Hmmm, let’s see: child slave labour and toxic pollution, adding to the massive strain on already-stressed power grids, massive weight threatening the integrity of car parks, the same weight causing them to rip through tyres and make even more pollution, the toxic nightmare of disposing of batteries, guzzling taxpayer’s money to subsidise luxury cars for the wealthy… the list of why EVs are bit shite just keeps growing and growing.
And, of course, the fires.
Back in the day, the Ford Pinto’s propensity to burst into flames at the merest suggestion of a rear-ender was a massive scandal. But at least the Pinto had the excuse of needing a minor impact to spark a fire. EVs have no such excuse: they’re just bursting into near-unquenchable flames at random.
Five cars have been destroyed at Sydney Airport after a battery from a luxury electric car burst into flames.
About 8.30pm on Monday (local time), firefighters were called to a parking lot on Airport Drive in Mascot after flames engulfed a luxury electric car before spreading to another four vehicles.
A recently detached battery from a car that had been stored in the parking lot was “quickly identified as having sparked the blaze”, Fire and Rescue NSW said.
Stuff
At least no one was hurt or killed, this time.
A man in his 40s is in a serious condition after an e-scooter battery exploded at a home in Ipswich early on Tuesday morning.
ABC Australia
This follows an e-scooter battery explosion in Wellington that left a man in critical condition and sparked an “unstoppable” fire.
Nothing to see here, though, we’re told.
Fire and Rescue NSW Superintendent Adam Dewberry said it was rare for authorities to be called for an electric car fire […] We don’t have a concern about this broadly, it’s not often that electric cars catch fire.”
Stuff
Oh, really?
Hundreds of fires across Australia have been linked to lithium-ion batteries, which are used to power light electric vehicles like e-scooters and e-bikes.
In Australia, more than 450 fires have been linked to lithium-ion batteries over the past 18 months, according to data provided by state fire departments.
And that’s only since they actually started counting.
Most states only started tracking incidents involving lithium-ion batteries in recent years, however, Western Australia recorded 81 of these incidents last year, compared with 21 in 2018.
Fire and Rescue New South Wales said it responded to about 180 lithium-ion battery-related fires in the past 12 months, Victoria had 120 in the year to July, and Queensland had recorded 72 since 2021.
The latter figure included an e-scooter that caught fire at a Brisbane house last week and five people were hospitalised.
There was another Brisbane house fire caused by an e-scooter battery exploding on Tuesday […]
Fire and Rescue NSW assistant commissioner for community safety, Trent Curtin, said firefighters in that state were responding to more than three fires every week involving lithium-ion batteries.
Tell us again how this is “rare”?
Thomas Currao from the New York City Fire Department told the inquiry there had been a huge rise in deadly fires linked to lithium-ion batteries, and the spike correlated with increased use of battery-powered mobility devices.
“Whereas an injury stemming from a lithium-ion battery was a relatively rare occurrence in 2019 – when we saw only a total of 13 such injuries – in 2021, we experienced 79,” he said.
“As of today [November 14], we’ve already identified 140 injuries and 191 fires attributed to lithium-ion batteries. Tragically, these fires have also led to six fatalities.
“[In 2022] we have experienced as many injuries, deaths, and overall fires involving lithium-ion batteries as we have from the previous three years combined.”
And still, the fart-sniffing smugsters deny the obvious.
New Yorker Baruch Herzfeld, who is a passionate electric vehicle enthusiast [said…] “Everybody’s realising how much safer and more efficient these electric bicycles and electric scooters are.
ABC Australia
Except when they randomly burst into raging infernos, of course.
