False or deceptive posts about EV fires flood the web every day. The newest spurious sensation was a pure gas-powered bus that caught fireplace in Italy—a video of the catastrophic conflagration was posted on-line, and inside hours, it had travelled around the globe and again once more, falsely described as an EV fireplace.
The truth is, statistically talking, EVs have a far decrease danger of fireside than ICE autos. A latest research by AutoinsuranceEZ reported solely 25 fires in electrical autos per 100,000 gross sales, in comparison with 1,530 for gasoline autos and (unusually) 3,475 for hybrids.
That mentioned, each EV fireplace must be totally investigated, and battery-makers have to proceed doing all they will to make their merchandise safer. The objective of the business must be to make the incidence of EV fires as near zero as doable.
With all that out of the best way, right here’s what we all know thus far in regards to the latest, extremely sensationalized electrical bus fires in France.
Paris public transport operator RATP quickly took 149 electrical buses made by Bolloré’s Bluebus model out of service after two of the autos caught fireplace inside a month. In early April, a Bluebus caught fireplace on the Boulevard Saint-Germain. Extra not too long ago, one other burned close to town’s nationwide library. In each incidents, the buses had been destroyed, however no accidents had been reported.
“The RATP has requested a full report from the producer Bolloré to elucidate the causes of those incidents,” mentioned the company. “Provided that this was the second fireplace not too long ago on an electrical bus of the identical Bolloré Bluebus 5SE sequence in lower than a month, RATP took the choice…to quickly withdraw the 149 electrical buses [from service].
RATP advised Reuters that it has 500 electrical buses, together with fashions from Bolloré Bluebus, Alstom and Heuliez Bus, in its fleet of 4,700 autos.
At the very least a few of Bolloré’s buses use a novel solid-state LMP (Lithium Metallic Polymer) battery expertise that was developed by Blue Options, one other unit of the Bolloré group, and can also be utilized by Daimler in its eCitaro electrical transit bus. It seems that the buses that burned in Paris use this chemistry, however this hasn’t been confirmed by Bolloré.
In a separate incident, an electrical bus made by the Turkish producer Atak caught fireplace within the southern French metropolis of Carcassonne. This bus was apparently on a check run with no passengers aboard, and no accidents had been reported.
Sources: Le Monde, Reuters, L’Indépendant, Le Figaro
