Electric Car Fires - Facts and Figures

[@TheBonsaiZone]

They are not media stories, the media is reporting on events that happened. The reason EV fires make the news is that often the car burns to the ground and can take a building or other cars with it. If this took place with non EV fires, it would make the news also.

[@ElectricClassicCars]

1000s of ICE vehicles burn everyday, destroying themselves other cars and property but they are not newsworthy because they are so common, it’s boring, nobody is interested. The same is true of the millions of ICE vehicles presently being recalled by manufacturers like BMW, Kia, Ferrari, Hyundai, Ford, etc, because of risk of catching fire. It’s just not newsworthy. There’s no EV being recalled because of fire risk. But if there were, believe me, it would be front page news.

[@Terry-q7y]

@@ElectricClassicCars Jaguar are buying back 3000 Ipace EVs because of fire risk and other problems

[@Terry-q7y]

The media are biased toward EVs so what this UT guy says makes no sense

[@sicride]

I’ve seen way more ICE vehicles burn to the ground, catch homes on fire, catch other cars on fire. A simple radio installation error caused a customer of mines car to catch on fire and burn down their half million dollar home while they were sleeping. They escaped the fire, so it wasn’t news worthy…

[@SeanLinsley]

With lithium iron phosphate coming down in price I hope we'll see it replacing traditional lithium in cars. It doesn't exhibit thermal runaway, doesn't use rare metals like cobalt, and has significantly longer cycle life.

[@dcallan812]

I was going to say the same thing. As new battery technology is filtering down it can only mean safer EVs all round..

[@4literv6]

This year in china who leads in total cells made&capacity is seeing 63% of all cell production as lfp/lmfp chemistries. Tesla has sold over half of all their base model's as lfp since late 2021 now. The megapacks are all lfp since last year, and the powerwall 3 is switching to lfp cells.

[@hughmarcus1]

I read an article yesterday about a valet driver who outrun his talent at Stansted Airport & crashed a Tesla M3 through the fence & into a pond. According to the Sun the lithium ‘leaked’ into the pond killing all the wildlife. 🙄

[@Kenneth-ts7bp]

Sure

[@danielcarroll3358]

@@hughmarcus1 Yup. That sounds like the Sun.

[@billcompton6050]

Brother, we call that FUD. FEED UNCERTAINTY AND DOUBT Unfortunately all kinds of things catch fire. I am a fire alarm system provider and our systems detect all kinds of fires. The local Fire Department is well aware of all the hazardous materials out there so they have the proper equipment and training to extinguish whatever type of material is on fire. EV battery's are just another example. thank you for educating people. bill Compton

[@4literv6]

Thank you for saying so. The people I know here in ATL and Cobb county fd say about every 5th fire they roll on is a vehicle FIRE. And the #1 recall across ALL LEGACY ice oems currently effecting 10,000,000+2-5 year old vehicle's? Is for the risk of FIRE even when parked. Hence why garages used to always be detached structures. 😁

[@stuartburns8657]

Not certain many if any fire departments are equipped or adequately trained to put out battery fires..

[@NoMoYOUsernames]

*FEAR, UNCERTAINTY, DOUBT (FUD). Other than that, spot on.

[@stidwell91]

batteries

[@2011Matz]

The percentages at about 5:00 do not take into account the EVs are new cars, the ICE cars that caught fire may have been older. This would make EV more dangerous than ICE.

[@TheGalantir]

Can you show us some numbers to prove what you say?

[@SickPrid3]

The difference between ICE fire and EV fire is that EV will be totaled. Where the ICE "fire" is in majority of cases a fire you can put out with your small extinguisher and fix the car for few hundred quid

[@TheGalantir]

Like with those cars in that carpark? Keep grasping for straws maybe you'll get lucky one day.

[@SickPrid3]

@@TheGalantir you mean those cars ignited by the EV fire?

[@puukkoallu333]

The swedish study did not mention the age of the cars that burned. People have old shitty cars around too but the evs that burned were more likely much newer. So we still need that timemachine

[@conradharcourt8263]

If the battery casing contains everything needed to sustain a fire, should it not also contain some form of automatic suppressant that is activated if the temperature exceeds a safe limit?

[@backslash11]

That's kind of what a 'seperator' is in a lithium battery (you might remember the Bolt recall was blamed on faulty separators). If the temperature of a single cell gets too high, the porous plastic separator layer in between its anode and cathode melts into a solid piece and the ions can't flow through anymore, so no more heat. It works in most situations, but reality can be another story

[@morrisophile]

In fact, Renault's new 'Four' has a mechanism that shuts off oxygen and fills the battery pack with water. (I got that from Robert Llewellin's Fully Charged channel so I hope it's true).

[@conradharcourt8263]

@@morrisophile I saw that too; it was reassuring not only from the safety aspect but also because the idea seemed so obvious I thought that I must be stupid not to know why it wasn't being done already!😇

[@stuartmitchell8736]

An overlooked thing. Ice or Ev,Which car would catch fire first in a fire in a building,the fire started by anther means not a car. I think the the ice car,the plastic fuel tank and fuel line would melt Long before an Ev caught fire this is how fire spreads between ice cars making a disaster.

[@ElectricClassicCars]

Exactly 👍

[@tesla-spectre]

For sweden: one should even differentiate between EV and Hybrid because the latter are also ICE. For the pure EVs the percentage is even smaller

[@89five3five]

Hybrids are EVs. Hybrid is just short for Hybrid Electric Vehicle. The ICE power plant is there to charge the small battery.

[@simonpaine2347]

@@89five3five The point being made (which I also came here to make) is that Hybrid cars are more likely to catch fire BECAUSE of the fact that they have an ICE on board as well as a battery, which in reality is the most dangerous combination. If the study was made just using pure EV'S then the percentage of fires would be much less.

[@tesla-spectre]

@@89five3five nope. depends on what type of hybrid and it is in any case NOT a BEV because it has an ICE

[@pm8465]

Nice to have someone who quotes a few facts, unlike some other main electric channels who promote electric vehicles as world saving but put no actual facts forward. As for vehicle fires, the safest is diesel. As a retired Police traffic officer went to countless vehicle fires, all petrol.

[@simonpaine2347]

@@pm8465 True in your day, but now, as the figures prove, pure EV'S are by far the safest.

[@familywarr1986]

You asked what Scandinavian countries are doing about electric car fires. You failed to mention that one of their ferry companies has already banned BEVs from their ferries altogether and others are only allowing them on certain decks fitted with specialised BEV fire fighting equipment. Make no mistake, dealing with a BEV fire is no joke. You cannot play this down. The BEV decks have a system installed requiring brine to be stored and deployed at minus 20 c and they need enough capacity to fight the fire continuously for 60 minutes at full discharge. Let those figures sink in for a minute....and this is considered the minimum requirement to prevent the ruddy things from potentially sinking the ship in the event of thermal runaway. Whoever thought using eight or ten thousand torch batteries was a good way to power a car must have been stark raving mad! And yet, unbelievably, here we are...

[@bkb024slayer]

You sound like a loon. Almost all technology advances come from stark raving insane people... would you like to go back to a horse n buggy?

[@FlatToRentUK]

The decision to ban EVs from those ferries came about because a Dutch person converted their own Nissan to electric and manufactured their own charging cable that could apparently run in any country on different voltages. Except obviously it couldn't. So this was entirely caused by one person messing around with their car. A ludicrous overreaction to then ban EVs from ferries.

[@TheGalantir]

The one who came up with the idea to make laptops and mobile phones use the same batteries must be mad too along with everyone owning such devices. It's funny how people keep grasping for straws not to have to give in to the facts.

[@TheKruizr]

Thanks for this, and I and most of your viewers, no doubt, know that this is the truth, but sadly, you're mostly preaching to the choir.. so many people will still believe the BS being spread out there.. 😐

[@ElectricClassicCars]

I agree. Hopefully people can share this episode to those that need to know the facts about EV fires. 👍

[@kiyokazusho5568]

I suspect the current sprinkler system in modern multi-storey parking garages will not provide enough water volume to suppress full EV fire. It is designed for gasoline and diesel cars.

