Lithium-ion battery fires might be intense and scary. As somebody who used to restore second-hand smartphones, I’ve extinguished my fair proportion of flaming iPhones with punctured lithium-ion batteries. And the kind of smartphone battery in your pocket proper now, is much like what’s within electric vehicles. Besides, the EV battery shops far more power—a lot power that some firefighters are receiving special training to extinguish the extra-intense EV flames which are emitted by burning EV batteries after highway accidents.
Should you’ve been studying the information about EVs, you’ve possible encountered loads of scary articles about battery fires on the rise. Just lately, the US Nationwide Transportation Security Board and the California Freeway Patrol announced they’re investigating a Tesla semi truck fire that ignited after the automobile struck a tree. The lithium-ion battery burned for round 4 hours.
Does this imply that it’s best to fear about your private electrical automobile as a possible fire hazard? Probably not. It makes extra sense to fret a few gas-powered automobile going up in flames than an electrical automobile, since EVs are less likely to catch fire 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 Advanced Battery Center. “Particularly in electrical automobiles, as a result of in addition they have battery administration methods.” The software program retains tabs on the completely different cells that comprise an EV’s battery and might help forestall 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 referred to as thermal runaway. EV batteries aren’t one strong brick. Moderately, consider these batteries as a set of many smaller batteries, referred to as cells, pressed up in opposition to one another. With thermal runaway, a chemical response situated in one of many cells lights an preliminary fireplace, and the warmth quickly spreads to every adjoining cell till the whole EV battery is burning.
Greg Much less, director of the University of Michigan’s Battery Lab, breaks down EV battery fires into two, distinct classes: accidents and manufacturing defects. He considers accidents to be every little thing 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 individuals perceive that, whatever the automobile sort, for those who’re in an accident, there may very well be a hearth.”
Whereas all EV battery fires are laborious to place out, fires from manufacturing defects are possible extra regarding to shoppers, because of their seeming randomness. (Assume again to when all these Samsung phones had to be recalled as a result of battery points made them fireplace 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 stage of the engineering that has gone mistaken and brought about the cell to brief, 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 fireplace, explodes, after which propagates to different cells.” These sorts of defects are possible what brought about the extremely publicized latest EV fires in South Korea, one in every of which broken over 100 automobiles in a parking zone.
The right way to React if Your EV Catches Fireplace
In line with the National Fire Prevention Agency, if an EV ever catches fireplace when you’re behind the wheel, instantly discover a secure approach 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 ft away from the burning automotive as you name 911 and request the hearth division.
Additionally, you shouldn’t try and put out the flame your self. It is a chemical fireplace, so a pair buckets of water received’t sufficiently smother the flames. EV battery fires can take first responders around ten times more water to extinguish than a hearth in a gas-powered automobile. Typically the firefighters might resolve to let the battery simply burn itself out, slightly than dousing it with water.
