Lithium-ion battery fires might be intense and horrifying. As somebody who used to restore second-hand smartphones, I’ve extinguished my fair proportion of flaming iPhones with punctured lithium-ion batteries. And the kind of smartphone battery in your pocket proper now, is much like what’s inside electrical automobiles. Besides, the EV battery shops far more vitality—a lot vitality that some firefighters are receiving particular coaching to extinguish the extra-intense EV flames which can be emitted by burning EV batteries after street accidents.
If you happen to’ve been studying the information about EVs, you’ve seemingly encountered loads of scary articles about battery fires on the rise. Not too long ago, the US Nationwide Transportation Security Board and the California Freeway Patrol introduced they’re investigating a Tesla semi truck hearth that ignited after the car struck a tree. The lithium-ion battery burned for round 4 hours.
Does this imply that it is best to fear about your private electrical car as a possible hearth hazard? Probably not. It makes extra sense to fret a couple of gas-powered car going up in flames than an electrical car, since EVs are much less more likely to catch hearth than their extra conventional transportation counterparts.
“Fires due to battery manufacturing defects are actually very uncommon,” says Matthew McDowell, a codirector of Georgia Tech’s Superior Battery Middle. “Particularly in electrical automobiles, as a result of additionally they have battery administration methods.” The software program retains tabs on the completely different cells that comprise an EV’s battery and might help forestall the battery from being pushed past its limits.
How Do Electrical Automobile Fires Occur?
Throughout a crash that damages the EV battery, a hearth might begin with what’s referred to as thermal runaway. EV batteries aren’t one strong brick. Relatively, consider these batteries as a group of many smaller batteries, referred to as cells, pressed up in opposition to one another. With thermal runaway, a chemical response positioned in one of many cells lights an preliminary hearth, and the warmth quickly spreads to every adjoining cell till your complete EV battery is burning.
Greg Much less, director of the College of Michigan’s Battery Lab, breaks down EV battery fires into two, distinct classes: accidents and manufacturing defects. He considers accidents to be every little thing from a collision that punctures the battery to a charging mishap. “Let’s take these off the desk,” says Much less. “As a result of, I believe folks perceive that, whatever the car sort, if you happen to’re in an accident, there may very well be a hearth.”
Whereas all EV battery fires are exhausting to place out, fires from manufacturing defects are seemingly extra regarding to shoppers, attributable to their seeming randomness. (Assume again to when all these Samsung telephones needed to be recalled as a result of battery points made them hearth hazards.) How do these uncommon points with EV batteries manufacturing trigger fires, at what might really feel like random moments?
All of it comes all the way down to how the batteries are engineered. “There’s some stage of the engineering that has gone improper and precipitated the cell to quick, which then begins producing warmth,” says Much less. “Warmth causes the liquid electrolyte to evaporate, making a fuel contained in the cell. When the warmth will get excessive sufficient, it catches hearth, explodes, after which propagates to different cells.” These sorts of defects are seemingly what precipitated the extremely publicized latest EV fires in South Korea, one among which broken over 100 automobiles in a parking zone.
Methods to React if Your EV Catches Hearth
In line with the Nationwide Hearth Prevention Company, if an EV ever catches hearth when you’re behind the wheel, instantly discover a protected option to pull over and get the automobile away from the primary street. Then, flip off the engine and ensure everybody leaves the car instantly. Don’t delay issues by grabbing private belongings, simply get out. Stay over 100 ft away from the burning automobile as you name 911 and request the hearth division.
Additionally, you shouldn’t try to put out the flame your self. It is a chemical hearth, so a pair buckets of water received’t sufficiently smother the flames. EV battery fires can take first responders round ten instances extra water to extinguish than a hearth in a gas-powered car. Typically the firefighters might determine to let the battery simply burn itself out, quite than dousing it with water.