[@briantarby675]

In Denmark the fire brigade has a container with an electric winch. In case of a burning EV, for example in a carpark, the fire brigade will drag the burning car into the container with the winch. The container is then moved to a remote place where the fire is kept under control. In the container the car is cooled with water, that is recycled in a closed loop, inside the container. The car will remain in the container for at least 24 hours to make sure that the fire is put out for good 👍

[@2.3_44XD--]

This proves that also authorities unfortunately believe the sensational stories of the propaganda. They really think that it is a matter of time that one EV will catch fire instantly.

[@ad_fletch]

Meanwhile in countries like Australia (and presumably the US and UK) we’ll just focus on complaining and overreacting to the occasional BEV fire and denying the need to shift away from fossil fuels asap, instead of coming up with clever solutions like that.

[@kebeleteeek4227]

In parking space situation in confined spaces situation (like building basement .. ferry ships ..etc) ... how likely this "wiched container" will work to overcome BEV fire incident ..??????????????/

[@briantarby675]

@@kebeleteeek4227 One "?" is quite enough, to make your point. Weel they use them in practice, so there's your answer... I do believe there are some solutions with small robots to drag them of the car park to the container

[@kebeleteeek4227]

@@briantarby675 How quick those robots can be deployed to deal with rapid cascading effect of BEV battery self combustion ..?? .. How strong those robots to deal with "incinerator" kind of fire situation in confined spaces (basements .. ferry ships ..etc ..) ...?? ... Not to mention the availability of that robots .. ??

[@patrickh7368]

Apparently when “we” were getting off horseback and getting in (or on) Petrol cars, these peoples ancestors said these would catch fire explode and we’ll all die 🙄

[@philipoakley5498]

Ah the great 1894 Horse Shit Disaster (see Wikipedia ;-)

[@jonthorne4326]

Well said Moggy. All the time the media blows everything out of proportion when it comes to ev’s ,they are only doing it because it sells more papers .Another one I’ve heard is that don’t park your ev in a multi story car park because the ev’s are to heavy and the building collapses.What a load of bull , there’s a lot more SUV’s heavier than ev’s . .keep up the good work up Moggy !!

[@spudproductions7606]

Thanks 👍👍😊

[@stuartjohnston1086]

Aye, the multi story car park one was amusing. I found a good comparison was a 2023 BMW M3 CS and a 2023 Tesla Model 3 Performance. The BMW weighs 1840Kg and the Tesla weighs 1847Kg. I think the car park will handle the extra 7Kg, lol

[@ElectricClassicCars]

I’ve had someone argue that point with me too. Turns out he drove a Range Rover which weighed nearly 3 tons. 😉🤣😆😂

[@ianemery2925]

There is actually (possibly) a good reason NOT to park in a multistory with an EV. If an EV decides it no longer wants to power on, there is no neutral gear to use; the car has to be dragged onto a trailer; but in most multistory carparks, the roof is too low to do this; so somehow, you have to get the car outside. The one instance I know of (video on YT, but I forget the channel), it took 8 guys, some special dollies and a car rigged for towing - to get it outside where the regular flatbed could load it. Really luckily for the owner, the car was on the ground floor; can you imagine trying to move it down some of those curved ramp exits you get?

[@stuartjohnston1086]

@@ianemery2925 Recovery from the higher levels of a multi story car park is tricky for any vehicle. I get what you are saying about no neutral. I'm no expert but there is probably a way round it. Maybe pulling the drive shafts.

[@Hello_there_obi]

What you fail to mention is that when EV does go up, the consequences are far, far worse and you cannot put it out. They are also driving up insurance and many body shops are unable to or simply won’t take evs because you need a 15m radius around them incase they do go up.

[@Jetjockgordo]

Yeah, that is not true.

[@Hello_there_obi]

@@Jetjockgordo which part? Everything I mentioned has happened/is true lol

[@steve-q1u]

The likelihood of catching fire is irrelevant. all fire has the potential to be catastrophic. EV is far more serious if they do burn and that's the issue. i can predict a petrol/diesel car fire's growth and spread, I can't do it with an EV, puls they are all parked next to ordinary cars which ignite EV. your facts are useless.

[@BrentonSmythesfieldsaye]

Your narrative is useless.

[@ryanevans2655]

That’s not how math works. You’d need to factor in both likelihood and damage potential to evaluate risk. For example, a 2x higher damage potential, with a 0.05x frequency multiplier (as shown in the Swedish data) is a way lower overall damage potential and risk.

[@nicolasrose3064]

"The likelihood is irrelevant".....!? How the f-ck is a "likelihood" irrelevant, it's likely to happen, it has a higher chance of happening than not, where in that, does "irrelevant" come in exactly.....?? For the sake of trying to make out like you are some kind of authoritative source of information, you have effectively made your attempt "irrelevant"...

[@ElectricClassicCars]

A car park full of EVs won’t spread fire as fast as one full of ICE vehicles. As any fire department will tell you. This is because the highly combustible fuel stored in an ICE vehicle, once ignited will spread from car to car through rivers and pools of fire. As stated in the Liverpool Echo Car Park fire report. It also mentioned that fire easily spread to different levels within the car park via “waterfalls of fire”. Controlling an EV fire requires the correct suppression strategy, just like you wouldn’t use water on a grease fire as it would make it worse. A fire blanket is the best solution for an EV fire.

[@steve-q1u]

@@nicolasrose3064 You missed the point completly innyour rant. I am agreeing with you. And for the record, you have no idea what my qualification or employment are. 😄

[@garybailey4524]

I think you missed the point. An ICE car might catch fire if it’s in an accident but an EV can catch fire at anytime without an accident. The BMW example is just a defect, not a regular occurrence. Even a pinto didn’t catch fire unless it was hit from behind. Battery manufacturers need to deal with this issue. Maybe something like jell packs or fire suppression systems within the battery pack.

[@ElectricClassicCars]

A lot of EV manufacturers are already moving to LFP batteries, like my wifes Tesla. Which are extremely difficult to ignite. Also, there are millions of ICE vehicles being recalled now because of risk of catching fire (also when parked), e.g. Kia, Hyundai, Ford, RAM trucks, Ferrari etc. But not one EV is being recalled at the moment because of fire risk.

[@paulplant7956]

So, never park your electric car in a car park, because a petrol car might start a fire and destroy your EV.

[@TheDude12374]

The difference is that the petrol car fire can be easily extinguished. Never park your EV in a garage.

[@TheDude12374]

The difference is that the petrol car fire can be easily extinguished. Never park your EV in a garage.

[@TheDude12374]

The difference is that the petrol car fire can be easily extinguished. Never park your EV in a garage.

[@sgonnason9120]

The dude does not get your irony. I believe everything I want to on KZbin 😤

[@Anomize23]

Nice try but that wouldn’t ignite when the vehicle is off. AGAIN NICE EFFORT

[@dfishpool7052]

Nice to see some reason being brought to the EV fire debate. Apparently Murdoch has instructed the editors of his rags to include a negative story about EVs in every issue!

[@robeigner4390]

We know all EV batteries are not created equal. It would be interesting to know if the Swedish study broke down the EV fires by the type of battery they had. We know the LG-Chem(?) batteries used in the GM cars were terrible while LFP batteries have hardly ever(?) caught on fire. The fact the study shows an effective halving of EV fires (twice the cars, same number of fires) is a good sign poor batteries are being removed and replaced with better batteries. I would also like to know how many EV fires were attributed to arsonists. Of course we all know the facts don't matter to a lot of people, especially those with interest (lots of money) in oil stocks. These people don't care if ICE vehicles catch on fire because everyone knows this happens frequently. Oil lovers simply can't handle the fact that oil use will and is going down because of renewable energy production and EVs and they can't stand their bank accounts losing money. It's always about money, hardly ever about facts. One last thing. I'm sick of all the filthy trucks, diesel and gas, that spew garbage into the air. I do a lot of walking and I should be wearing a mask to keep from inhaling these fumes along with all the cigarette/cigar smoke coming out of cars and by people being required to smoke outdoors. They need to have bags put over their heads to contain all the smoke so I don't get second hand cancer. (Studies have shown non-smokers are getting much more cancer caused by second hand tobacco smoke.)

