Lithium-ion battery fires might be intense and scary. As somebody who used to restore second-hand smartphones, I’ve extinguished my justifiable share 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 power—a lot power that some firefighters are receiving particular coaching to extinguish the extra-intense EV flames which are emitted by burning EV batteries after highway accidents.
If you happen to’ve been studying the information about EVs, you’ve probably encountered loads of scary articles about battery fires on the rise. Just lately, the US Nationwide Transportation Security Board and the California Freeway Patrol introduced they’re investigating a Tesla semi truck hearth that ignited after the automobile struck a tree. The lithium-ion battery burned for round 4 hours.
Does this imply that you must fear about your private electrical automobile as a possible hearth hazard? Probably not. It makes extra sense to fret a couple of gas-powered automobile going up in flames than an electrical automobile, 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 Heart. “Particularly in electrical automobiles, as a result of additionally they have battery administration programs.” The software program retains tabs on the totally different cells that comprise an EV’s battery and may help stop 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 known as thermal runaway. EV batteries aren’t one stable brick. Somewhat, consider these batteries as a group of many smaller batteries, known as cells, pressed up in opposition to one another. With thermal runaway, a chemical response situated in one of many cells lights an preliminary hearth, and the warmth quickly spreads to every adjoining cell till the whole 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 all the things 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 feel folks perceive that, whatever the automobile sort, in the event you’re in an accident, there might be a hearth.”
Whereas all EV battery fires are laborious to place out, fires from manufacturing defects are probably extra regarding to customers, because of their seeming randomness. (Suppose 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 right down to how the batteries are engineered. “There’s some degree of the engineering that has gone mistaken and triggered 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 probably what triggered the extremely publicized current EV fires in South Korea, one among which broken over 100 automobiles in a car parking zone.
Easy methods to React if Your EV Catches Hearth
In response to the Nationwide Hearth Prevention Company, if an EV ever catches hearth when you’re behind the wheel, instantly discover a secure technique to pull over and get the automotive away from the primary highway. Then, flip off the engine and ensure everybody leaves the automobile instantly. Don’t delay issues by grabbing private belongings, simply get out. Stay over 100 toes away from the burning automotive 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 occasions extra water to extinguish than a hearth in a gas-powered automobile. Typically the firefighters might determine to let the battery simply burn itself out, reasonably than dousing it with water.
