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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Gasoline cars have a substantially greater risk of fire than typical EV batteries, risk of fuel spreading out from the source, and a risk of explosion. But Gasoline fires are MUCH easier to put out than a typical lithium battery, and they tend to have less toxic fumes (the gasoline, anyway, the rubber, plastic, and other materials in the car give off very toxic smoke when they burn). Lithium EV batteries don’t have a risk of explosion, but if they rupture, the damaged portion of the battery can become very hot very quickly and they can be very difficult to stop the fire.
There’s a less common type of EV battery that doesn’t rapidly heat or easily catch fire: lithium ferrophosphate (LFP) batteries. They don’t store as much energy per kilogram of battery, but if you pierce the battery with a piece of metal or rupture it, it won’t catch fire like the others can. As far as I know, the only EVs sold in the US that use LFP batteries are the Tesla Model 3 SR (after October 2021).
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