engineering

List of thermal incidents in electric vehicles

List of thermal incidents in electric vehicles is a engineering topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand List of thermal incidents in electric vehicles rather than just read about it. In short: Since at least 2010, fires and thermal incidents have been reported in cars, buses, boats, and other electric vehicles. This is a list of fires in electric vehicles attributed directly to a fault or failure in the main traction battery cause by a manufacturing or maintenance defect (excluding crashes, intentional damage, and other external causes.) A Future EV About 6 a.m. on 17 November 2010, a fire broke out on th…

Key takeaways

List of thermal incidents in electric vehicles belongs to engineering; place it in that map before memorising details.
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Connect List of thermal incidents in electric vehicles to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
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Reference excerpt

Since at least 2010, fires and thermal incidents have been reported in cars, buses, boats, and other electric vehicles. This is a list of fires in electric vehicles attributed directly to a fault or failure in the main traction battery cause by a manufacturing or maintenance defect (excluding crashes, intentional damage, and other external causes.)

A Future EV About 6 a.m. on 17 November 2010, a fire broke out on the vehicle deck of the MS Pearl of Scandinavia on its way from Oslo to Copenhagen. The ferry's fire sprinkler system put out the fire before any of the crew or the 490 sleeping passengers were injured and the ship could dock in Copenhagen under its own power. It was determined that the cause of the fire was a short circuit in the plug of an extension cord used to charge a rebuilt Nissan Qashqai, converted into a battery electric vehicle by the Sakskøbing based company A Future EV. The company owner was returning from Norway where the vehicle had started the approval process for general sale there, and had used an extension cord to charge the vehicle from a general purpose power outlet on the ferry. The ferry operator DFDS Seaways consequently prohibited vehicle charging on board its ferries while the investors withdrew their support for the vehicle company forcing it into bankruptcy.

Zotye M300 EV A Zotye M300 EV operating as a taxicab caught fire in Hangzhou, China, in April 2011. No one was injured as the driver and two passengers evacuated the electric car in time. Due to the incident, the city authorities decided to halt all electric taxis on safety concerns, 15 of which were M300 EVs out of a fleet of 30 electric taxis. The city's official investigation team found the cause of the fire was the car's defective battery pack due to lack of quality control during manufacturing. According to the investigation report, the battery pack problems include: leaking of battery cells; damage of the insulation between battery cells and the walls of the aluminum container in which the cells were stacked; short circuits occurred within certain containers and those involving supporting and connecting parts. One of the stronger short circuits ignited the car's back seats. The lead investigators said that "...in sealing and packing the battery cells, in loading and unloading the battery stacks, insufficient attention had been paid to several safety factors; monitoring procedures had been inefficient or neglected in the process of manufacturing, battery charging/switching, and vehicle driving, failing to detect anomalies." The report added that the battery cells on the car were made by Zhejiang Wanxiang Group.

Chevrolet Bolt As of August 2021, Electrek had compiled a list of 18 battery-related Chevrolet Bolt fires, and one possible-battery related fire. The frequent fires resulted in a recall of about 110,000 Chevrolet Bolt and Bolt EUV EVs from the 2017 through 2022 model years. Even after the recall, several fires occurred in vehicles that had received the new software and been checked by a dealer — including one in a vehicle owned by a Vermont state lawmaker. Another fire happened in New Jersey, the company told CNBC. GM says it's still investigating the fires, and is asking owners who haven't gotten the fix to take their Bolts in to a dealer regardless. At least nine fires have been documented, and the company has started buying back some Bolts. Moreover, the company recommended that Bolt owners park their cars outside and at least 50 feet away from other vehicles. On September 13, 2021, a Chevrolet Bolt caught fire in a private garage in Cherokee County, Georgia, US. The owner had either been unaware or simply ignored the recommendation to park outside.

Chevrolet Volt As a result of a crash-tested Chevrolet Volt that caught fire in June 2011 three weeks after the testing, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) issued a statement saying that the agency does not believe the Volt or other electric vehicles are at a greater risk of fire than gasoline-powered vehicles. They added: "In fact, all vehicles –both electric and gasoline-powered – have some risk of fire in the event of a serious crash." The NHTSA announced in November 2011 that it was working with all automakers to develop post-crash procedures to keep occupants of electric vehicles and emergency personnel who respond to crash scenes safe. In further testing of the Volt's batteries carried out by NHTSA in November 2011, two of the three tests resulted in thermal events, including fire. Therefore, the NHTSA opened a formal safety defect investigation on November 25, 2011, to examine the potential risks involved from intrusion damage to the battery in the Chevrolet Volt.

On January 5, 2012, General Motors announced that it would offer a customer satisfaction program to provide modifications to the Chevrolet Volt to reduce the chance that the battery pack could catch fire days or weeks after a severe accident. General Motors explained the modifications will enhance the vehicle structure that surround the battery and the battery coolant system to improve battery protection after a severe crash. The safety enhancements consist of strengthening an existing portion of the Volt's vehicle safety structure to further protect the battery pack in a severe side collision; add a sensor in the reservoir of the battery coolant system to monitor coolant levels; and add a tamper-resistant bracket to the top of the battery coolant reservoir to help prevent potential coolant overfill. On January 20, 2012, the NHTSA closed the Volt's safety defect investigation related to post-crash fire risk. The agency concluded that "no discernible defect trend exists" and also found that the modifications recently developed by General Motors are sufficient to reduce the potential for battery intrusion resulting from side impacts. The NHTSA also said that "based on the available data, NHTSA does not believe that Chevy Volts or other electric vehicles pose a greater risk of fire than gasoline-powered vehicles." The agency also announced it has developed interim guidance to increase awareness and identify appropriate safety measures regarding electric vehicles for the emergency response community, law enforcement officers, tow truck operators, storage facilities and consumers.

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Illustrations

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with List of thermal incidents in electric vehicles

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what List of thermal incidents in electric vehicles claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In engineering, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to List of thermal incidents in electric vehicles before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about List of thermal incidents in electric vehicles ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of List of thermal incidents in electric vehicles

In research: List of thermal incidents in electric vehicles appears in engineering research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses List of thermal incidents in electric vehicles in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: List of thermal incidents in electric vehicles is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics Battery electric vehicles, Electric vehicle industry, Lists of fires, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for List of thermal incidents in electric vehicles outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

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Frequently asked questions

What is List of thermal incidents in electric vehicles in simple terms?

Why does List of thermal incidents in electric vehicles matter?

Because it connects several engineering ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study List of thermal incidents in electric vehicles?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

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