[wheelguy]

https://youtu.be/u2F9HKZ5VzA

The incident happened on 8th May, at a charging station in Dongguan province of China. It started with a passenger van and but soon engulfed other vehicles around it. According to the report, it took 40 fire-fighters and 8 fire-trucks to put off the fire. Causes of the fire were not yet known, after the incident, local authorities verified and ceased 48 charging station out of the 700 in the locality.

Source

[Thermodynamics]

Fires of EVs are different from that of IC engine cars.

IC engines: There is fuel but it also requires a steady supply of air/oxygen for the fire to sustain. In a way these fires are similar to a water dispenser, some air has to bubble in to give way for water to drain out. So these fires are naturally regulated by aspiration rate/convection rate.

EVs: So much energy stored in a tight space. These fires have only one parameter, a threshold Temperature (typically 70 to 150 C), beyond which they would undergo auto catalytic "thermal runaway" similar to a bomb and that's the danger. Look how it explodes barely minutes after the fire started.

[BoneCollector]

Originally Posted by wheelguy

It started with a passenger van and but soon engulfed other vehicles around it.

It took just 3 minutes to engulf 3 vehicles! I thought the video is speeded up till I saw the time stamp. That's a scary video. In India, I hope the EVs have better fire proofing when launched.

[wheelguy]

Originally Posted by BoneCollector

It took just 3 minutes to engulf 3 vehicles! I thought the video is speeded up till I saw the time stamp. That's a scary video. In India, I hope the EVs have better fire proofing when launched.

Not just better fire proofed EVs, but also we need safer charging stations with brick walls separating each other like this:

Simple yet can be effective in controlling the spread of fire.

[anjan_c2007]

Some observations:-

(1) The van from which the fire originated appears to be the least damaged. The pick-up and the car by it's side bore the brunt and were almost fully burnt. Was watching that even the plastic tail lights of the van from which the fire originated were intact for a long time. The last images were blurred due to the black smoke.

(2) Speaks volumes about the dubious, Chinese quality of goods that we have become more and more dependent upon lately.

[srishiva]

Originally Posted by wheelguy

Not just better fire proofed EVs, but also we need safer charging stations with brick walls separating each other like this:

Attachment 2009950
Simple yet can be effective in controlling the spread of fire.

It's easier to fix cars not to burn. Having walls when you get EVs as majority will not be feasible

[wheelguy]

Originally Posted by srishiva

It's easier to fix cars not to burn. Having walls when you get EVs as majority will not be feasible

This is just an additional measure to stop the fire from spreading further to other cars especially at the public charging stations. You might have a super-safe EV, but in case of fires like the one shown above, no matter how safe your EV is, you cannot stop it from catching fire if it's next/close to another EV on fire.

[pganapathy]

Originally Posted by wheelguy

This is just an additional measure to stop the fire from spreading further to other cars especially at the public charging stations.

The problem with this is the size of parking lots you will need. Currently there are electric buses which only ply in cities and tend to have their own charging stations. Once it becomes more generic, you will have long distance electric buses and trucks. Which means you need massive bays to accommodate them, especially if you have extra large trucks. That is why painted lines is a simpler solution and other means of ensuring vehicles don't catch fire

[landcruiser123]

Emphasizes the point that most EVs and chargers should be built to the highest standard. Except the Note 7, do we see mobile phones bursting into flames?

Cars have much more energy than mobile phones but they have space to integrate battery management systems to ensure that batteries don't overheat.

Originally Posted by wheelguy

Not just better fire proofed EVs, but also we need safer charging stations with brick walls separating each other like this:

Too expensive to build. A better solution would be to have well cars and chargers.

[lemedico]

You may build a wall to divide spaces, but did you see that small truck rolled backwards and then had the potential to set ablaze vehicles on the other side! I am surprised there is no electric cut out like some technology seen in a petrol filler. It senses the fuel level has risen quite high and cut off the fuel dispenser. Don't those EV points have any sensor to detect an abnormal fluctuation in the charge delivery, thus signalling an alarm?