One of the lesser-known risks of e-cars is the high risk of fire due to the vehicles’ lithium-ion batteries. This does not always only affect individual vehicles on the road, but above all endangers transport safety on container ships, where numerous vehicles are stored in a very small space.
Opinions are still divided as to whether, on balance, the risk of fire with e-vehicles is actually higher than with conventionally powered cars, because surprisingly there are no exhaustive studies on this yet. However, experts agree that extinguishing the fire is in any case much more complicated than with combustion engines – and the fire’s intensity is greater – even though there is no fuel on board.
The batteries are a critical weak point
The problem is with the batteries: if the battery in an electric car is deformed, for example in an accident, the battery cells can catch fire . This starts the chemical process inside the battery. As part of the so-called “thermal runway”, it jumps from one cell to the next. Intensive cooling with enormous amounts of water is then required to extinguish the fire. Since the flow of current is interrupted, there is at least no risk of explosion, because the battery cannot ignite because the high-voltage system switches itself off automatically.
Nevertheless, the deletion process is extremely lengthy. If a lithium battery decomposes due to a technical defect, temperatures of up to 800 degrees can occur. The cell degrades, depressurizing and releasing the highly flammable electrolyte. When it comes into contact with water, highly toxic hydrofluoric acid and phosphoric acid are formed.
In that year, the freighter Felicity Ace sank in the Atlantic with 4 000 vehicles on board; In 2020, the car transporter Höegh Xiamen and the container ship Cosco Pacific caught fire. In all of these cases, incorrectly declared battery charges were identified as the cause or amplification of the fires. In 2021 there were 54 total losses. As the report states, this is due to the “defective manufacture of battery cells and devices, overcharging of the cells and overheating.” The danger is therefore real.