be hauled to a dirt yard and stored separately. Later that day we got a call from the yard. Two idiots were throwing rocks at the foam shell and it broke away and ignited. Either a spark or stored heat we went on scene and watched it burn for two hours. There was barely anything left of the car.

All vehicles are the same except for color. You can choose light grey or dark grey.

@clot shots oh, I took different to mean there's not much interchangeability because of somewhat custom part designs

@M M Who gets to choose the design? Do you really want the government designing cars? Remember the Yugo? If you're not old enough, do some research.

@clot shots well I assumed some regulatory body would set some kind of standards so that there is commonality if not within manufacturers then across the segment( not the government getting ok the drawing board and saying which exact shapes parts should be but that maybe they should at least have some kind of specified dimensions so that for example a tesla charger can be plugged into a rivian or something like that). But by the looks of things I'm a little ignorant here, no I have not heard of the yugo, will take your advice...

@M M The market has a way of working things out. Read up on personal computers in the early 1980's. Everyone was doing their own thing. By 1990 the market had set standards based on what worked best. Only Apple still had proprietary equipment and even most of that is gone. Rivian or a 3rd party can make an adapter for their EV's to work with a Tesla charger. Either that or a large group of EV makers can agree to a standard and everyone else will have to fall in line or be left out. No need for big brother to mess things up.

Wrong...........such poor thinking!

I only feel no guilt about watching someone burn when it comes to the one who places their modern techno ego above the wrath of fire. People who act like it will never be them some how bring their downfall in life.

Correct sir!

The fire can be put out in 2 minutes but you need to continue spraying to cool the battery pack.

Because they burn at a 10-50x rate. And yet they decided not to make that the video topic

Well see CNBSisn’t telling a new story. It’s a propagandist station at this point supported by either gasoline car advertisement

There are a lot more gasoline cars out there than EVs. At this rate, If it were 50/50 there would be a heck of a lot more EV fires than gas.

As they should.

@LordSamuelJ False. The rate is per 100,000 cars. "Fully electric vehicles, on the other hand, were deemed far safer than both hybirds and gas cars; they are far less likely to catch fire, with just 25.1 fires per 100,000 sales. That's compared to 3,474 hybrid fires and 1,529 ICE fires per 100,000 sales respectively." So, the rate of fires is 25 fires per 100,000 electric cars, but 1529 per 100,000 gasoline cars. It doesn't matter how you scale that up. Million EV's would cause 250 fires while a million combustion engine cars would have 15290 fires.

The problem with Lithium ion battery fires is that the battery produces it's own Oxygen. The water tank is a good idea but CO2 isn't the answer.

and really (while i DO like it's simplicity) the water tank is unfortunately NOT a practical/viable solution in the context of PREVENTION. no, what it is a "half thought out" solution that only occurs AFTER THE FACT. yeah, "after" like 18 cars and 10 houses have burned to the ground. off the devastating "Blowtorch" Wildfire that occured back on 12-30-2021, i think you're going to find ALL the residents of Superior Colorado are going to have strong opinions on this. #PREVENTION

Wont work. The chemistry creates to own source of oxygen.

Except that they do.

those 76,000 & 73,000 recalls were made in 2021

@legoscout roblox I agree

simple!

there's literally already foams and other ways to fight fires... They are just dumb, cheap and lazy...

@Black issue is its sealed in a metal bomb casing.....

@Nate Shiz And - Manufactures could install a Fire Protection System - Like Aircraft do: Both ICE & BEV, could do so!

correct, what you're seeing playing out is the Law created by Nature/God/The Universe (pick whichever form of "causation" you like) referred to as "No Free Lunch". #NOFREELUNCH this is also sometimes referred to as the Law of "Unintended Consequences". #UNINTENDEDCONSEQUENCES they're both the same. unfortunately very few people working outside the STEM fields are aware of this. hell, a great many people working INSIDE the STEM fields are aware of this.

You can be sure the dealership makes a point of covering all of that with you before you drive off, right?

Don't say Scotty Kilmer didn't warn you

@The Kenthouse but he agrees

more kia and hyundai cars and suv have caught fire than all of the EVs combined. FACTS.

I have a 6 cylinder hyundai. Those are not on the recall list. It applies to the 4 cylinder ones. 6 cylinder engine also gets way better mileage. Doesn't rev as high.

