Plantagenet wrote:“The two battery packs in the car contain hundreds of small batteries that power everything on the car,” Corboy said. “If one of the batteries catches fire, every battery around it catches fire in short order.”
I've read articles and seen Youtube videos about how the large batteries are supposedly compartmentalized into modules, and each module should be able to contain any fire to a moderate and manageable size within the module -- at least under ordinary circumstances.
So, I can understand how this can get out of control after, say, a high speed accident which inflicts a lot of physical damage on a battery module's containment.
What I DON'T und erstand or find acceptable at all is how such horrific fires/explosions occur when such a car is say, just charging, or sitting in a garage, etc. To me, if they can't contain a fire within a module and prevent large fires, explosions, etc. -- then they need a completely different design.
And this goes for all BEV makers, not just Tesla.
In fact, this goes for HEV makers too.
As I was writing the last sentence above, it prompted me to search for Toyota Prius battery fires, given Toyota's long history with HEV's.
It seems the venerable Prius has its own fire issues re the traction battery, as per 2018 recalls.
https://www.consumerreports.org/car-rec ... fire-risk/Toyota is recalling 192,000 of its 2016 to 2018 Prius hybrids sold in the U.S. because of a fire risk. Wiring in the front of the vehicle could wear over time and cause a short circuit, which the automaker said could cause a fire.
The recall is part of a larger campaign that includes more than 1 million vehicles worldwide, the majority sold in Japan.
https://money.cnn.com/2018/09/05/news/c ... index.htmlCNN Business on the same 1 million Prius recall story.
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And these are cited as being in 2015 to 2018 model Prius cars, per Consumer Reports. So this is a dangerous defect -- not something from a 10 or 15 year old car where excessive wear occurred somewhere.
So -- this certainly suggests to me that a whole new look at the situation, and set of standards need to be put in place for EV battery safety, given the potential for high intensity events (such as explosions or very large fires), from EV batteries, especially as EV's become common, and age.
Given the track record of the perma-doomer blogs, I wouldn't bet a fast crash doomer's money on their predictions.