Studies say that pure electric vehicles have a lower chance of catching fire but are more difficult to extinguish

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On January 30, electric vehicles are expected to help improve air quality, reduce fuel costs, and become a new revenue growth point for automakers. But with the transition to electrification of cars, a new challenge ensues: Cars equipped with lithium-ion batteries can be particularly dangerous when they catch fire.

The good news is that electric vehicle fires don't happen very often. Emma Sutcliffe, program director at EV FireSafe in Melbourne, Australia, said researchers need more data to finalize the ignition rate, but preliminary research suggests that fires in pure electric vehicles are rare.

Another company, AutoInsurance EZ, shows that the chance of a battery electric vehicle catching fire is only 0.03 percent, while an internal combustion engine car has a 1.5 percent chance of catching fire. According to their research, hybrid vehicles are equipped with both high-voltage batteries and internal combustion engines, and the probability of a fire in the vehicle is 3.4%.

However, Satcliffe said that when fires do occur, electric cars equipped with lithium-ion batteries burn faster, are hotter and require more water to be extinguished. Hours or even days after the fire was initially controlled, the battery could catch fire again and put repair shops and other premises in danger.

Chas McGarvey, chief fire chief fire officer at the Lower Merion Fire Department in Pennsylvania, said his department faced challenges when a Tesla Model S Plaid fire dealt with in 2021, burning at a very high temperature and even melting the road below.

Satcliffe also said: "A lot of times, firefighters and fire agencies just want to find a solution. With so many new models on the road, Pennsylvania Fire Chief McGarvey said, "We're still trying to understand all of these things, but they're changing almost every day!" ”

Eric Wachsman, director of the Maryland Energy Institute, said lithium-ion batteries are powerful enough to drive passenger cars can also make them vulnerable to fire, especially when the batteries inside the batteries are damaged or defective.

Wexman said the lithium-ion battery's two electrodes are close together, which increases the possibility of a short circuit, and the battery is filled with flammable liquid electrolytes. "This flammable liquid may go into a so-called thermal runaway state and start boiling, leading to a fire," he said. ”

Electric vehicles include battery management systems to keep internal high-voltage batteries at safe operating temperatures, and these systems control the charge and discharge rate of the batteries. Improvements to them and improvements to the batteries themselves will make electric vehicles safer.

Tesla recently announced that it will switch from lithium-ion batteries to lithium iron phosphate (LFP) batteries. Other major automakers, including Ford and Volkswagen, are also replacing nickel or cobalt used in some electric vehicles with LFP.

Paul Christensen, a professor of electrochemistry at Newcastle University, said: "It is widely accepted that these batteries are much safer. He believes that eventually all-electric vehicles will be safer than gasoline or diesel cars that are replaced by them.

Christensen said: "We have spent a long time fully understanding the risks and hazards of gasoline and diesel vehicles. Now, we have to learn faster how to deal with the challenges posed by electric vehicles. We can do it. “