In recent years, when electric vehicles catch fire, images and videos quickly start circulating on social networks and online news sites. They’re also featured on TV news and all-news channels. Reactions follow, lively debates take place, and concerns arise…not always well-founded.
Indeed, because the fires caused by these vehicles are so impressive, they can legitimately frighten those who use them. However, they are not as frequent and numerous as you might think. In fact, the risk of an electric car catching fire is even lower than that of an internal combustion car.
Why do these vehicles catch fire?
Electric vehicle fires are usually caused by lithium batteries, which can catch fire for several reasons, including:
- Incorrect charging with an improper charger;
- Manufacturing defects;
- Abnormal use not in accordance with the manufacturer’s instructions;
- Physical damage resulting in a short circuit (e.g. shock).
Unlike fires in combustion vehicles, they are particularly conspicuous because they produce large quantities of smoke from overheating of the battery and combustion of its components. In addition, today’s firefighters have very few resources at their disposal to extinguish these fires:
- Water to drown a burning battery and wait for it to burn out;
- The use of a fire blanket – as suggested by our company Flamastop – to limit thermal runaway by lowering the temperature of the battery, containing the fire and thus preventing the spread of flames.
Electric Vehicles vs. Combustion Vehicles: Are the Risks Equal?
The images of an electric vehicle fire are spectacular and are widely reported in the media and on the Internet. The same applies to fires at storage facilities, for example. As a result, they give the impression that they are common and that there is a real danger.
But this is not the case. A study on this subject was carried out in Sweden by the Swedish Civil Protection Agency, the figures of which were quoted in an article by France 3 Occitanie*. It shows that :
- “Electric vehicles are 20 times less likely to catch fire than combustion models;
- 23 fires were reported in Sweden in 2022 out of 611,000 electric vehicles on the road (a rate of 0.004%).
Another study was conducted in the USA by the AutoinsuranceEZ website using thousands of data points. Out of 100,000 vehicles, fires were observed in:
- 3,474 hybrid models;
- 1,529 combustion models;
- 25 electric models.
Of course, as with all studies, we have to be careful with the numbers. Nevertheless, it gives an idea of the situation.
Do we really need to worry about electric vehicle fires?
An electric vehicle is no more likely to catch fire than a combustion engine vehicle. However, if a fire does occur in an electric model, it will spread. This gives it more scope and you can quickly get the feeling that there is a danger.
But we need to put these images and debates into perspective. Today, there is no greater risk of fire in electric vehicles. It’s just that because not everyone drives an electric car, fires are less frequent, so we’re not used to them, and we ask more questions when they happen. This is not the case with combustion engine fires, which are more common.