Posted on 10/10/2020 10:57:31 AM PDT by RomanSoldier19
The National Transportation Safety Board says the U.S. is woefully unprepared to deal with EV fires, which require different strategies than gasoline vehicle fires.
31 percent of fire departments don't train for EV fires, and half say they don't have special protocols in place to deal with EVs after a crash, the agency's report found.
Note the caveats, though. There are more than 29,000 fire departments in the U.S. This survey only asked for information from 32 of them.
If you have been reading Car and Driver for a while, there's a decent chance you remember the news when a Tesla Model S caught fire in 2013. Or that the NTSB was investigating Tesla fires in 2019. Or when a Porsche Taycan went up in flames earlier this year.
You might remember those things, because electric-vehicle fires make headlines. Of course, the reality is that, according to the U.S. Fire Administration (USFA), an average of 171,500 highway vehicle fires happened in the United States each year from 2014 through 2016, and the vast majority of them were in gasoline-powered cars.
Nonetheless, electric vehicles are still a shiny new thing to many people, and when something goes wrong with them, we notice. Automakers build safety systems into their battery packs, including rapid discharging in the event of a crash, but fires still happen, just as they can with gasoline-powered vehicles.
(Excerpt) Read more at msn.com ...
I gather then, that there is no federal requirement for a fire suppression system for these hi-tech electric car batteries?
That would seem to be a reasonable requirement, would it not?
“The ZR1 would not appear until the 90 model year and the engine is completely different looking - the 32V heads necessitate a different intake, etc.:”
25 prototypes were produced in 1987. The ZR-1 production began with the 1989 model but was halted to allow quotas for the non-ZR-1 models. These ZR-1’s were made available to non-retail entities.
Since the Sledgehammer was turbocharged it would of course have a different intake system. I cannot find the engine model.
It is my guess that the Sledgehammer aero mods were developed with an ‘eye’ on the ZR-1 mods, hence the reference to the ZR-1 although not being a production ZR-1. Or maybe Chevy was getting input from Calloway?
“I gather then, that there is no federal requirement for a fire suppression system for these hi-tech electric car batteries?
That would seem to be a reasonable requirement, would it not?”
Given that gas-powered cars have higher probability of fires should we not require that they have a fire suppression system?
“What was on the dyno was a 72, the previous body style, with the LS-5 - all of 275hp”
I really question why someone would spend thousands to blueprint a 275 hp 454 ...
Well, no.
Lithium battery fires are, if I read the article correctly, VERY difficult to extinguish. AND, it appears that special training and materials are required to do so.
Extinguishing petroleum fires is less difficult, and ALL fire departments are schooled in fighting them.
But, having said that, it strikes me that some sort of fire suppression system in a car would be a good idea.
I carry a fire extinguisher in my cars, BTW.
Sorry, for ‘factory-quality’, swap ‘concours quality.’
I got a 77 f150 custom 4x4 for $600 couple years ago. Can’t sell it for 600 now. Got rust. Wooden floor boards. Lol.
Literal boards, eh? I’ve had a few project cars like that. Didn’t go into them expecting to get any money out of them, though.
Lithium battery fires are, if I read the article correctly, VERY difficult to extinguish. AND, it appears that special training and materials are required to do so.
EV BASICS 1O6: How to extinguish electric vehicles fire? | Step-by-step Video Guide
A long continuous stream of water applied to the case of the battery is the most effective way to reduce the temperature within the battery and limit thermal runaway. Once the battery is completely cooled down, the fire is down.
That is my point - E cars should have some kind of fire suppression system built in BECAUSE lithium battery fires are difficult to extinguish and require firefighters to have special training.
“That is my point - E cars should have some kind of fire suppression system built in BECAUSE lithium battery fires are difficult to extinguish and require firefighters to have special training.”
EV BASICS 1O6: How to extinguish electric vehicles fire? | Step-by-step Video Guide
A long continuous stream of water applied to the case of the battery is the most effective way to reduce the temperature within the battery and limit thermal runaway. Once the battery is completely cooled down, the fire is down.
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