[@bordersw1239]

All the figures I have seen regarding car fires are as a result of a vehicle accident. What I haven’t seen are any figures for cars that have just caught fire whilst parked or charging.

[@ElectricClassicCars]

The report I referenced included fires whilst parked and charging. 👍

[@bordersw1239]

@@ElectricClassicCars . Looks like I’ll have to brush up on my Swedish. Not to be too pedantic but what was the average age of the vehicles that caught fire - as that may have some relevance.

[@raybrensike42]

When a car that runs only on gas or diesel catches fire, remember that the fuel when exposed to the open air, only burns at about 800 degrees, while one of those EV battery fires can burn hot enough to melt concrete. Also, those EV battery fires don't need oxygen from the atmosphere to burn. How do you put them out? No so easy, is it chief?

[@ElectricClassicCars]

Petrol/diesel car fires destroy concrete too. Just check out what happened in 2017 in Liverpool car park fire where no EVs were present. The fire department incident report stated rivers and waterfalls of fire from fuel spreading to other levels and the intensity of the fire causing spalling and causing partial collapse of the concrete structure. www.newcivilengineer.com/archive/sheer-luck-fire-hit-car-park-still-standing-08-01-2018/

[@coniow]

An update on the Freemantle fire, the Salvors have now unloaded the ship. NONE of the Electric Cars on board burned. I believe that they were all driven off. Sooooo. Unlikely that one of them caused the fire in the first place.

[@rogerdavis7450]

Thanks for providing a balanced view.

[@ElectricClassicCars]

My pleasure!

[@alunjones2550]

I for one will be more comfortable when LFP batteries are widely used, both in terms of safety but more importantly, longevity. I wonder if there is still a concern with older batteries reaching a point where they might short-circuit and cause thermal runaway.

[@ElectricClassicCars]

Yep, my wife’s Tesla M3 has LFP modules in. 👍

[@grahamgreen9440]

Thanks for this balanced review of some of the facts around this. A couple of points that you might want to look into and update us on are: 1. Hybrid cars have been about for quite a few years now are there any stats that show their rate of catching fire and cause (battery or ICE)? 2. What age were the BEVs that caught fire, is it more or less likely in an older vehicle? There are other areas as well that someone will be researching I.e method/speed of charging predominately used, battery chemistry etc.

[@ElectricClassicCars]

There’s a graph in the below link that shows car fires split by electric, hybrid and other fuel types. www.warpnews.org/transportation/fewer-fires-in-electric-cars-compared-to-fossil-fueled-cars-in-the-worlds-country-with-the-highest-share-of-electric-cars/

[@overson15]

​@@ElectricClassicCarsI believe that in the United States 80 % of vehicles fires occur in vehicles that are over 10 years old . Since most Evs on the roads are less than 10 years old we will have to wait and see

[@eagle2019]

@@overson15 Exactly!!! This analysis is flawed!

[@steventrott8714]

@@overson15from that, we could throw out 80% of the 20x likelihood of gas fires. Now they’re a mere 4 times likely to catch fire.

[@steventrott8714]

@@eagle2019see above

[@alanmcinnes1111]

Hi Richard, thank you for tackling this topic and showing the hypocrisy of corporate media on the danger of gas car fires vs EVs. It would be great if you could also touch on battery chemistries and how LFP and other chemistries are even less prone to thermal runaway. I suspect future chemistries won’t have any risk of a fire. I love your channel! Thanks from Surrey, British Columbia. 👍

[@spudproductions7606]

Thanks 👍👍

[@ElectricClassicCars]

Very true, LFP modules like those in my wife’s Tesla Model 3 are much less likely to ignite than lithium based battery modules. 👍

[@miezeKotze-e4k]

The hypocrisy is never mentioning or trying to understand what causes those car fires! People have Ben messing around with their cars installing cheap gadgets all over the places! I've seen some terrible cablings at mechanics on KZbin.

[@MrMartinious]

Not sure about Sweden or the states but here in Australia or at least Tasmania the vast majority of ice fires are arson! Very common to see burnt vehicles on the road or in the bush. What im saying is that it skews the numbers a bit. Id love to have an ev but will wait for a while to see what happens with the infrastructure, which at the moment is not up to the task.

[@vincentrobinette1507]

I agree... The same applies here in the USA.

[@matthewstanton9633]

So EV vehicles are never susceptible to arson 👍 got you

[@alastairhatt360]

The infrastructure in Australia is very well implemented. Most people charge at home over night anyway. Only using super chargers when travelling longer distances. I live in Perth Western Australia and there are plenty even around the country areas and getting better.

[@RobertSorensen-j9u]

Everyone seem to miss the point that on average EV drive fewer km annually than ICE vehicles. A fair comparison is fires/billion km. Also most EVs are less than 3 years old while there are many 10-20 years old ICE vehicles on the road. Maybe older EV burn more often, we just don't know yet?

[@ElectricClassicCars]

Pinfa (Phosphorous, Inorganic and Nitrogen Flame Retardants Association) suggested around 55 fires per billion miles traveled in ICEs compared to 5 fires per billion miles traveled for EVs. A recent study conducted by AutoInsuranceEZ using data from the NTSB (National Transportation Safety Board) showed that electric cars in the US caught fire at a rate of 25.1 per 100,000 sales compared to 1,530 for ICE vehicles and 3,475 for hybrids.

[@RobertSorensen-j9u]

@ElectricClassicCars The per sales numbers are totally nonsense. The 1:10 ratio is about right, but it is still comparing newer EVs to all ICE vehicles, so still flawed.

[@KathrynLiz1]

My principal objection to EVs are short range, long charge times, excessive tyre wear, very fast depreciation, high prices (although they should come down a bit)... the problem with EV fires is the difficulty of extinguishing them and the huge toxicity of the emissions when they do. High carbon footprint is another thing.

[@ElectricClassicCars]

You’re missing out all the positives. They’re much cheaper to run, better handling because all the weight is underneath you and better weight distribution, no nasty tailpipe emissions choking up peoples lungs, performance is amazing and over the lifetime of the car their carbon footprint is much less than ICE equivalent. In respect to your points my wife’s Tesla model 3 is 4 years old and done 65k miles. It’s saved her £10k in fuel and servicing costs. Has depreciated only 36%, which is less than any petrol car we’ve ever had. Has had 2 sets of front tyres and one set of backs, which is about the same as ICE cars we’ve had in the past. The CO2 emissions of building a new EV is indeed more than ICE at the moment (although that’s coming down each year as manufacturing becomes more efficient and grid decarbonise) however as the emissions from driving is less than ICE it’s offset after around 16k miles here, but that’ll depend on the carbon intensity of the electricity grid in your country.

[@ursstemmler4856]

Richard I think you should add one more filter and only compare fire occurrences of the same age ICE (excluding fires of vehicles older than the EV fleet) and EVs (of which there aren't any "old" ones).

[@LoremIpsum1970]

It was a rather shallow, not deep dive into that, which really did more harm than good if you can think critically for yourself...

[@geralddavison]

I thought the same. A poorly maintained 10 year old ICE car is going to be more risky anyway than a 1 year old car of any fuel type. Beware of statistics. I'm an EV driver by the way and firmly believe in the future of Electric road transportation.

[@LoremIpsum1970]

@@geralddavison I'm with Toyota on this one. And as for the Grid, I have zero confidence we'll be able to afford the transition, unless we rely on imports from Europe. We can't even foot the bill for highspeed rail at 100B let alone 100B per year for the Grid...

