Speaker1:
With the future of automobiles undeniably electric, the
transition is bringing with it some challenges. While they provide a path towards reduced emissions, EVs
can be especially dangerous when they catch fire. Speaker2:
There have been some really high profile fires at homes in
the United States, parking structures in Europe and in China. Speaker3:
If that vehicles in your garage and it's charging and this
problem occurs, it will likely take the car and the garage and potentially the home. Speaker1:
Car fires are nothing new. In 2020 alone, there were 173,000 highway vehicle fires,
resulting in 580 fatalities. 1,500 injuries and $1.6 billion in property damage in the
U.S. But when an EV catches on fire, it's a different story. Lithium-ion batteries are extremely volatile and incredibly
challenging to put out. These fires burn hotter, they burn longer. They take more water. It burned very hot. It melted the roadway underneath it. There was really nothing even left of the shell of the
vehicle. And little education is out there to help firefighters. Speaker4:
We're still trying to catch up with all this stuff, but it
changes almost every day. Speaker5:
The industry has rocket launched radically ahead of the
preparatory pieces. Speaker2:
A lot of the time, firefighters, fire agencies are just
expected to kind of figure it out. Speaker1:
On top of the challenges for firefighters, carmakers like
GM, Ford and Hyundai have had to do massive recalls, so the problem is costly. CNBC explores how automakers and firefighters are going to
deal with EV's fire problem. Over the years, lithium-ion batteries have seen significant
improvements in energy density. And while this has enabled more powerful batteries, it made
them more vulnerable. Speaker4:
You had to do lots of things to optimize it, one of them was
to reduce the space between the two electrodes, but as you get closer and closer to each other, the chances of short
increases. Speaker1:
A key ingredient in batteries is liquid organic electrolyte,
but it is also one of the most flammable. Speaker4:
Liquid electrolyte, like gasoline, is a flammable liquid,
and it could get into what's called a thermal runaway situation where it just starts boiling the liquid and it
results in a fire. Speaker1:
Today's batteries are very safe, and for large ones, such as
those in EVs, cells are meticulously controlled through a battery management system. It has to maintain the right operating temperature for the
battery. Then within that operating temperature range, the other
aspect of it is how fast does it charge or discharge. But there are rare instances where defects or damage cause
issues. Speaker6:
We don't know the exact frequency of failure for lithium-ion
cells. We assume it's somewhere between one and 10 million and one
in 40 million. Speaker2:
Battery electric vehicle fires can happen due to defects in
the actual battery cells or in the pack architecture. The battery pack design matters and so does
the quality of manufacturing. Speaker1:
And when they're fully charged, that's when they're the most
dangerous. Speaker5:
Think of it as a fuel tank. If you have a fuel tank in a
standard combustion engine and it is completely full and you develop a fire, you have a lot of fuel load, you're going
to have a long burning fire. It's the exact same concept with batteries. Speaker3:
The battery problem is unique to electric vehicles, but
noncash fire risk is not unique to electric vehicles. Speaker1:
Car fires are unfortunately nothing new. Internal combustion engine vehicles continued to have
issues. Vehicle fires accounted for 16 percent of the 1.3 million
fires reported to U.S. fire departments. Most of these are caused by mechanical or
electrical failures and malfunctions. But non-crash fires, those that occur when a vehicle is
idle or not in use, are extremely uncommon overall. Speaker3:
There's only about one claim for every 10,000 insured
vehicles, so it's a pretty rare event. Speaker1:
Experts are still trying to determine non-crash EV fire
incident rates. Speaker3:
The data that we've looked at so far doesn't indicate that
there is an outsized risk of non-crash fire for electric powered vehicles. We need a lot of them and we need a lot of old ones in
order to be able to say anything with confidence. Speaker2:
The most famous examples of battery electric vehicle fires
have been with the Bolt and various Tesla vehicles. A Model S Plaid burst into flames earlier this
week while the owner was driving it. According to the Lower Merion Fire Department in
Pennsylvania, copious amounts of water were poured on the vehicle for over two hours in order to extinguish the fire
and render the scene safe. Speaker1:
Chas McGarvey's department responded to the Pennsylvania
Tesla fire. Speaker4:
We actually had to lay a supply line, the street line, to
feed our engines, and we had two inch and three quarters going trying to extinguish this fire and it doesn't go out
right away. It definitely burns a lot hotter and a lot quicker. Speaker1:
For most fire departments, they are confronting EV fires for
the first time. EV fires require different tactics to effectively fight
them. Speaker5:
Gas you put water on top of the engine or the interior
plastics. With an electric vehicle, you have the interior plastics,
so you put water on top, but you're also looking for water to be able to cool the bottom of the battery. You have to get it under about 260 degrees fahrenheit. Speaker6:
The big problem is the accessibility of the batteries, the
cells inside the battery, because they're usually held within a steel case and they form the chassis of the car,
which is largely inaccessible. Speaker5:
A number of European cities have adopted a strategy of
simply dunking the car in water. Speaker1:
