Do electric vehicles really catch fire more than gas cars? The data tells a very different story. Gasoline and diesel powered cars are far more likely to catch fire and burn. Yet a single EV fire gets more headlines and attention than thousands of ICE vehicle fires combined.
https://interestingengineering.com/transportation/do-electric-vehicles-really-catch-fire-more
by mafco
26 comments
A single shark attack gets more headlines than a dog bite – even though dog bites (per dog/per owner) are *far* more common. Same thing.
A bit over 500 EV fires; globally, since 2014.
Over 170,000 ICEV fires; in 2024, in just the USA
Headlines and media reports are prompted by the impossible extinguishing of EV fires.
I think the problem is an unexpected issue in the battery and then a horrific fire…. while its sitting in your garage. That is more common with electric cars (still crazy rare), but it happens and it burns people’s houses down and its shitty/
Man bites dog. If it’s being reported it’s because it isn’t common.
happened to someone I know from an electric golf cart
The statistics are yet to be made on this. Gasoline and diesel cars are much older too and serviced virtually anywhere. Wait until EVs are multiple decades old and used batteries and third party repair shops are prevalent and the needle is going to start moving the other direction.
Is cars catching on fire a big problem?
This is not the issue. The issue is what can be put out with normal water and suffocation.
I call bs.. though it happens and they are difficult to put out… many battery fires are caused by cheap scooter and hover board batteries or incorrect charging. Current battery technology will virtually eliminate thus issue in new EV technology.
But what would we have to clutch pearls over!
Bettridge’s Law
This topic is a super old red herring.
The ice industry has always turned to it when they want to compete against some kind of alternative fuel source.
I first became aware of it when talking about hydrogen as a fuel source. The shtick was that you can’t use hydrogen, look what happened to the Hindenburg. Of course this ignores the fact that petroleum is just as if not more explosive than hydrogen.
It’s also similar to the old ac/dc electricity debats between Edison and Tesla. Edison’s DC was far more dangerous but he electrocuted elephants and claimed it was because AC was so dangerous.
Humans are stupid. And we stupidly believe propaganda if it touches our fear factor or conforms with what we want to be true.
With EVs there is an issue with how to put an ion lithium battery on out. It’s a real issue because you don’t need an ignitor like you do with gas. It’s a chemical reaction when what’s inside hits oxygen. However basic gas is simply far easier to just accidentally blow up or catch fire.
And this doesn’t even consider the fact that at some point we will move beyond ion lithium.
Of course. Fossil fuel industry will do everything possible to slow the progress of EVS. Lie, cheat, obfuscate.
because the petrol industry is as wealthy as small countries
EVs are new. The risks (& the extent) are relatively unknown.
ICE vehicles are known & *all* of the risks associated are generally accepted as just… an unavoidable given.
?
The biggest issue is EV have an increased chances of catching fire long after you have left during charging so hours later.
ICE powered cars tend to catch fire shortly after you park them as after that they have cooled down enough not to catch fire.
Both catch fire in crashes and EV fires are a hell of a lot harder to put out.
All that being said the risk of fire from either are crazy low and even lower when you remove crashes from the equation.
just be cause we constantly see images of EVs burning furiously as they release lithium, nickel, cobalt and copper in huge clouds of toxic smoke
the really fun part of that stuff is the hydrogen fluoride which is dread toxic at 30ppm that comes at something like 400-600 ppm in an EV fire
combustion engine cars do in fact release these chemical horrors as well but in much much lower levels
but energy storage tech and battery development has continued apace, perhaps next year they’ll find a way to store power without using such horrible chemicals
I think there are a couple of important differences. EVs can (at least more often than ICE) catch fire when they’re unattended. Like when you leave them to charge etc. The other factor is that a small fire in an ICE vehicle can be stopped from spreading using a fire extinguisher. A small battery fire in an EV has no chance of stopping regardless of what you do. Whether these things are fair for an objective comparison I don’t know but that is what is publicised on the topic.
It seems like mortality rate would be a much more important statistic, no?
I’ve seen ICE vehicles driving down the road on fire with the driver blissfully unaware of what’s going on. Might be different in an EV.
Fire statistics are very much in favor of EV over ICE. This is well known, and easy to research.
Radical regressives share the disinformation about electric vehicles which is why you see it. There is strong effort by the fossil fuel industry to spread this misinformation, because they can see the superior economics of EVs just as well as consumers see it, and it’s a massive threat to their business.
The majority of EV fires, as few as they are, have been caused by the garage or house around them catching fire, crashes, road debris puncturing battery, and arson. EVs have battery management systems that monitor for abnormal conditions and shut off charging if there’s any risk.
Fuck e cars we need public transport
Tbf EV numbers are a bit skewed because most of them are kind of new.
Are people actually questioning if the cars that run on exploding flames catch fire more than the battery ones?
Some days I wonder how we made it out of the trees. Most days, I regret that we did.
Start with that things that happens all the time and not newsworthy. It is not interesting, but what happens rarely, beating the world record, is an event that is rare and newsworthy.
It’s not about the frequency. The issue is EV fires burn much hotter and are very hard to extinguish. They can burn for a very long time.
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