[@geralddavison]

@LoremIpsum1970 do you mean Toyota and Hydrogen? I'd be happy to see green hydrogen powered vehicles. Just think it's unlikely as we'd need three times as much electricity as for BEVs. Plus it'll be way more expensive. Hydrogen fuel cells will be part of the picture for sure.... but unlikely to be anything except niche use.

[@geralddavison]

@LoremIpsum1970 I'm afraid I'd rather trust the actual people and engineers responsible for the electricity grid. We are way below our peak usage which was in 2005 when we used 358 TWh. In 2022 it had dropped to 275 TWh. EVs will add to that, but careful use of differential pricing will smooth out peak demands.

[@stephenlee5929]

Hi, I understand your point about fires are more likely in ICE cars than EVs, given the Swedish stats, but were those ICE cars older, I'm guessing the average age of an ICE car is much higher than an EV in Sweden (or most places). Are car fires more likely in older cars? Note I don't think EVs are a high fire risk, but we do need to get better at dealing with them.

[@MrAdopado]

Looking at the recalls of *new* ICE vehicles for fire risk would suggest that though age may indeed be a factor it is primarily the inherent challenge of dealing with highly flammable fuel... otherwise new cars wouldn't be being recalled. (You would think manufacturers would have dealt with this issue after more than a 100 years of ICE production!)

[@jillwilson6105]

Twisting the facts electric cars newer compare with the age also batteries later years degrade and will be more of a fire Hazard the plastic degrades in cells also Sweden is a very cool hotter climates course much bigger problems for batteries 🤔

[@eveningstar3230]

Very informative! Excellent video!!

[@ElectricClassicCars]

Thank you!

[@jonathancamp1460]

This video is based on facts, your comment is based on conjecture. Do you have facts to support your assumptions? How do you know that as EVs age they are more likely to catch fire? If, as you say, they are not old enough to be a fair comparison (despite not knowing how old the ICE cars that were included in these reports were) then it is not possible to have any evidence to support your claim. And BTW the point of the video was to present the actual facts, not to discuss sources of ignition or to explain fuels ignite. @@orionbetelgeuse1937

[@grahambeyer6254]

The fire In Frankfurt last week (Sept 2023) at a Tesla car dealership, was arson and also none of the batteries exploded or caught on fire, only the shell of the cars were burnt.

[@TL-xw6fh]

There's one major flaw in your calculation about the probability of a EV catching fire vs an ICE vehicle. You need to take into account of the age of the vehicle that had caught fire. Thus you need to look at the age of the vehicles, say 3 year old EV vs a 3 year old ICE car. Also you need to take into account of why the cars catch fire. Many ICE cars are badly maintained and indeed some had been recorded as having caught fire because of bad servicing practices, especially for older vehicles.

[@engineeringtheweirdguy2103]

This has been accounted for in studies by insurance companies. Comping fire rates of new ICE vehicles and number of fire related recalls of new ICE vehicle compared to Ev’s. The difference between the two is stark to say the least.

[@mstreich]

I wonder if the number of EV fires is staying flat because EV cars tend to have assisted driving features that keep them out of accidents. 5:10

[@firewalker1372]

Yeah, but with diesel/gas powered vehicles. I can put those out with less than a thousand gallons of water. Heck I can put it out with less then 300 gallons, I’ve done it 🤣. The problem is these Li batteries create their own oxygen. You can put 30+ thousand gallons on it and it still might not go out. At this point, best thing to do is protect exposures and let it burn itself out. I feel like when they created these electric vehicles they didn’t keep fires in mind. I guess they look at it as, “it’s not our problem”.

[@richardhewitt.easyvanlife.6957]

But a bloke down the pub, said they all catch fire.

[@ElectricClassicCars]

We all know THAT guy down the pub. 😉😆😂🍺👍

[@LestatTravesty]

that thinkign works both ways bud...who cares what that bloke said. i tend to think on this matter as if it was me, the ev is at my fkn place and how easy....just i...can put it out. and thats the very fine difference here. i won't be able to put it out or any means to move it so it don't take out other vehicles. my home, garage everything is now in jeopardy going right into my neighbors belongings taboot. its all in high jeopardy just because i coudn't immediately take my got dam garden hose and put the pos out. that i had to wait and let it burn everything up around it until the fire guys arrive. just 10 minutes of them kind of blazing, cause runnaway off onto everything around it. fk....that. so ok 20x less likely. fine. point taken. regardless though...its just not my vehicle that i will be out of. thats pretty much a guarantee it will take out god knows what else around it. i just can't put the fire out myself. thats the real breaker for me

[@steveinoz8188]

@@LestatTravesty Always look on the bright side of life.

[@steveb796]

He read it on the internet.

[@Iamamanyesthatsme]

The question should be what happens to the people in the ev when it catches on fire if they can escape unharmed does it matter if the car then incinerates itself,

[@antonbrum5492]

ICE cars do not suffer from "Thermal runaway", do not require 60,000 litres of water to put the fire out or have to be dumped in a tank of water.

[@paulstaf]

I live in Dallas, Texas and over the last 6 months I have seen 2 ICE cars on fire, and 1 ICE motorcycle on fire! I have not seen ANY electric vehicles on fire. 🙂

[@RichardFraser-y9t]

Bet they didn't make the news on 1000 anti petrol vehicle blogs.

[@4literv6]

Ice car fires in the U.S. alone happen on average every 4 or 5 mins.

[@spudproductions7606]

I bet 👍👍

[@Kenneth-ts7bp]

EVs are newer. They will catch fire and they are too dangerous. We need to get rid of then. Producing EVs is destroying the economy and intelligent thought.

[@alwynsmit3546]

Ok, so how long did they take to extinguish & how much water did it take to do so?

[@BassBusMusic]

This fits in with the stats available widely in the UK for 2022. 25 EVs per 100,000 cars caught fire against 1530 ICE cars per 100,000. Going by these stats ICE cars are 61.2 times more likely to catch fire. Read into that what you will.

[@jamesbowskill362]

Laughable ! I suppose the report was written in Tory h/o!!!

[@philipoakley5498]

I think you got the multiply/divide bits the wrong way round. The stats are already in normalised 'per 100,000 vehicles of the same kind' measures, so no need to apply the % in service on the roads value twice. I'd agree about the charging issues, which are higher up the electric network chain. Remember a regular petrol/deisel pump delivers a 50MW (megaWatt) connection in you hand, which is a 1000 times bigger than a 50kW fast charger connection. Were gonna need bigger pylons to the service stations ;-) @@aurustius

[@jocodashcam295]

@@aurustiusthe numbers were already per 100k. You took the per 100k and tried to calculate per 100k on top.

[@tonyireland2234]

Not sure where you get these figures from.1530 fires per 100,000 cars so 1.53% ? So out of 100 cars 1.53 of them will catch fire ! Even the presenter said it was 0.08%.He doesn't mention how many were stolen and then deliberately set on fire which happens a lot in the UK.

[@philipoakley5498]

Be wary of implied scale for those statistics (really, "95%", of what?). You need to dig deep to find out just who's stats you are looking at and the way they are determined and recorded . Most burnt out cars have no forensics applied, so it's a case of 'tick a box, any box'. Likewise there is the question of just what melted the wire (if that is what happened) - was it undersized by a non factory mod, was it wrongly installed, or just laid over/near the exhaust! In the RoRo shipping case I've seen, it was that ~50% were dismounted refrigerated containers, and it was the cooling unit that started the fire (UK North East Shippers study). The 'lots' of wiring in an EV also doesn't compute, as most wiring is for driver convenience functions, common to both types. @@vincentho6840

[@johnt.848]

One of the problems the Media seems to keep rehashing regarding Lithium batteries is the difficulty in extinguishing them with WATER. Perhaps if they used the correct medium for a chemical fire that flares up with water, the fire would be out much sooner. I remember seeing the effect water has on a magnesium alloy fire resulting from a VW engine fire, it only made that worse too.

[@SuperBartet]

So what you are saying is that when the fire brigade takes 4 hours to put out a EV fire, it's because they don't know what they are doing. And after they have put it out, and hours later it bursts into flames again, it's their fault.

