When batteries start to burn:
They really burn fast. And hot.
Fortunately the driver had evacuated the machine and no one was injured on this RATP (Régie Autonome des Transports Parisiens) Bolloré bus when the fire started April 29.
And from Autoweek, May 10:
A shipping expert says there have been about 70 fires reported in the last five years on container ships, separate from vehicle vessels such as Felicity Ace.
- Capt. Rahul Khanna, global head of marine consulting at Allianz, says it's going to be very difficult to find the exact cause of the fire that sank the Felicity Ace.
- The problem with EVs, Khanna says, is that lithium-ion batteries in EVs can actually propagate the fire, igniting more vigorously as compared to conventional cars.
- If EVs are not lashed or adequately lashed and a vessel encounters bad weather, the cars can become loose, have an impact, and cause a fire, the captain says. A single vehicle fire could prove catastrophic.
The recent fire aboard and sinking of the Felicity Ace car carrier brings up a very interesting question: As the world quickly switches to electric cars, how are we going to get them from factories to showrooms, especially when they have to cross oceans?
The cause of the Felicity Ace fire could have just been a cleaning rag that fell onto a hot grill in the galley. It could have been a lit cigarette accidentally dropped in the engine room. Or, and this is the scariest possibility, it could have been caused by a runaway thermal event in an electric car somewhere in the darkest confines of a parking area below deck.
And if it could happen on the Felicity Ace, could it happen on just about any car-carrying ship anywhere?....
....MUCH MORE
