ELI5- Are lithium batteries in electric cars more dangerous or hazardous than a gasoline car? If so, why or why not?
In: 944
This question requires a person to define dangerous, which implies risk (likelihood of an incident and hazard associated with the incident ). Hazardous to whom or what is an important consideration: drivers in an accident, fire fighters, the environment?
In a car wreck or fire situation the EV battery could be considered more dangerous to people nearby due to (1) the generation of heat from lithium batteries and potential for “thermal runaway” (Lithium, by it’s natural properties is highly flammable) and (2) people generally are less familiar with the fire hazards of batteries compared to the fire hazards of gasloine.
Lithium cells can ignite in many different ways, for example, damage to the cells from a car accident or even defects during manufacturing (e.g. small fragments of metal in the electrolyte).
When lithium cells heat up, that heat can transfer to surrounding cells which also heat up. What makes this situation dangerous (to e.g. fire fighters) is that you can cool down a cell so that it does not burst into flames, but that cell or surrounding cells can continue to generate heat (lithium is flammable) and fire can start again.
Overall I would say that given the question is broad and open to interpretation, and that vehicle safety standards and government regulation exist for both vehicle types, the dangers and hazards to general drivers going down the road are likely very similar.
I don’t know that it is fair to look at fire incident statistics in unless someone has accounted for additional biases in the data. For example, maybe people who drive newer, more expensive EV vehicles are less likely to get into a crash…that might cause a fire . They might be less likely to crash because (1) they’re cautious driving expensive vehicles (2) they have technology built in to reduce accidents (3) newer vehicles are less likely to have mechanical issues .
Latest Answers