>

It sounds silly, but batteries do get hotter when they're being drained faster, so I can see why they said it.  It would be somewhat  less weird if some jackass doing 120 on the highway managed to get his battery to catch on fire.
This is surreal - my brother and I drove past this wreck yesterday. The  highway patrol who cordoned off the lanes looked confused as Hell, it's nice to know why. >

There really isn't much anybody can do when these battery packs light off. You just have to get back, avoid breathing any fumes and let it burn. Nobody is putting that out, not even a direct hit from a water bomber. >

I'm surprised that they don't use sand since that's fairly commonly used to put out electrical fires anyway. >

They dump it in a tank of water for about 24 hours, otherwise it has a tendency to reignite. >

Stupid questions but where do we have giant car-tubs for this purpose? >

You can bring in a truck that has a big "bathtub" in the back, and a crane to lift the burning car into the tub. Then take it wherever. At least it clears the jam quickly. Just waiting in-place for days while it continues to block traffic is a bad strategy. >

"...the NHTSA researchers, and the study was issued in October 2017. The report concluded, "...ignition of flammable electrolytic solvents used in Li-ion battery systems are anticipated to be somewhat comparable to or perhaps slightly less than those for gasoline or diesel vehicular fuels..." so yes, EVs catch fire too. >

I think the stats on the road point to electric cars having at least 3 times less fires after an accident and the fires are slow starting instead of explosive like with gasoline cars. >

EV fires require quite a bit more water to extinguish, however.
Edit: Water on battery fires is dangerous, but I'm mostly referring to situations such as this as water is still used to extinguish EV fires. >

A ' bit more ' is quite a understatement. I'm all for EVs but their fires don't mess around. >

From the article:

Officials said no injuries were reported but that around 6000 gallons of water were used to extinguish the flames. Two fire engines, a water tender, and a ladder truck were used to help put out the fire. >

Now imagine a garage full of EVs and one decides to combust 😬 >

I'd like to see that experiment done. On YouTube.
Park two Teslas next to each other normal parking distance away from each other. Get the battery pack to undergo thermal runaway and catch on fire. See what happens to the second Tesla. See if the second Tesla's thermal management system keeps the car safe or if the fire spreads.
There was a Porsche and Volkswagon EV fire on a cargo ship that they couldn't put out for 6 days.... >

Just wait, they'll deploy an Autopilot update that allows a parked Tesla to flee an inferno... >

Now I'm imagining a parking lot full of frightened Teslas zipping around like panicked dodgems. >

Or worse, one tesla doggedly trying to escape itself as it hobbles towards the nearest exist like a wounded pup that someone set on fire. >

did their fire suppression subscription lapse? >

The people that comment on every electric car post on Facebook about to get really excited >

I work at GM, Teslas have the best battery safety at the moment because of a patent they hold on an encasing material.
You see them more often in the news because 1) there are significantly more Tesla's on the road, 2) Tesla is an easy target for media given Elon's fuck ups >

Great, a patent on a safety feature. The US is killing it(s citizens). >

Volvo is looking down at Tesla is pure disgust >


Metro Fire of Sacramento said the Tesla S Model was not speeding while driving eastbound on Highway 50 when its battery compartment suddenly caught fire. 

So just driving normally and suddenly on fire. That seems totally safe. >

I like how they clarify that car wasn’t speeding, as though it would be totally normal for a car to catch fire when it was speeding.