Luton Airport fire: EV involved?

[Colin Bignell]

Which is even less clear than the still you provided.

Not obviously so, from the images I have found on the web.

[The Natural Philosopher]

A cursory scan of internet images shows it is probably a range rover PHEV of a few years old vintage, as the grille was restyled for the 2022 onwards variety.

If there is a 10 in the number plate, that would tally IIRC with a 2020 model My best guess is a 2020 Range Rover P300 Evoque PHEV.

The location and colour of the fire is completely consistent with a lithium battery under the front passenger seat floor.

This is where early evoques had their lithium batteries.

Under the left hand side front floor

[Spike]

The other way of looking at this issue is not to try to read the number plate from an artificially-manipulated poor-quality video and fit the make and model of the vehicle to that, but to ask what could it be that’s outside the structure of the vehicle, on the LH side and under the passenger seat area, venting burning fluid under some pressure, that set in progress shortly after being started, and then progressed enough to set fire to at least one other vehicle as the start of a chain reaction involving many other vehicles.

[Chris Green]

?? a 10 indicates 2010, we have a 10 which is most definitely 2010.

[The Natural Philosopher]

Not...a lithium battery!

[Spike]

No it isn’t from 2010. The plate - E10 EFL - is from the previous registration style, with the prefix E indicating 1987.

[Tim Streater]

And it's perfectly possible to use an old number plate. AFAIK you just have to organise it with DVLA, always supposing that the plate in question is not already in use.

[maus]

A PITA. Confuses the whole thing from any reasonable point of view

[Theo]

The diesel particulate filter.

DPFs get hot when regenerating, and if there's some leak of fuel or oil into them then they could burn - they are designed to burn soot in the first place. For example, an Audi's one on fire:

And of course there's a hot exhaust in the underfloor, so a leak onto it could catch fire. This Range Rover and other similar models have dual pipes, so one goes under the passenger seat.

Theo

[Spike]

If the vehicle was being driven away after standing in a car park, the catalyser will be well below its operating temperature. Unless DPFs heat up even faster than catalysers, that also is an unlikely ignition source.

The Luton fire was two orders of magnitude greater than that of the Audi in the video.

[Spike]

Quite so, but the registration plate doesn’t tie the vehicle to 2010.

[Spike]

FL is a Peterborough registration.

[Colin Bignell]

A search on the government site given, does come up with E10 EFL as a

2014 Range Rover Sport. However, as I mentioned, I think the number starts EX, rather than jus t E.

[Colin Bignell]

All we can tell from the two videos is that it was in the roadway between parked cars. At the moment, we don't know whether it was arriving or leaving.

The video from the rear of the Luton fire also does not show smoke coming out of the exhausts, as the Audi video does.

The car fires I have seen and have seen videos of are either wholly in the engine compartment or confined within the passenger compartment until the windows break.

[charles]

But, if it's a "cherished number" that's irrelevant. But, who's to say that someone from Peterborough can't use Luton airport?

[Andrew]

JLR shares are not listed. Tata is massive, not just a car company.

[Tim Streater]

A plate of E10 EFL certainly doesn't.

[The Natural Philosopher]

If you look at the financial news, JLR is a big swinger of share value

[The Natural Philosopher]

yeah, right. No way is that a 1987 car!

[The Natural Philosopher]

That is the intention.

There has been plenty of time to identify what the car really was from people on the ground. But no definitive information has been released.

Why not?