Electric Vehicles are Unsafe at Any Charge
The rush to transition to electric vehicles has no foundation in real-world practicality or economics. Are we being forced to give up private transportation altogether?
Photo: Daily Mail U.K.
Sometimes it takes a natural disaster to open people’s eyes to reality. In this case, it took Hurricane Ian blasting through the middle of Florida to expose a harsh truth about electric vehicles (EVs), and that truth applies to every EV on the road today.
EVs are already known to be very dirty to manufacture, they don’t operate for nearly as long as advertised, are very expensive to acquire and maintain, and will likely require a battery replacement in around ten years that will cost about $10,000. And now Florida’s top fire marshal has added one more truth to the list:
“There’s a ton of EVs disabled from Ian. As those batteries corrode, fires start. That’s a new challenge that our firefighters haven’t faced before, at least on this kind of scale.”
Florida is America’s second largest EV market after California, with 95,600 registered vehicles. It’s not clear how many of these EVs were damaged by the storm’s flood waters, yet the fact remains that every single EV on the road today has critical design flaws which can result in the EVs lithium-ion battery exploding spontaneously.
In Florida’s recent case, EVs had floodwater get into the lithium-ion battery, causing corrosion which in turn creates thermal runaway which can trigger a fire without a spark. Thermal runaway most commonly happens when the electric car is being charged, which is why EVs are a potential fire risk. Every single one.
High Voltage and Heat
Electric car batteries are very high voltage devices, between 400 and 800 volts, and are at risk of catching fire by their very design. Unlike today’s conventional 12-volt vehicle batteries, high-voltage EV batteries heat up tremendously during a fill-up and are therefore charged up slowly to reduce the fire risk that is inherent in all EVs during the charging process.
But not just during the charging process; an EV battery can ignite simply as a result of being hit or exposed to moisture. Which is very concerning because unlike a gas tank (usually located ahead of the rear axle, isolated to that part of the car and surrounded by protective structure), an EV battery is spread out across nearly all of the vehicle’s chassis due to its large size. With 1,000 pounds of batteries, a Tesla 3 can encounter impact from the front, side, or rear and the resulting battery damage can trigger a fire.
If this Tesla catches fire, first responders cannot treat this as they would a gas-powered vehicle. This is a full-on hazardous materials incident that requires specialized materials and techniques, for which not all fire departments have been trained. And once extinguished, an EV battery fire can erupt over and over again, requiring special fire-containment systems installed at vehicle junkyards to deal with this EV-specific problem.
Should Exploding Batteries be Reason Enough to Trigger a Recall?
In all of the history of the automobile, electric vehicle battery fires have been the most under-reported and under-recalled design defect. But that might be changing now.
The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) finally had to issue a recall for the 2019-2020 Hyundai Kona and 2020 Hyundai Ioniq after over a dozen battery fires were reported. In total, Hyundai said it would recall 82,000 vehicles at a cost of around $900 million. This comes after GM announced a recall of 69,000 Chevy Bolts and Audi recalled over 500 E-Tron SUVs, both over the risk of battery fires.
While waiting for repairs to vehicles, NHTSA informs EV owners that in the meantime, “the safest place to park your EV is outside and away from homes and other structures.” Pretty solid advice for those not wanting their house burned down.
Think about the infamous Ford Pinto from the early 1970’s that was recalled because of a design defect that caused the car to burn when hit from behind. Now consider that all electric cars have this defect, as well as a tendency for their batteries to spontaneously combust after being corroded by floodwaters.
And the Numbers are Growing
As EVs are force-fed into the market by government mandates, the numbers will increase and so will the number of thermal runaway fires. Fewer people will wait 6 to 12 hours to recharge their EV via 110 volt household power, and more will seek out “fast” charging alternatives regardless of higher risk of fire. And with more EVs on the road, there will be more accidents involving EVs and their corresponding battery fires.
Tests have shown that hydrogen-powered vehicles, emitting only water at the tailpipe, are not prone to having their fuel cells explode as is the case with electric-powered vehicles. They also refuel quickly like gasoline models and have longer range than electric. So, if these safer vehicles are also carbon free, why aren’t we pushing hydrogen instead of the plug-in technology that can blow up in your garage?
Hydrogen is expensive to capture and liquify, plus there is no widespread fueling network supporting hydrogen-powered vehicles. That all could change, however I think something else is at work.
“Maybe You Shouldn’t Own a Car At All”
The choice has already been made for you. It’s inconsequential that a state like California does not have an electrical power grid that can handle charging millions of future EVs (Cali can’t even charge the EVs on their roads today during a seasonal heatwave). It doesn’t matter if you can’t afford paying 40 to 60 percent more for an electrified version of a gas-powered car. Who cares if EV batteries are exploding in cars, trucks and busses?
The purpose here is to make personal transport prohibitive, expensive and dangerous so that people will, theoretically, give up private car ownership and migrate to public transit systems. The exploding EV batteries and their deadly consequences are a reminder to citizens everywhere that maybe we should not own vehicles at all.
EV battery technology will improve over time, however the laws of physics remain steadfast and any dramatic improvement will require significant R&D, a lot of time, and a scientific breakthrough or two. In the meantime, the rush to transition to electric vehicles has no foundation in real-world practicality or economics. If the intention here is to force another underdeveloped, expensive and dangerous “green” technology onto society regardless of our welfare and wishes, the powers that be are overplaying their “green” energy authority.