In a stunning glitch, at the least 9 electrical automobiles all of the sudden caught fireplace within the aftermath of Hurricane Ian, Florida officers have reported.
It’s unknown what number of vehicles in complete could have been impacted all through areas within the state affected by Ian, which hit Florida as a Class 4 storm on the finish of September.
The fires had been apparently sparked as conductive saltwater poured over flooded vehicles and their charged lithium-ion batteries. Saltwater can create a harmful “salt bridge” between the constructive and damaging factors of the battery, which has the potential to short-circuit and begin fires.
The Nationwide Freeway Visitors Security Administration, or NHTSA, has warned that EVs can ignite weeks after contact with saltwater. Some tow truck corporations have refused to select up water-damaged EVs, ABC Information reported Thursday.
Fires in electrical automobiles run extraordinarily scorching and are difficult to extinguish.
Six automobiles in Naples burned for “hours and hours” and required “hundreds upon hundreds” of gallons of water to extinguish — a much more intensive battle than one posed by a gas-powered automotive, a spokesperson for a neighborhood fireplace division informed E&E Information on Friday.
At the very least one electrical automobile reignited after flames had been extinguished, destroying two homes that had survived the storm, in keeping with officers.
Jimmy Patronis, Florida’s chief monetary officer and state fireplace marshal, warned early this month about the issue in a tweet. He shared a video of firefighters in Naples extinguishing a automobile fireplace.
Patronis mentioned “a ton” of EVs had been disabled by the storm. The fires are a “new problem that our firefighters haven’t confronted earlier than,” he famous.
Patronis despatched letters to the NHTSA and EV producers with pointed questions concerning the fires. In a message to Tesla CEO Elon Musk on Monday, he complained concerning the potential of EVs to “spontaneously combust” and described the current fires as “surreal, and albeit, scary.”
Sen. Rick Scott (R-Fla.), a member of his chamber’s Commerce, Science, and Transportation Committee, additionally despatched letters this month to EV producers, in addition to to U.S. Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg. He accused automakers of giving shoppers the “doubtlessly life-threatening misimpression” that EVs work after saltwater submersion.
“This rising risk has pressured native fireplace departments to divert assets away from hurricane restoration to manage and include these harmful fires,” Scott wrote to Buttigieg final week. “As growing numbers of EVs come to market nationwide, this risk calls for motion by the U.S. Division of Transportation to develop steering to correctly warning shoppers about this threat posed by EVs submerged in saltwater.”
Florida is second within the nation — behind California — within the variety of EVs on the highway. As of August, there have been greater than 95,000 registered EVs within the state, up from 58,000 in 2021.