These battery pack chemical fires can emit dangerous smoke
and gases. Speaker5:
It releases two contents in the smoke that we have to be
aware of. One is flammable. The other is toxic. Speaker2:
Of the incidents we researched, just under 90 percent the
gases that were venting from the traction battery ignited and in about 10 percent of cases, the vapors coming from
the traction battery actually exploded. Speaker1:
And the battery packs can reignite up to several days later. Speaker5:
All it takes is for a little bit of metal in that battery to
short circuit. Speaker1:
In some instances, the fires have spread to other vehicles. EVs are particularly vulnerable when charging and in close
proximity to one another. Speaker5:
In China, they lost 55 busses in one amusement park's
parking lot because they were all electric, they were on chargers, one caught fire and it
daisy chained across the rest of the parking lot. Speaker1:
One of the biggest issues is educating firefighters. Speaker5:
Not all the manufacturers have up to date and current quick
reference guides for their vehicles. The guides are very good at being kind of an all-inclusive
representation of the vehicle. The challenges occur when things happen to the vehicle that
are outside of the design specifications. Speaker1:
Training for firefighters is limited and not widely
accessible. Speaker5:
The educational campaigns for the fire service, the resource
capabilities for the fire service and then the funding for the education and the resource capabilities, none of that's
intact yet. Speaker1:
And with an ever-changing environment, it is hard to keep up
with the latest EVs and technologies. Speaker5:
There is not really stringent federal regulatory components
in place right now regarding the batteries placed in EVs. Every single vehicle is different, even within a
manufacturer. You've got this whole kind of supply chain of people that
are potentially at risk until that vehicle is is broken up and scrapped. Whether you are a legacy automaker getting
into battery electrics or you're a startup making battery electric
vehicles and new types of them, it's going to be expensive. Speaker1:
Automakers are already struggling with scaling EV
production. Potential recalls could pose major issues. In August 2021, GM recalled its Bolt electric vehicle, the
result of issues with battery maker LG Chem's pouch cells. Speaker7:
They did a recall of 61,000 Chevy Bolts. They have now expanded that recall to fix two potential
defects in the battery packs. Those potential defects will impact 73,000 additional
vehicles. The additional cost of this recall? $1 billion. Speaker2:
GM recalled all of them. They didn't want to take the risk that any driver could
experience a battery fire. However, this problem is by no means limited to the Bolt. BMW, Ford, Hyundai, Mitsubishi and, of course, Tesla. They have all issued fire related recalls. Speaker1:
Within the last year, General Motors, Hyundai and Ford have
recalled around 132,500 electric vehicles, costing a combined $2.2 billion. Tesla has tried to minimize battery related recalls,
instead pushing software updates. However, this led to a lawsuit for throttling the range and
charging capacity of some batteries. Speaker2:
In the United States that settled out, and they got sued for
that also in Norway. Automakers are starting to explore different battery
chemistries and approaches that could reduce fire risk and improve the life of these batteries. Speaker1:
Tesla recently announced it is switching more of its
vehicles to LFP batteries, lithium-ion phosphate. Speaker6:
They are generally believed to be a lot safer in terms of
abuse resulting in thermal runaway. Speaker4:
It does not go to as high of a voltage, so it tends not to
have as high of an energy density as the other batteries. But at the same point, because it doesn't go to as high
voltage is less likely to have that safety issue. Speaker6:
On the other hand, we know of battery energy storage
systems, two at least, that involved LFP batteries that have exploded. Speaker1:
Researchers are working on technologies that could reduce or
completely eliminate the fire hazard. Speaker2:
There's also a lot of hope around new solid state battery development, but those
are unproven technologies so far. Speaker4:
Every automotive company who's doing electric vehicles has a
play in the solid state battery, and they either are developing themselves or they're investing in companies
that are making solid state batteries. That issue we had with safety or flammable liquid is just
completely removed. But also at the same time results in batteries, which can
have much higher energy density and also can have much longer cycle life. Speaker1:
But it will take time before solid state batteries replace
lithium-ion in EVs. Speaker4:
2026 people are talking about it. 2028 sort of in that time frame, you will start seeing
solid state batteries in electric vehicles. Speaker1:
Until then, much has to change to accommodate the new wave
of electric vehicles. Speaker5:
We are just starting to scratch the surface of how much
infrastructure, networking and support needs to be in place. The new infrastructure bill is all about electric vehicles,
battery systems and the electric future. What we need is in that bill to reflect
the need for training, Speaker1:
And it is important for the public to be aware of the risks. Speaker2:
We're going to have to figure out how to deal with this, and
most of that responsibility falls on automakers and battery producers. But some of it falls on consumers. The drivers have to follow the recommended usage. Speaker6:
We've had a long time to fully understand the risks and
hazards associated with petrol and diesel cars. We're going to have to learn faster how to deal with the
challenges with electric vehicles, but we will.
