Electrical car fires are uncommon, however they rapidly make headlines because of the new know-how and ongoing public schooling about EV security. A current incident that caught our consideration concerned three Rivian Amazon Electrical Supply Vans (EDVs) bursting into flames at an Amazon achievement middle in Houston, Texas, this week.
For starters, Amazon is utilizing 1000’s of EDVs made by Rivian to chop its emissions. The fleet is rapidly increasing they usually’re already everywhere in the U.S. The footage of the EDVs catching hearth was captured by drone operator Third Coast Drone on July 1 and first reported by Gizmodo.
Fireplace security in EVs.
EV batteries have a number of built-in safeguards to keep away from fires, like insulators and flame-retardant components. Most licensed batteries that main automakers use bear extreme thermal stress exams. However that does not imply issues cannot go incorrect. Irregular charging, excessive warmth and injury to battery packs can all trigger fires.
Within the video above, you possibly can see a big car parking zone with tens of EDVs and a few are plugged in for charging. The utmost temperature that day had reached virtually 100 levels Fahrenheit because the scorching summer time warmth wave continues to have an effect on a number of U.S. states.
The drone operator noticed plumes of poisonous black smoke rising in direction of the sky from one Rivian EDV first after which the hearth unfold to 2 different EDVs parked adjoining.
“We’re conscious of the incident and are investigating the scenario,” a Rivian spokesperson informed InsideEVs. “There have been no accidents. As we’re gathering data, it’s too quickly to say what may need brought on this thermal occasion.”
“We’re grateful nobody was injured and are grateful for the Houston Fireplace Division’s speedy response,” Amazon mentioned in a press release. “We’re working with a third-party investigator and consultants from Rivian to research and will not be going to invest, so we gained’t be sharing extra particulars till we’re assured within the info.”
Some instant security precautions have additionally been taken on the web site. The chargers linked to the broken circuit panel board have all been turned off. Amazon electrical engineers and a high-voltage specialist decided that the remainder of the chargers on the web site had been secure to make use of.
Research have proven that EVs catch hearth so much much less in comparison with combustion engine autos. Within the uncommon cases after they do, the fires are dramatic and excruciatingly troublesome to douse. That’s partially as a result of the lithium-ion battery is extraordinarily flammable.
“There have been a couple of autos impacted by the incident, however the thermal occasion propagated from the supply to surrounding autos,” Rivian mentioned. “This car was plugged into the charger, but it surely was not charging when the incident occurred. The HV battery was not the initiator of the incident,” the spokesperson added.
Within the video above, you possibly can see firefighters struggling to extinguish the flames, but it surely continues to rage on, showcasing the challenges first responders face resulting from thermal runaway—a phenomenon the place lithium-ion battery cells enter an uncontrollable, self-heating and oxygen-creating state and the pack continues to reignite till there’s nothing left to burn.
Trendy-day lithium-ion batteries have come a good distance when it comes to hearth security. The U.S. doesn’t appear to have a repository of EV-related hearth incidents, however Norway discovered that ICE-powered autos are 4 to 5 instances extra seemingly to catch fires. One other research in Sweden discovered that every one non-EV gasoline sorts produced 68 fires per 100,000 autos in comparison with 3.8 fires per 100,000 autos for EVs.
That does not imply issues cannot go terribly incorrect. Utilizing non-certified batteries, irregular charging patterns, injury to the battery pack and excessive warmth have all been linked to fires in EVs.