[@nathansmith7153]

My friend was burned alive in an ICE car. Totally agree on the click bait. The 20 times is consistent with other reports. Didn't know about the mass parking garage fire.

[@Bryanhair]

Have been a mechanic for some 50 years and part of my trade was training or teaching mechanics, I have never seen a petrol car go up in flames, but I have seen badly reapired petrol cars with protential fire hazards caused by Mechanics, loose fuel hoses or badly run fuel or wires next to hot engine parts, thus causing the fire, whereas EV can just be sitting doing nothing and burst into flames, and when more EV are in accidents and the battery gets damaged, guess what more than likely to go up in flames, an American guy was burnt to death in his slightly damages Tesla, when his foot was trapped, but killed by flames and yes this can happen in a fuel car too, but I am a user of Lipo batteries and have seen them go up in flames just minor minor damage, EV is not the way out of our problems

[@Space-fc4lu]

Very, very important video!👍👍👍

[@spudproductions7606]

Thanks 👍👍

[@ramblerandy2397]

I suppose the most notorious BEV to catch fire is the GM Chevy Bolt. The tractor battery is supplied by LG Chem. And a fair few caught fire. My VW ID3 battery is also supplied by LG Chem. You don't hear of VW ID Series cars going up in smoke every 5 minutes, do you. That bit about BMW car fires. I believe it was South Korea where BMWs were to be banned unless BMW started taking their petrol car fire risk seriously. Incidentally, I have been in 2 petrol car fires. Neither made the news, of course. One was quite serious and it was only because the car was parked near a newly painted garage door that I detected the flames early, and was able to get out and douse the flames.

[@djgill92]

Thank you for this info Moggy. Amazing content. 🍻

[@ElectricClassicCars]

No worries!

[@HP-0101]

this was really good for my gcse speech on electric vehicles 👍thanks

[@ElectricClassicCars]

Glad it helped! Best of luck 👍

[@code-fox]

Asa firefighter I was expecting you to provide a very one-sided opinion, but this was a very balanced outline. Thanks.

[@ElectricClassicCars]

Glad you enjoyed it! And thanks for doing what you do. 👍

[@spudproductions7606]

That’s good to hear 👍👍

[@delsydsoftware]

A couple weeks ago, a local news station had a story about an electric car crashing into a tree, causing a massive fire. The detail they left out of the headline was the fact that the electric car crashed into the tree 6 feet above ground...and -may- have been exceeding the speed limit just a bit before launching into the air and colliding with the tree.

[@grandche3966]

Speeding might be caused by braking issue

[@grandche3966]

@conradharcourt8263 thanks for sharing

[@Martyntd5]

///been exceeding the speed limit just a bit before launching into the air and colliding with the tree./// ...and if the car had been an ICE vehicle doing the same thing, would that have caused a massive fire too? Or to put it another way, the speeding bit is irrelevant, it's the causing a massive fire part that is noteworthy.

[@LoremIpsum1970]

...but that's still a fire...no? does the speed or whether it was flying make any difference?

[@mswen1983]

When someone hits a tree, I just assume they were either drunk, speeding, driving like an a--hole, or all three. People tend to hit trees or power poles pretty hard.

[@ronfacciol4904]

Well said Richard. We had an incident in Sydney last week where a "luxury" electric car (an MG) caught fire at the airport and destroyed a number of cars near by. You can imagine the feeding frenzy of the media. First of all, these cars were in a holding yard, and not the main carpark. Then it turned out that this car had had its main battery removed for some yet unknown reason, and that battery apparently was lying on the ground next to the car. The battery caught fire. Do you think the media tried to present these facts as they became known ? As you say, never let the facts get in the way of a good story......

[@mrrberger]

Facts eh? Could have mentioned which of the five countries around the world the Sydney was you referred to, or that fact didn't matter. So a corperate money saving exercise causing a toxic fire next to an international airport Aviation control tower is easily due media scrutiny and followup. There was no feeding frenzy proportionate to the lack of national safety standards allowing the corporate incompetence or risk to life that incident exposed. The under frenzy is more likely to delay safety standards till they get written with peoples blood, seatbelts anyone?

[@stevenmitchell7830]

You're missing the point. Petrol and Diesel cars are extremely unlikely to catch fire when not in use. Electric vehicles can go thermal at any time. Vehicles that catch fire in use have the benefit that the driver will raise an alarm and they are usually out in the open. EVs can and do go off when no one is around, for seemingly no reason. You cannot park and leave an EV and be absolutely sure it isn't planning a disaster in some car park. Then when they do go party, you cannot stop the party. Huge difference.

[@ElectricClassicCars]

If you think ICE vehicles don’t catch fire unexpectedly when parked you are wrong. BMW for instance are recalling over a million cars because of this risk. abc7chicago.com/bmw-car-fires-vehicle-what-causes-per-year/5121834/

[@Anomize23]

That is precisely what happens when you are taking the risk of owning an electric vehicle. They use too much water to put out, and when the fire department comes and cant put it out they will just let it burn. Now think of what that would be like plugged into your house, Home insurance companies already are not liking them and becoming more expensive. I come from a family of firefighters, and I have put out plenty of ICE vehicles with a fire extinguisher before it one up too fast. Cant say the same with EVs though, oh, and there is no fire extinguisher out there that’s going to help put out those batteries so GOOD LUCK TO THE EV owners!

[@engineeringtheweirdguy2103]

Actually the rate of car fires while parked is still much higher with ICE vehicles. Just before the engine is off does not mean electrical wires don’t have potential across them. When they find a flammable liquid such as fuel, oil, brake fluid, transmission oil, diff oil, etc etc etc. they go up. An EV is still far less likely go to up in flames while parked than an ICE is.

[@engineeringtheweirdguy2103]

@@Anomize23I sleep just find knowing that if it’s parked in the garage I have a 20-60 times lower risk of it catching fire. I will not be able to respond fast enough to stop the fire spreading if I’m not aware of it igniting in the garage, if it was or wasn’t an EV. At which point there is nothing that can be done either way.

[@SuperlightR400]

Another thing to consider: EV batteries are rapidly getting safer and more resistant to thermal runaway every year as more development goes into them. That might explain why the number of EV fires hasn’t increased despite more of them being on the road. ICE cars aren’t getting any safer in this regard really.

[@spudproductions7606]

Good point 👍👍

[@ElectricClassicCars]

Very true. More and more new EVs are coming out with more stable battery chemistry like LFP which is much less likely to catch fire too. 👍

[@g4do]

Gasoline vehicle fires are easier to put out and once they're out , they stay out . Battery fires will keep reigniting hours, days and even weeks later . Battery technology is being said to be cleaner technology than gasoline, fact is , that isn't true. It's a lot dirtier because, most electricity comes from oil . Most electrical grids don't produce enough electricity for everyone to go electric so oil use will have to increase to help supply more electricity to the masses. You have to do complete research on every aspect and not just on one topic . The materials needed to build electric vehicles are incredibly toxic to the environment, especially cobalt and lithium. Research the mining and processing methods for yourself, don't just take my word on it . For now, gasoline is still better. Hydrogen is the only solution outside of particle energy.

[@ElectricClassicCars]

A gasoline vehicle is far more likely to catch fire and a lot more difficult to put out than a horse, but it didn’t stop us all moving to gas cars. A lot of EV manufacturers are now moving to LFP batteries, like in my wife’s Tesla Model 3. LFP are virtually impossible to ignite. In the UK no electricity comes from oil, 2/3 comes from renewables or low carbon fuels like nuclear. 1/3 comes from gas, with around 1% coming from coal. If you are truly worried about electricity production then I wouldn’t keep pushing hydrogen if I were you as it takes 6 times more electricity to go the same distance as an EV.

