[wheelguy]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_c...ture=emb_title

As per reports, the electric car was facing issues with charging. After a while, smoke started to come out of the car and it also caught fire. Fire fighters were called subsequently and they tried the conventional technique of cooling things off with water. All this while, the car was still plugged into the charger. Luckily no one was injured due to the incident.

Source

[V.Narayan]

I guess for a few years we will have these unexpected mishaps with electric cars till all design and material deficiencies are ironed out. This could be the result of any one or more of several factors - faulty design or poor workmanship or sub standard materials or weak quality control at the production stage or incorrect repair and tinkering or after market modifications of some kind that touched the electrics or shoddy software etc. I am actually all for electrics and am convinced for many years that it is the direction the industry will take. Only I prefer waiting out till at least 2022 -2023 to allow time for kinks to get ironed out.

[wheelguy]

Originally Posted by V.Narayan

I guess for a few years we will have these unexpected mishaps with electric cars till all design and material deficiencies are ironed out. This could be the result of any one or more of several factors - faulty design or poor workmanship or sub standard materials or weak quality control at the production stage or incorrect repair and tinkering or after market modifications of some kind that touched the electrics or shoddy software etc. I am actually all for electrics and am convinced for many years that it is the direction the industry will take. Only I prefer waiting out till at least 2022 -2023 to allow time for kinks to get ironed out.

We are having ICE engines since long, the technology evolved and matured a lot over the years, but we still come across unexpected failures and fire accidents here and there, I think it will be the same with EVs too, we may hear about fire incidents of EVs even after ten years down the line.

[mac187]

Fire fighting departments need to learn how to put out electric fire in car. AFAIK, the conventional techniques and dry materials are useless in these scenarios. This video has a relatively large explosion. The car Hammond crashed apparently was burning for 3 days with mini explosions which is basically the battery cells bursting open under heavy heat.

Also, I doubt that the car was still charging when they started sprinkling the water. They would have switched off the mains.

[ghodlur]

There is this another video of an electric car catching fire while charging in China. The mess of tangled charging cables is unwarranted for.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u2F9HKZ5VzA

[Cessna182]

It'd be good if someone can use a photo editing tool to extract the car make,and thereby the battery manufacturer from these and share with the members here.

Personally, I have seen a China brand electric bike catching fire within the building in front of my house and subsequently they were banned on airplanes. Battery chemistry is very complex, and stolen tech can only get you so far.

Better ensure that any EV, whether car or scooter, has a Korea/Japan/EU made battery pack.

[GTO]

A few incidents of smartphones catching fire while charging are also reported, but that doesn't stop us from keeping them on charge in our bedrooms and (mostly) right next to where we sleep .

Originally Posted by wheelguy

We are having ICE engines since long, the technology evolved and matured a lot over the years, but we still come across unexpected failures and fire accidents here and there

Well said! ICE cars today catch fire, and so will EVs, but I'm confident that Tesla & others (especially German car makers) will come out with innovations to make these stray incidents.

[wheelguy]

Originally Posted by ghodlur

There is this another video of an electric car catching fire while charging in China. The mess of tangled charging cables is unwarranted for.

We already had thread on that: https://www.team-bhp.com/forum/elect...s-station.html (An EV in China catches fire while charging, fire soon spreads to other cars in the station)

[landcruiser123]

A handful of incidents for millions of cars sold shouldn't be the worry. I do hope companies conduct investigations and use findings to improve battery, cooling, and emergency cut-off safety mechanisms.

[sparky@home]

An electric car is seen on camera exploding after it caught fire while charging. This raises serious issues about safety and also the if Chinese products are suspect. Not something that any electric car owner would want.

[BLACNWYTE]

Originally Posted by sparky@home

An electric car is seen on camera exploding after it caught fire while charging.

It seems they ate using water for extinguishing the fire. If my understanding of chemistry is right Lithium reacts strongly with water/moisture (exothermic) and causes fire (same as sodium). Electric cars predominantly uses Li-ion batteries. Here there is no fire. Am I missing something?

Please feel free to correct if I'm wrong.

[viXit]

Just like runways are primed for a crash landing with fire extinguisher before landing, there should be smoke and fire sensors that automatically detect smoke/fire/heat and cut power and deploy fire suppressants.

Incidents like these are bound to happen. That’s how we learn what went wrong and improve upon that, how many teslas did you not see break down and catch fire?? Its the worlds best electric car manufacturer now!

[adv.yzr]

Greetings,

I agree with fellow members that incidents like these are not common at all and shouldn’t shape our views regarding EV’s.

But, I feel people here will become a bit apprehensive regarding EV if these incidents continue to happen and the transition towards EV will become more difficult. I do hope EV manufactures here in India do their research on this and make sure nothing sort of this take place here in India.

Thanks.

[anjan_c2007]

Teething troubles for a new kind of technology that we are getting used to. The EV's are in the infancy of their lives as compared to ICE car's that would be turning 125, by 2021.

Hence,such niggles would be visible often and on. Let us only hope that before EV's fully replace the ICE cars (not sure if it can anytime in the near future) the technology gets more and more perfected. Such an explosion as seen in the video, if at all in a populous country like ours, could be more injurious to any person in the vicinity. And give the quality of some constructions in our country, well the first floor base there around, above the car could have been annihilated too.

[whitewing]

The explosion was a bit concerning, the explosion seemed rather abrupt, I could not see any smoke/flames in the prior moments (the recording is from quite a distance), the fact that someone started to record it appears to indicate that there was some indication that something was amiss. If this happened in a car that was being driven, looks doubtful if the occupants would have escaped unscathed.

As others have mentioned, this is the cost of adopting a new technology, but a cost none of us should have to bear.