First one I've heard of
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Electric car crash and the car catching fire...local story
Fiery crash involving electric car kills 2 near Lake Murray
Christopher Buchanan - 7h ago
Two people have died in a crash involving an electric car that happened early Sunday morning.
Fiery crash involving electric car kills 2 near Lake Murray
© Provided by WLTX-TV Columbia
According to Master Trooper David Jones with the South Carolina Highway Patrol, the crash happened around 2:10 a.m. on Salem Church Road which is in northwestern Richland County near Irmo and Lake Murray.
Jones said the vehicle, a 2021 Tesla, was traveling west on Salem Church Road when it left the road to the left and struck a tree after which the vehicle caught fire.
Both the driver and front seat passenger were pronounced dead at the scene, Jones said.
No additional details regarding the crash, including the identities of the victims, have been released. The crash remains under investigation by the South Carolina Highway Patrol.
Comments
Considering the massive amperage those batteries can supply when they are shorted out, I imagine the fireball was really something to see. I've seen 48 volt forklift batteries blow up, and it is very dangerous to be close to. I realize that the automobile cells aren't lead/acid, but the potential is there for a big bang.
There have been a number of these electric car fires. Frankly there is no practical way of extinguishing them.
Brad Steele
"There have been a number of these electric car fires"...............in one, the car had been in the junk yard for several days after being in an accident, it caught fire, and was put out, it caught fire again. they had to dig a hole, fill it with water, and push the car in.
Just a minor inconvenience.....so the things catch on fire, we are trying to save the planet you know ...🤨
(Where is that green font when you need it )
If you look on the bright side, it saves on the costs of cremation.
It must be Monday. All I have are bad jokes on Mondays.
I mentioned that cremation to my wife and said the car dealers should include some kind of incentive as trying to get folks to purchase...
Texas motor dragstrip has banned them because they don't have the equipment to extinguish a EV fire
Electric Cars Banned From Texas Motor Speedway's Drag Strip | Digital Trends
I've heard that gasoline vehicles sometimes catch fire too. i would imagine the same cremation incentive would apply.
And fiery auto crashes
Some will die in hot pursuit
While sifting through my ashes
Some will fall in love with life
And drink it from a fountain
That is pouring like an avalanche
Coming down the mountain
Imagine that...
Two Types of Battery Fires
When battery fires do occur they appear to fall into two categories. Some are triggered by a crash that damages and shorts out the pack, setting individual cells ablaze. This happened with Tesla products early on, leading the automaker to add more protection around the packs on vehicles like the Models S and X.
What draws media attention, however, have been fires that appear to have occurred while vehicles were parked—in some cases while inside a garage. In some, but not all, cases involving the Chevy Bolt the vehicles were hooked up to chargers. One such fire heavily damaged a home in Port St. Lucie, Florida last October.
GM has traced the problem to manufacturing defects at the plant run by its battery supplier, a subsidiary of LG Chem. The automaker is pressing the South Korean automaker to cover much of the cost of the ongoing recall. Manufacturing issues with LG Chem batteries also were blamed for the Kona EV recall.
While the number of EV blazes are relatively minor, experts note that once a lithium-ion pack does catch fire they can be extremely difficult for authorities to deal with.
“I just remember some of our firefighters standing there shooting so much water at that electric vehicle, and it not going out,” Orange County Fire Captain Greg Barta told the Sinclair Broadcast Group’s Spotlight on America. “It was something I had never seen.”
One case documented by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration is an example. According to the file, the Bolt caught fire at a home in Vienna, Virginia on July 4, 2021. Firefighters spent an hour trying to douse the flames but it restarted an hour later. The damaged vehicle reignited for a third time after it was towed to a Chevy dealership.
Resolving the Issues
A number of auto industry executives contacted by Forbes Wheels acknowledged they are concerned about battery fires—and the publicity they generate. The general consensus is that, as production volumes rise and the industry learns more about lithium-ion technology, problems like those involving the Chevrolet Bolt and Hyundai Kona are being resolved. GM officials assert they addressed such problems when developing the new Ultium batteries that will power future EVs like the GMC Hummer and Cadillac Lyriq.
Manufacturers are also investing billions of dollars to develop next-generation batteries, most notably the solid-state cells that manufacturers including Mercedes-Benz, Honda and Toyota hope to start using around the middle of this decade. By replacing the chemical slurry found in current batteries with a solid alternative, solid-state batteries are expected to be essentially fireproof.
I pulled a woman from a blazing Pontiac Fiero involved in a crash yrs ago. Her drivers door was crushed shut but I pulled the thing open and apart somehow and her dress was actually on fire. Breathing plastic wasn't any good for either one of us. I used oxygen on the sideline afterwards from the EMS folks.
The vehicle, a 2007 Ford Escape, Not an Electric..
...Ive read about several of these bad EV crashes, they all caught fire and killed the occupants...I wouldnt own one if they couldn't catch fire...
Yep
Anything can catch fire... I'm not an advocate for EV's but truth is truth and cherry picking is just that...
https://www.msn.com/en-us/autos/news/hybrid-cars-light-on-fire-more-than-electric-and-gas-powered-cars-combined-study/ar-AATkQtg
I did not see that identical link... just verifying those EV hybrid and full blown ones can catch fire. Wondering what kind on fire apparatus to carry on board... maybe the type racing uses...
Tesla just raised it supercharging stations ... was discussed on CNBC this morning stock market.... Electric will get expensive... GM will make something huge on all of those new stations in the USA .50 KW is ridiculous
https://electrek.co/2022/09/19/tesla-increases-supercharger-prices-europe/
Not surprising since SC only has a few EV's in the state.
https://www.wbtw.com/news/state-regional-news/how-many-electric-vehicles-are-registered-in-south-carolina/
A few decades ago I was replacing a cell in a Ni-Cad battery pack.........and zigged when I should have zagged. The arc was small, but very intense..........and left a small divot in the side of a finger.
You would NOT believe the pain. I had been burned before.........but NOTHING compared to this. No ice.......or iced tea, would touch the pain.
I can only imagine the intensity of an EV "burning"!! It must be something like a gigantic welding rod striking an even more gigantic arc.
Good luck trying to put it out.