One car fire is having a tremendous impact on South Korea. The fire in question took place in August. That has been enough time to give the South Korean government a chance to act.
This may result in EVs being banned for underground garages. Mercedes EQE's Catastrophic Fire In Underground Garage: What We Know
Even though, statistically, electric vehicles are less likely to catch fire than cars with a combustion engine. But when they do go up in flames, they can cause a lot more damage. This Mercedes-Benz EQE started showing white smoke and went ablaze seconds later in an underground parking lot in an apartment complex in the city of Incheon, which is about 20 miles west of Seoul, South Korea.
The car was not being charged when it burst into flames. It had been parked for 3 days.
140 vehicles were damaged or destroyed. 103 of the people who lived in the apartment building had to be evacuated because of toxic smoke from the EV fire. 23 people were hospitalized for smoke inhalation. The fire knocked out electric power for the building in question and part of the entire complex, such that 500 households were without electricity for 5 days.
As a result of this fire, the government of South Korea is proposing some fairly expensive fire supression rules on underground garages that may contain parked EVs. The government [of South Korea] mandates all underground parking lots to install fire extinguishing and warning facilities.
On the 27th, the government announced the "Comprehensive Measures for Underground Parking Lot Electric Vehicle Fire Safety" aimed at preventing accidents by strengthening safety standards for underground parking lots and minimizing damage by responding quickly to electric vehicle fires. In order to secure the effectiveness of the improvement measures, the comprehensive measures consisting of four major promotion strategies and 19 tasks were also collected from expert advice and field personnel in various fields.
That is a translation of an article in Korean, so I'm not sure if you can bypass the expense by banning EVs from parking underground or not. It was floated as on option by MGUY Australia in his video Korea takes DRASTIC action to prevent EV FIRES
I wonder what the American Concrete Institute thinks about LI fires. I know that fire can cause concrete to become friable when exposed to high heat. Chemical changes and spalling also. In essence, costly damage to the concrete.
ReplyDeleteContainment of heat seems to be the path regulators are taking. Worse, they're putting the costs not on the car mfgs, but the structure owners. It is likely that containment will not resolve the problem of copious amounts of toxic smoke.
I would be hot after car mfgs to develop a containment of the heat. That is likely very difficult and fraught with its own problems (containment of exothermic reaction - are you kidding?) plus astronomic costs.
The best, most immediate, low cost option is to ban LI vehicles from parking garages, tunnels, bridges. The two former become like confined spaces in the event of an LI fire.
I think the first thing that should happen is that the people whose property in Pacific Palisades is impacted by all the toxic waste from electric car batteries and LI house batteries - which never made sense to me - should sue all of the manufacturers for endangering them, impacting their property, etc.
DeleteThen we can have the parking garages sue the manufacturers for destroying their buildings.
Is the risk of LI battery explosion or fire severe enough to be classified as a product defect?
Delete(I reckon a tort lawyer would answer in the affirmative.)
If not, then I would say that EV car mfgs are not the origin of the problem. They are contributory but not causative.
Politicians are the true cause. Car makers in a capitalist economy rush to market but must comply with regulatory laws. To that end I expect legal actions against governmental mandates.
Your mention of the CA fires is especially intriguing. How many of the EV cars were in the fires due to gov subsidies for purchasing the cars, or in anticipation of regulatory compliance? If even one EV vehicle were proven so, I expect the state to be directly liable (this aside from the fire suppression role of gov)
Perhaps the car makers have erred in acting as if EV compliance is the same as every other compliance (seat belts, as example) with the law.
More than getting out of the EV market, as some mfgs have, I think a better plan would be the EV car makers to recall every of their EV vehicles.
Boy, in writing this, I can see this becoming very messy, legally speaking.
RE: using the car makers
DeleteIn Sept 2019, the dive boat MV Conception caught fire and burned resulting in multiple fatalities.
The cause were the numerous devices with LI batteries all plugged in to charge. Such devices were underwater cameras, , flash lights, strobe lights, and cell phones.
The dive operator which owned and operated the vessel was the target of numerous lawsuits. This even though the vessel had recently passed a regular USCG inspection. The fact is the electric wiring was satisfactory, but not sufficient to carry the load demand of numerous devices. It is doubtful that the crew on watch, even if he or she knew of the potential risk, would have been able to prevent a fire.
The only options would have been to unplug all the devices; or charge the devices in rotation.
As this was an excursion for underwater photography and the paying passengers would demand their devices be fully charged, neither option would go over well.
Anyway, notice that none of the device mfgs were held liable. Nor were any of the divers or their estates.
A sorry, tragic tale. A very messy legal problem.