Why would I imagine that? This kind of thing happens from time to time with gas cars. Example (picked lazily and randomly): https://www.cbsnews.com/newyork/video/car-erupts-in-flames-n...
In some respects, Lithium Ion fires are harder to manage, but they also seem to happen less frequently.
Maybe don't jump to conclusions based upon ~10 fires in vehicles flooded by saltwater?
I don't have time now, but the 10 figure came from a report with official sources. I suspect it was pretty close to right.
I don't know how it compares to gas car fires, which are also not uncommon after submersion in saltwater. Often the reason is the same too, the low voltage battery sometimes catches fire.
https://www.eenews.net/articles/why-6-flooded-evs-burst-into...
https://www.huffpost.com/entry/ev-electric-vehicle-florida-f...
Certainly not huge numbers in any case. Florida has a lot of EVs.
Do they? Even comparing only other new cars? I just don’t trust the claims so far.
What's odd is hybrids seem even more likely than petrol cars to catch fire, though EVs are far less likely. I guess the combination gives you the worst of both worlds in terms of fire risk.
Having said that, if you watch Tesla crashes much, you'll see a lot of amazingly hard side impacts that don't result in fires. Its actually pretty surprising to me how unusual post-crash fires are.
sure, sure, the snow in which enough people drive for there to be a rush hour is totally comparable to a hurricane.
Anecdotally, an airport parking garage burnt down in Stavanger due to a diesel Opel Zafira from aprox 07’ self-catching fire sometime the last two year, it was speculated at that time that it was an EV in media (Sorry no source, easily googleable).
The article conspicuously ignores gas car fires.
I think the only actual point is that BEVs are more likely to kind of spontaneously combust after corroding? Abs that bev fires are hard to put out.
I know that at least some gas car fires also happened in the aftermath of this storm, submerging even a standard 12v car battery in salt water is inadvisable.
I'm not sure what we can usefully draw from that, other than to avoid leaving EVs in areas expected to be submerged in salt water, but that's generally good advice anyway.
I do think the difference in how these fires are managed versus a gasoline fire should be considered. The most interesting thing I have seen to deal with this is a fire department that just had several car-sized metal dumpsters. Drop the car in the dumpster, fill it with water from a firetruck, and come back in a day or two.
That’s a big freaking deal as millions of people make their living around cars. The number who will be in the future is a smaller number.
