RE: Electric vehicle fires are very rare13 Oct 2023 17:10
Ash - (which is apt) - of course they are more common, there's roughly 20million more of them in the UK and they've been around for over a hundred years. Nearly all car fires are down to poor maintenance or age/wear & tear etc.
Almost always when the engine is running, ie there's someone in attendance, and mostly do not cause much surrounding damage and can be quickly dealt with.
Most EVs are almost entirely new or nearly new cars and go up without needing to be running or having any fault/damage/wear&tear and no-one may be in attendance. The type of fire they produce is intensely hot and prone to causing catastrophic surrounding damage.
Normal Diesels can burn to a shell without igniting the fuel in the tank.
The car at Luton was a Diesel Hybrid, the video shows the seat of the fire in the front corner where the lithium battery is located on that model.
A lead fireman at the scene stated, and he is quoted in the press, that the EVs in the near vicinity accelerated the spread of the fire.
You can ignore reality, but the consequences of reality will not ignore you.