[@jimcabezola3051]

I JUST looked up a random National Transportation Safety Board (a U.S. organisation) statistics page, and they also agree with your figures, Richard. In a 2018 study, the U.S. insurance company claim statistics in 2018 claim roughly 199k petrol (no diesel fire breakout, sadly...) fires, a surprising 34k hybrid car fires, and 52 EV fires. So...let's plug in that EV and get on with our lives, shall we? For my (too lazy) part...I never looked up fire statistics for my only form of transportation: a pedal bicycle 😆🤣! Given the traffic here...I have entirely different problems 😆🤣!

[@spudproductions7606]

Cheers 👍👍

[@James_T_Quirk]

Yes Us Bike riders seem "Invisible" to some Car Drivers, I have 1 of my Bikes Fitted with Bafang Mid Drive Electric, with a 17.5Amp Lithium Battery between my Legs, & its NOT the Batteries I watch when riding on Road ...

[@jimcabezola3051]

​@@James_T_Quirk 😆🤣

[@danielcarroll3358]

I remember reading a statistic that there is a car fire every eighteen minutes in The United States. Not many are EVs.

[@4literv6]

@@danielcarroll3358 last year 217,00 car fires divided by 365 days, 24hrs in a day, 60 mins per hour? I came up with a car fire about every 4 or 5mins on average in 2022 for the U.S. alone. Here in GA I see them all the time out on the hwy. One dumb fuck recently pulled into our nearest shell station on FIRE and 3 local engines had to respond to put it out. When I worked downtown ATL security we had a moron pull in our deck on fire already, then park next to another car jump out and as a result? We lost 3 total cars to that fire and the fd responding had to cut out part of the side railing to the parking deck, just to get to the cars on fire. I'm sure I have smoke inhalation lung damage from that incident. I used 3 local extinguishers on it before the fd got there and literally tried drowning IT in thousands and thousands of gallons of water. But yeah evs are deadly don't ya know! 😏

[@MrAtheHun]

Really enjoy the channel, in awe of the skilled engineering. Thank you very much. Have driven an electric car for nearly 6 years. Although obviously I've lost 2 of them to spontaneous combustion because I slammed the door too hard. Tyres only last to the end of the road but that's OK because the range is only 200 yards anyway. I'm running out of car parks that I haven't destroyed with the excessive weight. Then there's the guilt of all those children who dug out all the rare earth elements in my wiper stalk, and I've lost count of the number of people I've run over because they didn't hear me coming. Then there's the crippling expense of all the special electric servicing. HELP 😄 Factual content doesn't make the difference it should. Ideas are facts these days.

[@spudproductions7606]

Well said. 😂😂😂👍

[@ElectricClassicCars]

True. Because we have the word ‘Facts’ in the thumbnail I can guarantee this vid won’t do as well as others. 😉😆👍

[@mrrberger]

Nice tongue in cheek dis, like the drunk driving wife beater who says 6 years of drinking and swinging aint found him jailed so it cant be bad. "Ideas are facts these days", like you labeling the channel "skilled engineering" or using your sample set of one justification. With your double negative EV prognostications, you'd sprout a pretty lyrical on insurance, cant wait.

[@severnsea]

So you're saying they don't set on fire, the tyres don't wear out quicker, the range isn't worse than ICE cars and the extra weight of all these EVs when they're eventually forced on everybody - let's not forget that very important point - won't translate to any extra wear and tear at all on the already battered roads? I, along with my dog, came very close to being hit by some stupid woman reversing out of her driveway a couple of years ago. No idea she was there, high bushes either side, no way I could see or hear her. That would not have happened with an ICE car because I would have heard it. But I suppose you're going to say that we should stop and look every time we want to walk along a section of footpath that crosses a driveway. Or maybe the fact that the rapid acceleration and silent operating will almost certainly lead to more deaths doesn't actually matter because it's for the greater good? But I'm just another ignorant minion, what do I know.

[@dj_paultuk7052]

The cheaper Chinese brand cars are definitely an issue. BYD in particular has a really bad track record, even more so in their home market in China. 1580 So far in 2023.

[@ElectricClassicCars]

I don’t doubt it but that number has to be put into the context that BYD has sold over 4 million battery cars in China so far.

[@nordic5490]

BYD sold 1.8M vehicles world wide in 2022, way more than Tesla. If that 1580 figure is accurate (doubtful), then that is a fire rate of 0.088%, ie a very low chance of fire. You should be aware that most Tesla evs sold globally use either BYD or CATL LFP batteries now.

[@daviddunmore7076]

A few years ago I looked out of the office window and saw a mini (Original type) on fire, When I said I saw a car on fore, a colleague looked out and said 'That's mine' The Fire brigade arrived soon after and put the fire out. The five surrounding cars were badly damaged and the cars surrounding them had less damage. altogether about a dizen cars were affected. This was an open air car park

[@yt-paolo]

That’s great! Doing a google search also reveals that LFP batteries are even safer and they don’t catch fire even if they are punctured through the cell 👍

[@ElectricClassicCars]

True 👍

[@james_l4337]

Normally LFP if short circuited they smoke and get hot Smoke from the evaporting liquid in battery However if the heat is great and cause other materials to burn the heat & fire then can set the LFP battery on fire. Yet LFP is much safer as one have time to get out car. Smoke 1st and may then catch fire depend on situation & weather, temperature Also LFP don't produce own oxygen so can be put out like other normal fires But the battery will continue to heat until energy are dissipated, that will be many hours

[@james_l4337]

Safest battery is sodium battery If proven true, safest for home energy storage Supposedly battery will not set itself on fire

[@patrickkear2152]

how many car transportation ships have been destroyed by ice car fires ?

[@ElectricClassicCars]

A lot. gcaptain.com/a-brief-look-back-at-recent-car-carrier-fires/

[@Bellabaddi]

I’ve seen two petrol cars catch fire, only heard of several EVs catching fire. They take a ton of water to put out, they will lock up and you won’t be able to get out, they will burn and burn and anyone exposed to cobalt fires will experience health issues. I find being locked in the car more troubling.

[@ElectricClassicCars]

All modern cars, EVs or ICE, have to have mechanical internal front door handles. That’s mandatory. Getting locked inside an EV in a fire is a myth.

[@paulanderton267]

The fire risk has always been my biggest concern from buying an EV. Great video

[@andrewbaker7548]

Is there an update in the Jensen Interceptor?

[@spudproductions7606]

Coming soon 👍👍

[@matthrivnak6572]

All that water that runs from those fires will get into drinking water, with all those contaminants

[@marcosmith6613]

I've seen, in person, dozens of vehicle fires through 40 years of driving, have yet to see one caused by an EV. I've no doubt they happen and the issue will improve over time. Petroleum still holds the record for biggest fire/explosions/damage if you include the whole supply chain.

[@zapfanzapfan]

Yeah, I've yet to hear about a lithium train derailing and burning down a town.

[@johnbarker5009]

Much is made of the fact that EVs can catch fire even when they're not running. I have news...ICE vehicles can catch fire when they're not running, given the right failure. I owned one which was recalled for a failure which was independent of whether the car was running.

[@allankoivu3263]

If EV's were so dangerous they would be uninsurable. My Chevy Bolt EV has cost me a bit less in car insurance premiums than my previous Toyota RAV4 ICE.

[@spudproductions7606]

Insurance companies are aware of the lower fire risk for EV. 👍👍

[@Anomize23]

@@spudproductions7606 yeah haha quite the opposite with HOME INSURANCE NOW. What a tradeoff…

[@geoffhaylock6848]

What was the average age of the electric vehicles catching fire compared to the ICE? Seems you would expect older vehicles with unknown service history to have a higher number catch fire. It would be nice to have accurate figures when comparing the 2 types of fuel. There were numerous "untruths" about the ship fires. Photo evidence of burnt out EV's and the company stating "no EV's were damaged". Really! How about some actual truths about the subject of fires. EV sites are all " the chance of fire is very slim" and the ICE sites are all "EV fires are much worse". In my 50 years of riding/driving, I have seen 1 car fire (ICE), so it's not like car fires are something we see every year. EV's are yet to fall into the backstreet, ghetto tuners market. When they do, then I'd expect to see more fires.

