ELI5- Are lithium batteries in electric cars more dangerous or hazardous than a gasoline car? If so, why or why not?
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On average there are 1529 fires per 100,000 gas vehicles and just 25 fires per 100,000 electric vehicles.
I am a firefighter, we have had to look at EV’s in detail not because they are catching fire at a greater rate, but because of the risks to fire crew on scene and the difficulty in keeping an EV extinguished. There are special storage and space considerations for an EV once it reaches a yard for insurance inspection and eventual scrapping too. An EV fire is toxic as hell (not that a gasoline fire is a delight either of course).
We have to know and understand that if an EV catches fire in a rural or remote location, then it is likely that we will not have access to sufficient water for cooling/extinguishing. We can call for ‘make tankers x ‘ to have a shuttle system in place for deliveries of water in 6 ton loads, but at any typical motor vehicle accident you find yourself trying to manoeuvre in 14 ton tanker vehicles in a traffic jammed, restricted location and it becomes a serious hassle.
In short, it appears that EV’s are vastly less likely to catch fire, but when they do it’s a pain in the arse. It’s worth noting that EV’s as modern high-tech vehicles have so many safety features too (compared to 100 years of gasoline vehicles) which would help with the incidence of accidents.
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