Electrics burn up 80% of the time.- ny post

@Pat Luxor blatant lie.

@logitech4873 highest death rate are ev's-national geographic

@Pat Luxor Are you trying to be funny?

good observation.👌 yes this is pretty much the case with a battery fire, usually by the time Emergency Services arrive on scene it's already TOO LATE (as they are well behind the response curve). their focus/function at that point is merely to "control" and "contain" the fire to the vehicle itself, and hopefully keep it from spreading to other surrounding structures as all the FUEL gets used up. examine it closely, and you'll see a lot of PARALLELS in this to what crews face that we see on the news while fighting Wildfires in the West last year (and previous years) and also down in Australia. different scale and scope for sure, but same underlying principle. #COMMONDENOMINATOR

Non-electric commercial jets also use Lithium batteries to power systems, and have for a long time.

@Mace Moneta Yeah, which is why I am saying a fire breaking out on one would be interesting.

@Art by Jeremy Maya Robinson Most battery fires are due to structural damage to the battery, not the battery failing. Hence, the fire risk on an airplane would be exceedingly small. We have however had airplanes explode in mid air due to fuel tank fires.

Under these circumstances, they're completely unsuitable for any home with a garage. I wouldn't park an EV in my garage.

You better hope you are not in it when it catches fire because your doors won't unlock and you will be trapped unless you are strong enough to kick the window out.😶

1 - Kia and Hyundai vehicles have several recalls due to engine failures and fire risks (somewhat related). Some of the reported instances of fires have been while the vehicles were parked. My wife's Mercedes ML320 caught fire in the parking lot in front of her job. In the case of my wife's SUV, I believe the issue started while she was driving to work and it smoldered for a few minutes before bursting into flames. 2 - All Tesla vehicles and other luxury vehicles with electric door popper mechanisms (from the factory) also have a manual, mechanical emergency release easily accessible by the person sitting inside the vehicle. Also, the electric door poppers are typically powered by the vehicles' conventional 12v battery, not the high-voltage traction battery (often in the neighborhood of 400v). Regardless of whether you drive a gasoline, diesel, LPG/LNG, hydrogen, or battery electric vehicle, it isn't a bad idea to have a vehicle entrapment escape tool mounted within easy reach of the driver. These tools typically have a recessed blade to cut seatbelts and a sharp point (sometimes spring-loaded) to break glass. I got one for my wife that's a 2-in-1 cellphone charger and glass-break tool.

Well, an ICE car can catch on fire while parked if flammable power steering or brake fluid touches hot exhaust components. It happened to a friend of mine. Thankfully the car was parked on the driveway.

@Kathryn Janzen That's why I bought a window breaker tool.

ICE cars tend to set flame after a crash. EVs have the nasty habit of flaming out while being charged. And that’s a big difference

@Jim Heeren nope, ICE cars can catch fire from any number of reasons, last month i saw a car burn because its radiator was blocked by snow. Nearly all tesla fires are caused by collisions, on some rare occasions the wires in the house are too thin to supply constant power and catch fire.

@odisy64 at least ice car fires are easy to put out, and yes i know they happen more but many times they are mild and are resolved with a fire extinguisher, my dad had a truck whose starter motor turned on and he was able to put out the fire quick and easy and two days later It was running again, but imagine an electric car on fire inside a garage and having to wait for the firefighters to come with more than 20,000 gallons of water, that's what nobody compares to cars ICE and the EV

@Dawrin Cueto according to firefighter reports, it only takes about 2 minuets to put out an EV fire but they will continue to douse the battery to prevent heat from re igniting the battery but this is often exaggerated by the media that makes it sound like 20,000 gallons where needed to put out the flames, this happens with engine blocks as well, people will use a fire extinguisher on a hot engine block that just got shove into fuel lines only to have the heat re-ignite the fuel as soon as oxygen was present.

@odisy64 what firefighter report? It does take an average of 20K gallons of water. Very important in drought times for California. The place that has brown outs and power shortages. Garages have a one our firewall and ICE engine can be extinguished in that time. EV will loose the house unless the car can be pulled out.

as a mechanic I discuss the problems with electric vehicles in depth on my home page vid.

re: "I thought it was resolved by now." A: nope (the saga continues).