21–26 of 26 posts
Earlier quoted context omitted.
> but they also seem to happen less frequently. Do they? Even comparing only other new cars? I just don’t trust the claims so far.
Anecdotal but on my drive home I regularly see car-b-ques of ICE cars. Not so many EVs.
I’ve commuted almost a million miles in my life and seen one fire and that was a garbage truck. Of the “irregular” things I’ve seen on the road fire is probably one of the least common.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
It definitely happens much more frequently. So frequently that it doesn’t get articles written about it. It’s just not news. I saw a newer gas pick-up’s entire engine on fire and spilling spilling fire onto the road in the pouring rain just a week ago.
A couple points EVs are novel so anything happening with them is going to get more coverage even if ICE have the same problem. There are FAR more ICE cars on the road than EVs so we have to adjust for that in figuring out the rate one would burst into flames.
> Try now to imagine an electrically driven vehicle catching fire during Christmas shopping season in mid-December in midtown Manhattan in front of Macy’s department store during rush hour at six o’clock in the evening. Why would I imagine that? This kind of thing happens from time to time with gas cars. Example (picked lazily and randomly): https://www.cbsnews.com/newyork/video/car-erupts-in-flames-n... In some resp…
~10? How about ONE ? For all the reporting, there really doesn't seem to be a spate of Tesla's blowing up in the wake of Ian. There's been three pictures of that one white Model Y, and it looks mostly intact. If there were really more than one incident I'd expect, well, more pictures and additional reports. If this is really actually a problem we can march with pitchforks to Tesla's HQ together, but given the tens of…
I don't have time now, but the 10 figure came from a report with official sources. I suspect it was pretty close to right.
I don't know how it compares to gas car fires, which are also not uncommon after submersion in saltwater. Often the reason is the same too, the low voltage battery sometimes catches fire.
> Try now to imagine an electrically driven vehicle catching fire during Christmas shopping season in mid-December in midtown Manhattan in front of Macy’s department store during rush hour at six o’clock in the evening. Why would I imagine that? This kind of thing happens from time to time with gas cars. Example (picked lazily and randomly): https://www.cbsnews.com/newyork/video/car-erupts-in-flames-n... In some resp…
> but they also seem to happen less frequently. Do they? Even comparing only other new cars? I just don’t trust the claims so far.
Having said that, if you watch Tesla crashes much, you'll see a lot of amazingly hard side impacts that don't result in fires. Its actually pretty surprising to me how unusual post-crash fires are.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
> but they also seem to happen less frequently. Do they? Even comparing only other new cars? I just don’t trust the claims so far.
Here's some data: https://www.autoinsuranceez.com/gas-vs-electric-car-fires/ What's odd is hybrids seem even more likely than petrol cars to catch fire, though EVs are far less likely. I guess the combination gives you the worst of both worlds in terms of fire risk.
“In older vehicles, the wiring and batteries start to break down, putting them more at risk of catching fire in an accident. Since most electric vehicles aren’t yet at the advanced age of older gas vehicles, there currently isn’t any data showing if they will be at a higher risk of battery and electric explosions as they age.”
So this is not yet corrected for age of the vehicle.
> Try now to imagine an electrically driven vehicle catching fire during Christmas shopping season in mid-December in midtown Manhattan in front of Macy’s department store during rush hour at six o’clock in the evening. Why would I imagine that? This kind of thing happens from time to time with gas cars. Example (picked lazily and randomly): https://www.cbsnews.com/newyork/video/car-erupts-in-flames-n... In some resp…
~10? How about ONE ? For all the reporting, there really doesn't seem to be a spate of Tesla's blowing up in the wake of Ian. There's been three pictures of that one white Model Y, and it looks mostly intact. If there were really more than one incident I'd expect, well, more pictures and additional reports. If this is really actually a problem we can march with pitchforks to Tesla's HQ together, but given the tens of…
https://www.eenews.net/articles/why-6-flooded-evs-burst-into...
https://www.huffpost.com/entry/ev-electric-vehicle-florida-f...
Certainly not huge numbers in any case. Florida has a lot of EVs.