[@michaelgoode9555]

Petrol and diesel cars 20 times more likely to self combust .... That will upset poor old Geoff.

[@SuperBartet]

Propaganda misinformation. We can can all see it was a 2018 range rover. You are referring to the deep fake video that was uploaded for only one day before it got took down. And in that video you can still see it's a 2018 version, and they claim the registration is for a 2014 version. This was done just to cover up it was a Hybrid the the 30 year who has been arrested drove into the car park with his Hybrid battery smoking. Oh and look it's light grey smoke, just like a EV battery, not thick black smoke that diesel burns with Oh and look the flames are shooting out from where the Hybrid battery is fitted on that car.

[@ElectricClassicCars]

Thank you for a perfect example of what I was talking about in this episode. The argument against facts has deteriorated to denialist and conspiracy theory nutters like you. 😆😉👍

[@SuperBartet]

@@ElectricClassicCars HA HA why don't you look yourself with your eyes open, I just can't make this up, you can see it's a 2018 version, in 2020 they changed the design again. The London fire service recently published statistics for car fires, again you can look this up yourself, please don't take my word for it. They said the chance of a ICE fire is 0.04%, and the chance of a EV fire is o.1% that is more than twice the chance of a EV fire than a ICE fire, this is what they said, and you can look up all the numbers yourself, and work out the percentages yourself. So sorry I'm not what you said " denialist and conspiracy theory nutters like you" I know the facts, and you also can also know them if you was not such a denialist that you prove you are. And it's not very nice to start name calling when all I did was say the truth. It don't matter how many lies you tell, the truth will come out, so you will just have to put up with it.

[@JoshuaPritt]

I wonder if you can put an expanding foam pouch in each battery module that bursts under certain temperatures. It would then completely encase the burning cells when they start to run away.

[@jayhoney2422]

Won't that's just add fuel to make thermal runaway worse

[@JoshuaPritt]

@@jayhoney2422 I was hoping there was a fireproof foam. Or something even better that turns into something that could smother the fire.

[@rightright6582]

i get the idea...fire should be controlled at that level....@@JoshuaPritt

[@richardvanderpool7540]

Since there are many more petro fires that are spontaneous ignited, show them to me.

[@BobQuigley]

Here in US 600 to 700 ice vehicles catch fire every day. Not to mention fuel station fires, refinery fires, tanker fires, train fires due to fossil fuels.

[@Skfkf1393a]

My biggest question is survival rate of vehicle fire after crash.

[@seb4462]

thanks for getting the facts re ev car fires straight, very recommendable educational video! 👍

[@MrGMawson2438]

Nice one Richard

[@Lougan44]

That is the biggest lie! Petrol cars seldom catch fire when maintained. All my life driving gas powered and never a spark! Can’t make me believe! I know better.

[@steveevans1247]

The rate of fires in Sweden is very interesting, My first thought was maybe its the early electric cars that were catching fire ,and maybe later ones have a much lower chance of catching fire. Car insurance companies must surely be measuring the rates of fires of all vehicles. The chance of a fire will be reflected in the rate of insurance for each model. great video I have shared to my facebook.

[@spudproductions7606]

Correct that insurance companies will be adjusting premiums to suit. 👍👍

[@bellofbelmont]

Well presented. % of cars is a good point. Jim Bell (Australia)

[@rogerstarkey5390]

If you could get to the pack early enough the trick might be to freeze the cells AROUND the area already shorted to prevent spread. Maybe a liquid nitrogen lance?

[@philipoakley5498]

Simply a water lance is sufficient, with water from the on-board fire truck's tank. kzbin.info/www/bejne/aqnNdZejq52oqM0

[@LoremIpsum1970]

what do you then do with a possible reignition at some unknown time later on? I wouldn't want to get anywhere near a battery fire, even just off-gassing, especially not to check which bank of cells had gone run away...you do know why firefighters wear all that PPE and breathing apparatus don't you? Check this one: kzbin.info/www/bejne/o3qslYChrLB_ppY

[@philipoakley5498]

@@LoremIpsum1970 that's not much different from not smoking around burnt out cars that have lots of toxic residues and any remaining fuel stuffs. In some senses it's a familiarity problem (came was when horse drawn trucks were phased out)

[@LoremIpsum1970]

@@philipoakley5498 Check this quote before you go all hero: United Firefighters Union Australia 11/03/23: "We've already had a situation in Victoria where two firefighters suffered cobalt poisoning after attending an EV fire, and have now been permanently disabled as a result". Lithium-ion battery fires release toxins such as carbon monoxide, hydrogen cyanide, hydrogen fluoride and cobalt. These toxins were particularly dangerous for firefighters because they were absorbed through the skin and clothing could not protect against them.

[@leeebbrell9]

There are a few YT channels which focus on ev negative funny to watch

[@thuydoan7496]

The best thing about owning an EV is that they're literally a Big Bang for your Buck !

[@bob-bc3gt]

Anything can catch fire even people are self-combustible.

[@James_T_Quirk]

A Fire & Explosion are just about "Containment", Momentary, a Flour Mill Can & Has Exploded just from a Spark in a Cloud of Flour Dust, inside a Factory/Mills Structure, VARIOUS TIMES all around the World !!!, BAN Bread !!! @PBFoote-mo2zr

[@PaulM745]

I believe electric cars are quite safe, and the risk of fire would not be a factor for me buying one. However, did the report from Sweden take into consideration the age of the reported vehicles? I don't know the Swedish numbers, but for Norway, the average age of ICE cars are extremely high, around 20 years (due to taxes). As for electric cars, their average age is much lower, for obvoius reasons. There are only taxes on the most expensive electric vehicles here, the more moderate ones have NO taxes. Perhaps fires in EVs will increase as the vehicles get older? Just a thought... Edit: KZbin vlogger in China "Serpentza" is reporting that Chinese built EVs in China has a very high risk of fires. Probably due to lacking safety standards, and the Chinese usual cutting of safety corners...

[@PrinceVeganin]

I tried to do some research into this before, and this is the problem with studies like this. The average age difference between ICE and EVs is a large factor. Older cars are more likely to catch fire due to poor maintenance, wear etc. there aren’t that many old EVs.

[@ElectricClassicCars]

It would be interesting to factor in the age of the cars too. But also it would be interesting to extrapolate out the pure EVs from the hybrids from those figures as hybrids are much more likely to catch fire that pure EVs. It’s also worth googling ‘car fire recalls’ to see the millions of new ICE cars presently being recalled by manufacturers like Kia, Ford, Hyundai and BMW etc because of fire safety risks.

[@alferro3149]

I always bring out these statistics myself. Even if you also have to admit that there are probably a greater number of much older petrol cars. Still, the numbers are exposing the oil-lobbying miserable propaganda

[@miezeKotze-e4k]

The miserable one here is you! Not trying to understand what causes the fires and why do you talk about propaganda!? Do you know that most car fires are caused by electric faults!? Do you know how many millions of ICE that have been messed up with!? Bad repairs, faulty Installations of Gadgets .... use your brain!

[@miezeKotze-e4k]

The reality is why are you hiding the causes of ICE fires!? Just talking fires in a very general way means nothing! Imagine if airplane crashes we're not investigated and people were just left diyng! Is that the way your reason!?

[@frogflyer79]

The electric car fleet is still quite young, the petrol/diesel fleet much older (on average) we will have to see how the situation develops as the electric fleet ages. It would also be interesting to know if fires in petrol and diesel are reducing or increasing, with a view to assessing if design and construction standards are going in the right direction.

[@MrDaiseymay]

SO---what you are saying is---wait and see how many of these NEW, or VIRTUALLY NEW CARS, KILL PEOPLE, so that the number cruncher's can compare number's, against Cars that are NOT EV's , but likely to suffer from long mileage and lacking in sufficient Maintenance ??? These VEHICLES, that include New Coaches ( Check out the two on YT. one was parked ouside a central Parisien Hotel, as Passenger's had just left, to enter the Hotel. It went up like a Bomb. nearly catching the Hotel frontage on fire ) I would NEVER--trust a EV now. They explode, not just smoke and give a warning befor the flames errupt.

