The fire safety of electric vehicles has once again attracted public attention. According to the news released by the official platform of the Fire Rescue Bureau of the Ministry of Emergency Management, "China Fire Protection", in the early morning of February 9 this year, a fire broke out in a residential home in Putuo District, Shanghai, causing three deaths. It was preliminarily determined that the fire was caused by the failure of lithium batteries for electric bicycles placed in the bedroom. In recent days, the Shanghai fire department has also issued safety warnings many times to remind the public to pay attention to the prevention of electric vehicle fires.
Regarding the battery safety of electric vehicles, what aspects should we pay attention to in normal times? What are the problems in parking and charging, and how can we reduce the occurrence of electric vehicle fire accidents? Nandu reporters sorted out this.
Data: There are many fires in electric bicycles at night
The case of the dead fire in Putuo, Shanghai, has to make people more vigilant about the safety of electric vehicles at night. As early as 2019, the Guangzhou fire department found through the analysis of relevant cases in the past few years that the electric vehicle fire that occurred from 20:00 to 8:00 the next day accounted for more than half of the total. Many of the electric vehicle fires that kill people occur between 1 a.m. and 6 a.m. The fire department believes that most electric bicycle users use during the day and charge at night, and the charging time is too long, and it is not easy to find faults and other reasons that cause frequent fires in electric bicycles at night.
The frequent fires of electric vehicles reflect the multiple safety hazards behind them. Relevant data show that last year, nearly 18,000 fires caused by electric bicycles and their batteries were reported nationwide, and 57 people died. The reasons for the frequent fires of electric bicycles are mainly inferior batteries, user modifications at will, home charging, long-term charging and so on.
Wu Lidong, deputy secretary general of the Guangdong Electric Vehicle Chamber of Commerce, previously interviewed Nandu reporters and believed that the charging safety of electric vehicles is mainly related to the battery situation and charger, but it is more related to the battery. He said that the current electric vehicle batteries on the market are mainly divided into two types, lead-acid batteries and lithium batteries. Among them, the service life of lead-acid batteries is relatively short, and in the absence of maintenance warranties, long-term use (limited to one to two years) may bulge, crack, leak, and catch fire, but the possibility of explosion is low.
Wu Lidong introduced that lithium batteries are mainly divided into original qualified and modified. The new qualified lithium batteries have a longer lifespan than lead-acid batteries, with approximately three to four years of use. If there is a lack of maintenance and the use of inferior chargers, it is easy to cause fire accidents after long-term use. Wu Lidong also mentioned that some of the batteries that have been modified privately are reassembled into new lithium batteries in the secondary market, which belongs to the "three noes" products, and this type of lithium battery has the highest risk factor.
In this regard, Wu Lidong reminded that in addition to purchasing qualified products, electric vehicle users should also pay attention to timely maintenance and inspection.
Habits: Residents should raise awareness of fire safety
In the summer of 2021, Nandu reporters visited more than 20 communities in Guangzhou and found that 40% of the communities occupied evacuation channels and safe exits, and a few communities also had electric vehicle flying lines charging and going upstairs to enter the household. The reason is that the equipment in the special parking and charging places is missing, resulting in chaos.
The survey results show that some old communities, due to insufficient congenital conditions, there are great difficulties in building special charging places. Even in communities equipped with centralized charging facilities, there may be a dilemma that cannot meet the demand. In addition, poor community management and weak fire safety awareness of residents are also important influencing factors. The community does not pay enough attention to the management of electric vehicles, and some residents park electric vehicles randomly and move electric vehicles or batteries home to charge, there is a fluke mentality.
During the interview, some residents of the community said to the behavior of electric vehicles going upstairs to charge their homes, "others also do this, there is no way", and the security personnel of individual communities said, "There are so many electric vehicles, usually they can't manage it at all." In fact, parking electric vehicles in stairwells and safety exits, or taking them upstairs and entering homes to charge them is full of fire risks, and related news reports are numerous.
How can we reduce the occurrence of electric vehicle fire accidents? The fire department has repeatedly reminded residents that they should develop good habits of using and charging electric vehicles, enhance fire safety awareness, and be familiar with fire safety knowledge. For electric vehicles, it is necessary to maintain frequently and learn to reasonably control the charging time; do not charge indoors, do not fly wire charging, do not park in the corridor, and do not modify and disassemble at will.
In addition, in terms of hardware, relevant departments and units should speed up the setting or transformation of centralized parking and charging places for electric bicycles. Only centralized parking and charging can better manage fire safety and reduce the occurrence of fires in indoors and corridors of electric vehicles (and batteries).
In a certain community of Tianhe Dongpu in Guangzhou, there are more electric vehicle stocks. Previously, the owners of the community reported to the Nandu reporter that because there is no centralized charging place, many owners will take electric vehicles home to charge. In July last year, when the reporter visited, the public charging pile in the community was still under construction. In February this year, the community property management staff told reporters that the centralized charging facilities have been built, with a total of 108 charging ports, which basically meet the requirements of residents. However, there are still areas for improvement in community fire safety management initiatives and residents' fire safety awareness. "Our elevators have banned electric vehicles from going upstairs, but there are still residents who take batteries home to charge them," said the property manager.
Written by: Nandu reporter Ma Hui
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