EV Fires

[Red C220]

I simply never considered fitting the charger for our EV's in the garage. That's where my SL lives.

It was put on the wall outside in an area where parking would cause least inconvenience, plus the cable run was straightforward.

Having lived with EV's for 7 months now I'm converted for their use as a daily runabout (removing the entire life cycle discussion from this conversation). They are ideal city cars and if you own a Ltd company, they are simply so cheap to run it's a no brainer.

The pair of Mazda MX-30's we lease haven't missed a beat, they'll both be approaching 5000 miles in the 7 months we've had them. My only critism is the range is too little (at 120 miles) at 200 - 220 miles of range these would be outstanding vehicles, if a little dull and uninvolving.

The two Porsche Taycan's we bought turned out to be a disaster from day one. This has nothing to do with them being EV's, nothing to do with how they drove, but everything to do with them being Porsche's. It was my first venture into Porsche ownership and will be my last. If you're inclined to read as to why I got rid of a £110,000 Porsche after it covered only 400 miles in three months you can read why here:- 4S CT ownership didn't get off to a good start

 

[grober]

Like all incidents involving the uncontrolable release of stored energy--electrical or chemical--- a major factor is time or rate of reaction. While petrol fires are usually rapid and often explosive fairly early on-- often over before the brigade arrives= total loss EV batteries fires are normally prolonged events but difficult to halt once started= total loss.[ the main difficulty being battery driven EV's contain their own oxidants.] It would perhaps be premature to equate any potential risk for future fire damage of any propulsion system to its rate of reaction should anything go wrong. That said , still in its infancy , keeping your ev/hybrid vehicle battery/charging technology geographically separate from your dwelling does seem a good idea for now.

 

[190]

Research does indeed show that incidence of ICE car fires is higher than for EV's (although I'm not sure if any of the published information takes into account the relative age of the cars that did catch fire, as this would be relevant for a number of reasons), but the consequence of an EV fire starting is currently harder to deal with.

I looked at the statistics and they do show fewer fires for EV's than for IC's but that is applicable to all fires, the vast majority of which occur when the vehicle is in use which is fair enough for the safety of EV's as far as it goes.

What I am more concerned about and I suggest what others should also be concerned about is those fires that start spontaneously while the vehicle is parked up. I have tried without success to find simple statistics for spontaneous vehicle fires but ask yourself how often you hear of an IC vehicle spontaneously ignite while parked and then the same question for EV's. What statistics I can find suggest a spontaneous fire is a rare occurrence for IC's and yet for EV's I get the impression from then media that it's the the most common scenario. If we could find real data on spontaneous fires we would have a better view of EV vs IC safety when parked in a domestic integral garage.

 

[grober]

I looked at the statistics and they do show fewer fires for EV's than for IC's but that is applicable to all fires, the vast majority of which occur when the vehicle is in use which is fair enough for the safety of EV's as far as it goes.

What I am more concerned about and I suggest what others should also be concerned about is those fires that start spontaneously while the vehicle is parked up. I have tried without success to find simple statistics for spontaneous vehicle fires but ask yourself how often you hear of an IC vehicle spontaneously ignite while parked and then the same question for EV's. What statistics I can find suggest a spontaneous fire is a rare occurrence for IC's and yet for EV's I get the impression from then media that it's the the most common scenario. If we could find real data on spontaneous fires we would have a better view of EV vs IC safety when parked in a domestic integral garage.

It's important in these circumstances to distinguish between two situations. One where the EV vehicle was parked up and the second where it is parked but being charged. in the second instance considerable power may be being input to the battery pack. As we have come to learn battery packs function in a very narrow temperature band.. This is normally associated with the ability to generate electrical motive power and crops up frequently in discussions of range. However the opposite situation also occurs when the battery is receiving charge particularly if it's at a high rate. Most modern battery packs have integral cooling systems to prevent thermal runaway in the event of high charging or discharging--- my guess would be many of these fires arise from a failure of the integral battery cooling system. -loss of coolant/pump/s failure Unfortunately due to the total destruction of the battery pack this may be very hard to pin down. Normally in all fires there is a source of ignition ---- in ICE vehicles it's usually a fuel leak or an electrical wiring short. Does anyone know what sort of charging rates /voltages are involved in these large EV /hybrid commercial vehicles?

 

[Bellow]

. Does anyone know what sort of charging rates /voltages are involved in these large EV /hybrid commercial vehicles?

Apparently, ''V3 Superchargers are capable of delivering peak charge rates up to 250kW.''

330hp down a wire.

 

[grober]

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[ALFAitalia]

Like all incidents involving the uncontrolable release of stored energy--electrical or chemical--- a major factor is time or rate of reaction. While petrol fires are usually rapid and often explosive fairly early on-- often over before the brigade arrives= total loss EV batteries fires are normally prolonged events but difficult to halt once started= total loss.[ the main difficulty being battery driven EV's contain their own oxidants.] It would perhaps be premature to equate any potential risk for future fire damage of any propulsion system to its rate of reaction should anything go wrong. That said , still in its infancy , keeping your ev/hybrid vehicle battery/charging technology geographically separate from your dwelling does seem a good idea for now.

Logic seems a bit flawed there.....by that logic, baring in mind that an EV fire is a tiny percentage as like to happen as an ICE car fire (your ICE car is about 60 time more likely to catch fire), it should be your ICE car that's kept away from the house!!

 

[190]

Logic seems a bit flawed there.....by that logic, baring in mind that an EV fire is a tiny percentage as like to happen as an ICE car fire (your ICE car is about 60 time more likely to catch fire), it should be your ICE car that's kept away from the house!!

As I said above those statistics are for all fires most of which occur while driving/accidents etc. I can't accept that an EV's is 60 times safer to park in my garage than an IC's until I can find a statistic for unattended spontaneous fires including while EV's are being charged. Should that show than an EV is no worse than an IC then I'll accept the risk.