THE MORNING RANT: The Explosive Hazard of EVs in Parking Garages; and Other EV Follies

While electric vehicle sales may not amount to more than a single-digit market share, the numbers on the road are now significant enough that there is a growing conversation over whether EVs should be allowed in parking structures. Part of that discussion is about how the owners of buildings that contain parking structures can protect and insure against an unknown number of potential bombs that may be parked there at any given time.

This awful story from South Korea is likely to be repeated with growing frequency, and it is fueling the discussions I just referenced.

“South Korea holds emergency meeting as EV fires stir consumer fear” [Reuters – 8/12/2024]

South Korean officials met on Monday to discuss electric vehicle safety and whether to require car firms to disclose battery brands amid growing consumer concern after an EV blaze in an underground garage extensively damaged an apartment block.

It doesn’t matter what brand of battery is in the EV, what matters is that it’s a lithium ion EV battery, which by nature is prone to runaway thermal fires.

The fire on Aug. 1, which appeared to start spontaneously in a Mercedes-Benz EV parked below a residential building, took eight hours to put out, destroying or damaging about 140 cars and forcing some residents to move to shelters.

I have previously joked about requiring a prominent warning label on the hood of EVs, cautioning about the fire hazard EVs pose to their drivers and to those nearby. Maybe it’s time to stop joking.

Images published in media of dozens of charred cars with only their metal frames remaining in the parking lot fire have fuelled consumer fears about EVs, likely exacerbated because so many people in South Korea live in apartments, often with parking lots below.

An Automotive News piece a few days ago titled “Lithium ion battery fire regulation could help heal industrywide black eye” acknowledges that consumers are becoming scared of lithium batteries, therefore help is needed from the federal bureaucracy to issue regulatory decrees that will somehow make lithium batteries safe. The piece also notes that in 2023, in New York City alone, there were 268 fires started by lithium ion batteries on various transportation devices, resulting in 18 deaths and 150 injuries. Of course, the federal government can no more mandate that lithium ion batteries stop combusting than it can mandate that straw be spun into gold.

Instead, I’d recommend that the government simply ban EVs from being allowed in any parking garages or covered structures. (And yes, that is somewhat counter to my anti-regulation ethos, but remember, Team EV tried to use the power of government to take away my gasoline-powered car, so I have every right to retaliate with the same powerful weapon.)

Here is a short video of the electric Mercedes exploding. Please note that it goes from barely smoking to a fiery explosion in just 21 seconds.

This Fortune piece dated 8/07/2024 reports that ”Several office buildings [in South Korea] have now banned EVs from entering and parking, according to notices on social media.” That’s wise.

Last month I inquired in one of my pieces about how insurance companies are dealing with the growing menace of EV fires, especially regarding all the collateral damage they can cause when they spontaneously combust. I received an email response from a gentleman named Bill Schneider who has a depth of experience at integrated facilities management, including the insurance aspect. I received this prophetic email from Mr. Schneider just four days before the Korean EV disaster.

Consider a potential BEV [“Battery Electric Vehicle”] fire in either scenario:

1. "3 plus 1" mixed-use building, where the parking deck is on the bottom floor, and that floor is below ground (so there is no way to easily remove BEVs from anything else combustible), and there are residential apartments and commercial shops/offices above the deck...or...

2. Multi-story parking deck at, say, a major airport (think one of the parking decks at DFW) where a cluster of BEVs are parked together and a fire breaks out.

Guess what? Parking deck suppression systems are nothing more than sprinklers with water in them - water that is hopelessly inefficient to quench a burning lithium battery.

Plus, with [internal combustion vehicles] gasoline is at least dispersed when sprinklers are activated - but BEV batteries are buried deep inside the vehicle chassis, meaning that when sprinklers activate, they cannot get water to the source of the fire.

Imagine the inferno if a cluster of 30 BEVs were parked next to each other in the center of the Terminal A parking deck, on the fourth or fifth floor, right in the middle of the structure. Or on the bottom floor, near a wall.

I presented this scenario to the SME - and the industry has NO. ANSWER. This isn't the FLS [Fire/Life Safety] industry's fault - rather, it's based on the constraints of fighting BEV fires, where the battery burns far hotter, and all three elements of the Fire Triangle are present in the battery (and remain present, not being able to be dispersed), and the batteries are buried so deep inside the vehicle chassis that suppression liquids cannot reach the source of the fire.

Fire marshals who become aware of the risk? They simply forbid BEVs from being parked inside a structure. Because that's all they can do.

Fire Marshalls are empowered to limit the number of people who may enter a building for fire safety reasons. They should also be able to limit the number of EVs that may park in a building’s garage. I’d recommend the maximum number of EVs allowed in a parking garage be limited to zero.

Thanks again to Mr. Schneider, who also contributes to Master Resource (“A Free Market Energy Blog”)

Just last week, a container ship suffered a violent explosion at the busy Chinese port of Ningbo-Zhoushan. [h/t – Comrade Arthur]

CCTV, citing preliminary findings from authorities, said the goods included lithium batteries and tert-Butyl peroxybenzoate, an organic compound that is flammable and explosive…

Of course it included lithium batteries.

Here, from the South China Morning Post, is the shocking video, complete with massive fireball,

This story from California did receive plenty of media coverage…

“I-15 opens near Barstow after closure due to fire from semi hauling lithium batteries” [News 3 Las Vegas - 7/28/2024]

Interstate 15 is closed in both directions south of the Nevada/California state line because a semi-truck hauling lithium-ion batteries caught fire.

I don’t have much to add, other than it is beyond ridiculous that one vehicle hauling lithium batteries could cause such an intense fire that it took nearly two days before the truck could be extinguished, removed, and the highway cleaned up so that all lanes of traffic could re-open.

Whenever I post about EV fires, I receive correspondence pointing out that gasoline powered cars also sometimes catch fire when involved in wrecks. True, but the nature, speed, and intensity of the fires are different. I’m sure that I’ve never heard of an ICE vehicle fire such as this one involving a new Tesla Cybertruck:

“Driver dies after Tesla Cybertruck slams into culvert, bursts into flames in Baytown area, DPS says” [KHOU – 8/05/2024]

DPS said State Troopers have not been able to identify the driver due to severe burns. DPS also said they could not identify the license plate or VIN due to the fire.

What a clever feature EVs have! If you die in a wreck while driving an EV, it can conveniently serve as your crematorium too.

I apologize for that morbid humor, sort of, but I have several firefighter correspondents who are passionate about the danger EVs pose, and how ridiculously difficult it is to extinguish an EV fire. Driving an EV puts firefighters' lives in danger, and that is not OK with me.

Elon Musk is clearly on our team politically, for which I am grateful, and I wish him great prosperity in all his other ventures, but I will not be sad if Tesla declines as the rest of the EV industry fades away.

Speaking of which…
[h/t - Moron Robbie]

“More Than Half of Teslas Are Being Traded in for Gas Cars” [Edmunds – 7/23/2024]

More than half of Teslas traded in at dealerships so far in 2024 were traded in for a gas vehicle. According to Edmunds data, from January to July of 2024, 51% of used Teslas were traded for gas, and 32% were traded for an EV.

The novelty, prestige, and “exclusive” hassle of owning an EV soon give way to fatigue. There are a lot of experiences that people are glad to have had once, but don’t want to repeat. I suspect that owning an EV was one of those experiences for a great many people.

[buck.throckmorton at protonmail dot com]

posted by Buck Throckmorton at 11:00 AM

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