[@TheHansoost]

My thoughts exactly. Maintenance is a very important factor especially with regard to aging ICE vehicles.

[@richardstamper5630]

I commend you for trying to divert the fire issue away from Electric cars. I have adopted electric power in so many ways what with a full size electric tractor mower, an electric strimmer, electric hedge trimmers and two high voltage electric bikes which share similar technology to cars but I think it's more about being able to escape from a car on fire and being able to put the fire out which concerns people. Seems to me modern manufacturers want to do everything with buttons, a bit like the TV industry who stopped putting physical buttons on a set in favour of letting the remote control do all the work, basically it saves money. Old cars that you convert still have handle, a physical connections between the inside of the door and the lock itself but modern electric cars give you a buttons to open the doors which means in a failure the doors are impossible to open. In addition, if that run away fire were to start in your attached garage then kiss goodbye to your whole house, whereas, it might be possible to put out an ICE car with regular extinguishers, if not the Fire Service could. Concorde had a fabulous service record but that one disaster killed it immediately and I think it's this that concerns us folk. I have embraced electric equipment but I charge my equipment carefully, especially the mower which I will only charge away from the house. If this issue could be overcome then I think the average consumer might be more relaxed about the whole EV market.

[@ElectricClassicCars]

I thought it was a legal requirement to have a mechanical door handle on modern cars irrespective of fuel type. Even if there’s also a button to open the door, just like on my wife’s Tesla M3? Unless you’re quick with a fire extinguisher an ICE car will also burn your house down.

[@BrianFraser]

Very good overview. Re ICE car fires I think the age needs to be taken into account. I think that the stats should cover let's say the most recent 3 years. So anything under MOT age. Because using a general set of figures over a period of different times would take into account specifics like the ole Vauxhall Meriva or whatever model it was, where 100's of them were burning. Same with some of the early 2000's with super cars. Re EV's I think it's whether or not the rumours about some of the cheaper Chinese cars that allegedly catch fire every day and the risks of importing them 'en masse to Europe. I do agree that the media loves to exaggerate stories and or twist the facts. Keep up the good work Moggy

[@spudproductions7606]

👍👍

[@dscarty]

The part of this that I’m interested in is the severity of the fires. Recently I watched a video in which the presenter stated lithium ion battery fires were 3 times hotter than gasoline fires. A fire within a structure at 3000° F not only would burn other adjacent vehicles but would also destroy the “car park”. Apparently concrete won’t withstand that amount of heat.

[@ElectricClassicCars]

Concrete structures like multi story car parks have been collapsing because of ICE fires long before EVs came along. Petrol and diesel car fires spread more readily because as soon as the plastic gas tank melts the fire spreads in puddles and streams of fire to the surrounding vehicles. There was a recent arson fire in Germany at a Tesla showroom which shows that not all the EVs parked next to each burned. If they were ICE they would have all gone up in flames.

[@GoneToHelenBach]

​@@ElectricClassicCars Most fires in ICE cars start in the engine bay and are extinguished before the fuel tank is compromised. I've owned several cars, both petrol and diesel, and none of them had a plastic fuel tank, they were all metal. When I was a child, my mother drove a Reliant Robin, it set on fire (started in the engine bay), the entire body and interior burned to nothing, yet the fuel tank remained intact and the fuel contained within it did not combust.

[@Chris-bg8mk]

A big Volvo SUV burned in my neighborhood a couple days ago. Brand new. Gas powered.

[@ElectricClassicCars]

And I get that was all over the news? Not 😆🤣😉👍

[@andersbrunost5328]

Good work, a lot of reliable information sources!

[@chrislangton6535]

Great video. With regard to 'parking in your garage overnight'. As a lot of people will also be charging overnight, it would be interesting if this increased the possibility of a fire developing. But I would say that inherently, electric cars are less likely to catch fire

[@parsnips800]

An actual fair, balanced, FACT based video. Not like a certain Clarkson wannabe who's KZbin videos contain 'facts' he finds on Facebook. #geoff

[@pepermintpilot1694]

I agree he is one of the worse culprits!

[@ElectricClassicCars]

Unfortunately because we have the word ‘facts’ in the thumbnail I doubt this vid will be viewed as much as others so feel free to share it to those you feel need to be enlightened. 😉👍

[@philipgrice1026]

I own eight petroleum powered vehicles. I'm now in my seventies and have never had one of my many vehicles over the years catch fire. I've seen a couple but, so what. But I will never buy another ICE vehicle. All my current vehicles will be replaced by EVs or converting into EVs. But, the Swedish statics you quote are flawed. The EVs are on average much newer that the more mature ICE vehicles. Older and probably less well maintained vehicles will experience more fires than new ones. The fires in the new EVs mostly tend to result from overcharging issues or flaws in the technology that is being designed out, making them less likely to combust spontaneously. I completely concur that the EV fire headlines are the result of irresponsible reporting, reporter ignorance and also the result of automobile and hydrocarbon fuel producers underwriting negative publicity. It doesn't help that many petrol-heads have taken the position that they will never give up their gross polluting ICE vehicles until they are pried out of the cold, dead hands. Idiots.

[@ianmilne655]

I was just having a conversation about this at work today, in the past week we've had 5 IC engined vehicle fires here, but no EV fires. Alot of it is media firing up (pardon the pun!) Over an EV fire just for clickbait, I'd been following that ship fire which is a prime example of how the media exaggerates these things without any research into what Actually caused it, purely for grabbing headlines and clickbait. Well researched vid Moggie👍 Looking forward to your brrmm brrmm noises when you're driving the teslarossa😉👍😂

[@4literv6]

Anyone else want to know what caused the other 209 global cargo ship fires in 2022? I mean we think 1 was actually some evs fault. But that evidence for that went down to Davy Jones locker so to speak. Also if phevs and evs are such a fire risk? How come tesla and byd who alone have made&shipped over 9,000,000 vehicle's just since 2008 all with large lion batteries. Aren't having more problems. 🤔

[@daviddunmore7076]

How do LFP batteries compare to NMC for fire risk? I believe LFP may be an inherently safer chemistry.

[@tristanbased-af2159]

Electric cars (tesla specifically) are the safest cars out there. all the mass is in the bottom, so it won't roll over as fast as petrol The roofs on teslas are insanely strong Electric cars have better crumple zones since there's no engine block. Tech like autopilot can see things you might have missed.

[@tristanbased-af2159]

just some facts, yes ev's can *also* catch fire, just lilke any other car

[@calypsopiter]

Yes but fire in ev's starts and spreads insanely fast and is extremely hard to put off.

[@grahambird1570]

I'll stick to my Diesel Car >> That doesn't catch fire >> Hows that ?

[@ElectricClassicCars]

Of course diesel cars can and do catch fire. In fact it was a diesel fire that started the Luton airport car park fire that destroyed 100s of cars and a few years earlier it was a diesel car that started the Liverpool car park fire, destroying over 1000 cars. BMW are presently recalling nearly all diesel cars in the UK built between 2011 and 2017 because of fire risk. metro.co.uk/2023/03/21/driver-told-his-car-was-a-fire-risk-month-after-it-went-up-in-flames-18477879/

[@HermannKerr]

I have had a car catch fire fortunately I put it out before anything went BOOM. It was an oil leak onto the exhaust manifold, I have a diesel car that sprayed diesel all over the place TWICE, fortunately I caught it both times and replaced the fuel line. Fossil fuel cars are dangerous. I have seen a lot of burned out fossil fuel cars on the side of the road and I have yet to have seen an electric car in such a state.

[@quedorf]

Interestingly years and years ago I was working at a gas station and a cube van stopped for fuel. They asked if I could check the oil and when I opened the hood the van was on fire luckily it was just beginning and we put it out but seems the owners knew it had an oil leak but just decided to keep topping up the oil. It was leaking from the valve cover which would have been an easyfix, onto the manifold.