this post was submitted on 18 Aug 2023
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[–] [email protected] 0 points 1 year ago (3 children)

Also, I actually had a vehicle from 1987 that totally flooded the cylinders with gasoline due to a fault in the carburetor, and even then it didn't explode when I started it.

Seriously though, what's up with these EV's that'll just as soon randomly burn your garage and house down while you're asleep and the car isn't even running?

[–] [email protected] 5 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Fun fact: EVs are much less prone to fire than gas cars, but when a gas car burns, it doesn't make the news, so public perception is skewed.

https://www.autoinsuranceez.com/gas-vs-electric-car-fires/

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Yes, that's true... But on the other hand, it's much harder to deal with EV fires because a reasonable amount of water won't put it out like normal fires and it will burn for a long time, and spontaneously reignite after the fact as well. Firefighters often submerge the vehicle for weeks or else it would reignite...

Mind you, I still prefer EVs over ICE vehicles because the benefits vastly outweigh the costs, but the EV fires are harder to deal with.

This is why we should do away with personal cars in cities all together and develop better transit systems that are efficient and safe.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Firefighters often submerge the vehicle for weeks or else it would reignite…

I would like to see a source on that. Because I've talked to firefighters who said EVs can be put out like any normal car, you just need much more water.
Which is a problem, because it means you need to call a bigger fire truck or maybe even multiple for an EV fire, but I've never heard of an EV needing to be submerged for weeks (how would that even work?).

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago (1 children)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qwxZu3nVOZ0 how firefighters in South Korea are employing innovative methods to deal with EV fires.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago
[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (1 children)

Liquid gasoline is not what will explode. You need vapors. Gasoline still requires oxygen to burn, so if air is not mixing with the fuel, nothing's gonna happen.

An internal combustion engine relies on having an environment of maximum flammability in order to function correctly. It's when that environment is no longer contained by the engine that you run into catastrophic problems. Multiplied by how empty your fuel tank is.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago

This is quite true.

Still, gasoline doesn't have a tendency to up and spontaneously combust all on its own, it takes some sort of external spark or flame to ignite.

Lithium batteries play a different game of Russian Roulette though. The car doesn't even have to be running for one worn out cell to overheat and cause a catastrophic chain reaction blowing the entire battery pack.