Electric Cars - fire risks

[Nomoss]

As I read things, a Wizz Air cabin crew took a photo of the blazing Range Rover that started the fire before the fire had spread. The photo showed it to be on the driving lane, i.e. not parked and the rear lights were on.

Do you have a link to that report, please?

[Bayleaf]

@Nomoss

https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-bed ... s-67077996

Halfway down the article.

[niemeyjt]

Do you have a link to that report, please?

I think the link from Bayleaf shows everything - but here is a screen scrape from https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/articl ... calls.html

You can see the flames have yet to spread, the Range Rover is in the roadway, not parked, with lights on as I said earlier.

rrfire.png

or https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/articl ... oment.html (if you want the mention of Wizz cabin crew)

rrfire2.png

[Spectrum]

@Spectrum
I sense some incredulity in your post that they have identified the seat of the fire so quickly and that it happened to be a diesel.

I can only comment from the one example I have been involved with, namely the complete destruction of a warehouse and several thousand tonnes of plastic raw materials. The investigators went in and found the seat of the fire within one hour. It was described as being as if there was a big sign hanging from what was left of the structure saying "Look. It started here" and that from inexpert eyes not from the professional fire investigators.

Not really, just reporting what has been broadcast on various news channels. The driver would have been able to tell the authorities all the details of his RR. Iam surprised that it was a diesel, that looks to be a very intensive fire, more like a petrol fire, and yes I have been involved in various fires in my working lifetime, could it have been something more sinister

[niemeyjt]

Land Rover seem to have some form . . .

People living in nearby apartments were also forced to leave as 21 fire crews tackled the blaze which began when a Land Rover burst into flames.

source: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-m ... e-46290095

Also, AA technical expert Greg Carter said car fires are most commonly caused by an electrical fault with the 12-volt battery system.

source: https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/articl ... klers.html

[DominicBest]

Just been reading an article that Tyre manufactures are now producing tyres specifically for EV cars, less derogation, = less pollution, only tested on Teslas yet put more sizes in 2024.

Surely they’ve always sold tyres specifically designed for EVs.

Apparently not, and this is the problem, EVs are a lot heaver than IC cars, also they accelerate faster, a lot more torque, the standard tyres are wearing down too quick, ie loosing bits of rubber etc on the road, hence more pollution. As for the fire I thought that they were very quick to say it was a diesel car that started the fire .

I disagree about the tyres. The comment about the diesel car came from Bedfordshire’s chief fire officer so I think I will listen to him over you.

[Polarengineer]

If it was caused by an electrical fault, why are the rear light still on?

[exile]

Why do you think an electrical fault means no electricity?

I have heard of faults where things that should be off, are on.

[Hotrodder]

And I have heard more than a few statements by Range Rover owners about unreliability. Most recently about hybrid ones. The complexity of these things has increased exponentially over the last two decades. A while ago I had an interesting conversation with a systems designer with the company. He was part of a specialised design team and was currently working on integrating (some) of the electronic gizmos. Incredibly there were 5 different aerials on the car and he was in charge of getting maximum efficiency out of them while keeping cross interference at a minimum. Oh, and they all had to be more or less hidden and safe from physical impact.

[Spectrum]

Surely they’ve always sold tyres specifically designed for EVs.

Apparently not, and this is the problem, EVs are a lot heaver than IC cars, also they accelerate faster, a lot more torque, the standard tyres are wearing down too quick, ie loosing bits of rubber etc on the road, hence more pollution. As for the fire I thought that they were very quick to say it was a diesel car that started the fire .

I disagree about the tyres. The comment about the diesel car came from Bedfordshire’s chief fire officer so I think I will listen to him over you.

The tyre article was in "What Car" Septembers edition if I remember correctly, as for the cause of the fire, as it was a hybrid it could have been a short in the power supply, the car lights etc would have still worked for a while as they would take their power from the battery under the bonnet. As for the fuel diesel burns with a black smoke, petrol does not, as for a battery fire I dont know, but it looked like a very intensive fire, no one mentioned this I hope no one was caught inside at the time, the rear nearside passengers would have had be to very brave to try and get out on that side. Anyhow despite all our theory's we will have to wait for the "Truth" to come out.