A collision can, one would have thought, create sufficient damage to allow both ignition and fire just as is the case with ICE vehicles.

Depends on the battery casing, if you check out Munro Live he has a video on the Tesla battery case and the explosive device they use to cut off electrical supply in a collision

thats not to say a fire won`t occur but it does help to prevent one, also the compound used between battery cells is fire resistant/not sure how good it is but would think it would help....and as the battery case is the chassis it must be fairly tough

and they do explode like white hot fireworks which are deadly if your in the way, they appear to be compared to either petrol or diesel, but actually I can`t really see the comparison as those batteries burn far more intensely than petrol does...by a long way

Edited by Bolt on 01/08/2023 at 12:12

A more pertinent question would be what you can do about it?

If batteries can explode there is not much you can do to prevent it. As a consumer you can only decide whether to buy such a car or not.

You can still be affected if other EV hit you.

I think it is still a very small % of EVs catching fire.

Title is a bit misleading when compared with the content. I take "explode in a collision" to imply explode on impact.

I dunno if this can happen, but it apparently didn't in the incident described, where the explosions followed the fire.

Well said.

Ever read what it says on any battery, normally something like "do not dispose in fire". That is because they explode. When we were kids it was common to throw batteries on fires (just like aerosols) just for the fun of it. probably a miracle no one was injured.

But why should the truth get in the way of a good story, or should I say a good title that adds yet more fire (sorry about that) to the anti EV rhetoric on this site.

Where have all those Toyota Hybrid fan boys gone?

What is forgotten in accidents involving cars is the weight of the heavier car hitting the lighter one and usually the lighter one comes of worse same as big one hits smaller one big one usually being the heaviest. With these EVs they are all proportionally heavier size for size than your ICE so in any accident they will carry speed for speed much greater inertia. Depending on the speed of the accident and angles involved no EV battery compartment would withstand a collision and this is why so many EVs are being written off. Two Teslas colliding or any EVs for that matter. There is a chance of a fire in any car accident but where EVs are concerned if one does happen what you describe is indeed intense and explosive. The fires are chemical and not electrical and very difficult to extinguish.

I’m pretty sure that’s old, debunked, footage of a petrol tanker exploding… A bit of digging later, it’s a lorry carrying gas cylinders, having collided with an Isuzu truck. With a higher resolution image, you can see the cylinders scattered around.

pretty sure you are right you can see a cylinder go whizzing over to the opposite carriageway. Wrong facts or wrong video but still some useful comments on fires

This is from the US but underlines the the liklehood of a EV fire:

Bureau of Transportation Statistics and the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB), per 100,000 vehicles sold, hybrid vehicles caught fire the most, with 3,474.5 incidents. Internal combustion engine (ICE) vehicles came in second with 1,529.9, and EVs trailed the pack with only 25.1 fires.

This is from the US but underlines the the liklehood of a EV fire:

Bureau of Transportation Statistics and the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB), per 100,000 vehicles sold, hybrid vehicles caught fire the most, with 3,474.5 incidents. Internal combustion engine (ICE) vehicles came in second with 1,529.9, and EVs trailed the pack with only 25.1 fires.

Well as EVs in US comprise less than 10% of the car population, one would expect fewer fires by the measure used.

The stats are per 100k vehicles so adjusted for that.

Yes 9 year old video edited and then posted, so picked up with a different title.

' NUFF said

Subject closed

Please all check facts before posting.

Personally I believed the original bit posted by PV as he has been on here a long time.

ORB Mod