EVs are Smoking Hot, They Don't Normally Catch Fire

Personally I have driven by 3 different car fires in the last two years on local roads and none of these fires were EV fires. You might be wondering why I even bring this up? The reason is when the first Chevy Volt fire was reported it was all over the news as if cold fusion had been discovered, yet almost every single day a gas car catches on fire. The initial reports of the Volt on Fire was because of faulty crash test procedures and the gasoline and battery packs were not drained after the NHTSA crash tests had been performed.

While this is old news, at the time I was very disappointed for the media jumping all over the Chevy Volt, when it was purposefully crashed and then left to sit with gasoline in it (fire hazard) and fully charged batteries (potential fire hazard) as well if not carefully treated after a crash. Like any car that was compromised after a crash in which gasoline could be lit on fire.

Upon doing a Google Search of the most recent week of stories and the key words of “Car Fire” the only one that shows up is the one referenced above. The Indy 500 this past weekend even had a fire break out in one of the cars before the race even started! What people have come to accept is that gas cars don’t normally catch on fire, the same is true for electric vehicles as most currently commercially available EVs do not catch on fire. Most stories I could find via a Google Search where from the 2013 era and earlier Chevy Volt and early Tesla S fires.

One recent recall due to a fire hazard was from Porsche who is recalling every 918 Spyder plug-in hybrid supercar. They found a potentially faulty radiator-fan wiring which could cause a fire. A faulty fan wire could be in any gas car as well so I believe the initial outrage over EVs being fire traps was over stated.