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Electric vehicle fires are very rare. The risk for petrol and diesel vehicles is at least 20 times higher (theconversation.com)

submitted 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago) by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

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I thought that the media was a little over the top with reporting every electric car fire.

Little did I realise just how blown out of proportion it was:

"...electric vehicle battery fires are rare. Indeed, the available data indicate the fire risk is between 20 and 80 times greater for petrol and diesel vehicles. "

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[–] [email protected] 11 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago) (1 children)

But what is true is that electric vehicle fires are much worse to put out.

I love electric vehicles and miss mine (not lost to a fire, thankfully), but just want to put that out there.

This reminds me of the hover board fires. The fires were due to cheaply made batteries and the solution was to buy ones with batteries made by a reputable manufacturer like Samsung that didn’t typically cheap on its process like the knock offs did.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 11 months ago (1 children)

Worse?

Lithium just sits there and burns.
It gets hot.
It's hard to put out.
It re-ignites.

Unlike petrol, it doesn't explode under certain conditions.
Unlike petrol, it doesn't run off down the street and set other things on fire!

[–] [email protected] 5 points 11 months ago

Agreed, and most Car-b-ques are total, by the time the Fire Department gets there it's burned down to the frame.