One for the EV sceptics

EVs are so environmentally friendly, aren't they?

Are they also likely to catch fire if the battery is damaged in an accident?

All it says is:

The coastguard said the cause of the fire was unknown, but had earlier suggested it might have been an electric car.

About 25 of the vehicles on the ship were electric.

That blaze is clearly far too big to be just 25 electric cars on fire. So, the real problem is the other 3000 odd petrol cars that have been driven on board with fuel in the tanks.

Indeed.

But it's pretty rare for an ICE car to spontaneously catch fire.

The problem is any carrier of volatile stuff needs to have a suitable fire hazard suppression system. Did I not hear that Garages that service them have been told by health and safety they cannot have too many in the workshop at one time due to the problem if a battery starts a fire. It would be like storing the contents of an open fuel tank next to a naked flame. Brian

You'd think that a car transporter should have a sprinkler system installed?

What good is that for a lithium fire? Fire brigades have problems dealing with them, I think partly because the fire is an effect, not a cause, and it's difficult to deal with the cause. .

Although, for safety reasons, the amount of fuel in a petrol or diesel car being shipped in this way is kept to the minimum needed for manoeuvring them.

That would either need a very large water tank, or a take-up of sea water, but it is not a good idea to start filling a ship with extra water. The risk of sinking it by doing so is why the tugs alongside are only spraying the outside of the hull.

A fire suppression system, using either CO2 or halon gas, would be a better choice, as well as being better suited to a fire involving liquid fuels.

Not really suitable for burning liquid or electrical fires.

It’s also very rare for a new EV to spontaneously catch fire.

Tim

That is the case for every car ferry in the world and you don't often hear of their catching fire because of fuel in the tanks.

I suppose the cars are full of plastics and so on, too, but I suspect that it's such a PITA if the cars run out of fuel that they put rather more than the bare minimum in the tank.

There are plenty of reports of EVs catching fire - sometimes inside peoples' homes - where the battery is blamed (for being substandard).

So if a battery can be rendered substandard by damage (which is what damage does), the logical answer to your question has to be "Yes".

Electric bikes, yes. But EVs? How do you get one in your home>

An electric bike is nothing more than an electric vehicle.

EVs of various sizes may be accommodated within a domestic garage (some of which take up a large part of the ground floor footprint, which they share with a utility room or kitchen) or even immediately adjacent to the property on a hard-standing or driveway.

Plenty of serious house-fires are caused by vehicles within the curtilage, whether inside or out.

Not sure if it was a Top Gear or Grand Tour, but when Richard Hammond totalled an EV, we were told it burst into flames in the quarantined storage it was kept in.

Very long while ago now but the father of my section leader was a car delivery driver. He often had cheap lead acid batteries for sale as vehicles were not allowed to be shipped with the battery fitted.

I'm on my 3rd garage (house with one)

In the first the garage was 50% underneath one of the bedrooms, and 50% sticking out of the front of the house.

In the next one it was adjacent and attached to the house; the larger house next door had an extra bedroom. Which was entirely on top of the garage.

The garage here is detached. It also contains my garden office (with door to outside) workshop, and a thoroughly fireproofed room containing nothing but the heating oil tank.

Andy